I’m looking into buying my first hamster, and have done alot of research on the chinese dwarf. All I’m stumped on is to whether buying an aquarium tank or a plastic hamster cage. I heard that hamsters chew through the bars and get out, and that an aquarium is easier to clean, but I was just wondering. What do you think?
What I mean by plastic cage is like the cages you find at petco and petsmart.

Tanks or a bin cage. Some hamsters can chew out of plastic cages. A bin cage is plastic but there are no edges to chew on. The minimum cage size is 2.5 square feet. Dont get anything smaller than a 20 gallon long tank.

Tanks are fine for hamsters. Hamsters are so small and dont pee much so there is not enough time for ammonia to build up if you clean the cage once a week. I actually have a hamster in a 55 gallon tank and I only clean her cage once every 3 weeks and even after 3 weeks it doesnt smell like pee at all.
You cannot house dwarfs in a wire cage unless they are small squares like a mesh. Dwarfs can squeeze out of wire cages.

I have a 10 gallon tank for my dwarf hamster, and I want to add the "Lazy lookout tower" to it, by cutting a whole in the wire top, and connecting it to another tube I have in my cage already. Can anybody think of any other way to do this, or if my idea will even work?

You could maybe cut the whole out on the top and use a roll of empty paper towels. Just the card bored part and put some holes in it so they can climb up on it, then put duct tape on the top of the cage holding it. But do you really want to ruin a perfictly good wire top? There alot of money…

I am fond of marine aquarium and i am going to have one on January . i would like to have expert advise on setting up a 550 gallon salt water aquarium sized 5 feet length 2 feet in height & width

This sort of the question is beyond the scope of yahoo answers. Do you want a reef tank, a fish-only live rock tank, something else?

From a general perspective, this will require a significant investment in both time and money. What you’ll need as far as equipment goes, is the tank, most likely a very large skimmer, a bunch of large pumps, a large sump, and some really good lighting. You will need some massive heating and/or cooling units. You’ll need several hundred pounds of sand, if you want a sand bottom, and several hundred pounds of live rock if you are making a reef or tank with live rock in it.

A tank this big weighs a lot. You will need a structural engineer to make sure that your building can support its weight. Don’t even think of putting this on a second floor, or any floor with space below it. You will also most likely need to wire several additional breakers for power for the pumps and other equipment. It will definitely require a custom and well engineered stand as well.

An aquarium tank can hold 6000 liters of water. There are two pipes that can be used to fill the tank. The first pipe alone can fill the tank in 75 minutes. The second pipe can fill the tank in 50 minutes by itself. When both pipes are working together, how long does it take them to fill the tank?

hmmmm i almost have it… i will email you the answer soon! (:

add ur email in additional details mate, thanks!

Is it better to put an aquarium background on the inside or outside of an aquarium tank? I’ve heard that putting the background sheet on the inside makes the colours of the background more vibrant but I can foresee potential problems with this if algae builds up between the background and the glass. Does anyone have any experience of this?

Outside, many aren’t suitable for underwater use and will either dissolve or the chemicals used will kill the fish.

I used to have fish but now I’m making the switch over to reptiles. Would I be able to use the aquarium tank or would I have to get a new one?

A fish tank is fine. Just be sure to clean it out properly. You are going to need an under-tank reptile heater for the bottom of the tank. It should only be on half so that you have a warm and cool side. Leopard Geckos are night creatures and bright light doesn’t do any good for them so no heating lamps. If you do have a lamp, it should be a red light and should not raise them temp much above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Babies should be on newspaper or reptile carpet because sand can impact them. They will need a water dish, a moist hideaway such as a food container with a lid with a hole in it filled half to 3/4 with moistened peat moss, and a shallow dish with calcium with D3 for them to lick when they need. I have Fluker’s Calcium with Vitamin D3 phosphorus free for mine. They will also need somewhere to hide. A log, a hut, anything where they can hide. A ten gallon is actually fine and sometimes preferred because they are animals that like to hide. Open spaces can be scary and the can lose track of water/heat/etc if the enclosure is too big.

We recently got a fish tank and I had to use those freshwater test strips to figure out the pH level and was wondering what the average pH level is for a freshwater fish tank/ aquarium.
Thanxxx!

I don’t know what the average is, but pH 7.0 (really anywhere from about 6.8 to 7.5) is acceptable for the majority of aquarium fish.
However, there are plenty of exceptions. It really depends on the needs of the species you are keeping.

Basically, is it ok to use water conditioner made for a pond in an aquarium tank also? are they the same?

yes its the same in fact i like it more cuz its the same price and you use less. for example my pond amquel is 1 tsp per 100 gallons so i only have to put in a tiny bit into my 20 gal! its very economical

I have just been given a second hand aquarium tank set up. On the filter (presume its this as noisy and makes bubbles) but there is a switch pointing to either + or – and was just wondering what this was for? The heater is also working but was set at 24 degrees before I even turned it on. How will I know when it is at the right temperature?

The + and – on a filter is to adjust how fast the flow of water is. Better faster as a general rule, unless your fish are being pulled around the tank by it, so adjust to suit your particular tank and fish. Never turn on a filter without it being underwater as it damages the pump.

There should be a light on your heater, if so, it will turn off when the water reaches the correct temperature. You should always have a thermometer in your tank to check the correct temperature though, as heaters quite often malfunction. Keen an eye on it daily when you feed the fish.

So we have a fish aquarium, and today I noticed my mom shut off all of their lights. She said she "felt sorry for them because it’s daytime for them 24/7"

Is there any truth to this, does it matter to turn the lights off, and should you turn them off?

Thanks!

As usual, Mom’s are wise, even if she doesn’t know the exact reasons, she is correct.

Fish do prefer a normal day/night cycle just like we do.

Having the lights on 24/7 will just give you stressed fish and LOTS of algae.

Run the lights for 8-12 hours per day if you have live plants, if you don’t have live plants then the lights are only to help you see the fish better. Many fish actually prefer a lower light level and do fine by normal room lighting.

Ian