How to maintain your aquarium with the least hassle

When Shangrila Restaurant in Quezon City started 23 years ago, it pioneered in selling live seafoods-in-aquarium to diners, who just selected their choice of fish, crabs, prawns or lobsters that were cooked by chef Leopoldo Gredonia, an original in the restaurant.

Part of Gredonia’s duties "during off hours" is to maintain the state of aquariums and their live edible seafoods in saltwater to prevent contamination or poisoning. Only the arowana and tilapia are kept in aquariums of freshwater.

Maintaining 11 aquariums (of 200 gallons each) of live seafoods "plus one 750-gallon aquarium for the arowana" meant cleaning them weekly and changing the water at least once a week.

But ever since Exquisite was introduced by Chong Ken Foo, exclusive distributor in the Philippines of Exquisite BD soil conditioner, Gredonia’s task became lighter because he did not have to clean the aquariums and change the water every so often.

He said he noticed that ever since he applied the Exquisite soil conditioner, the aquariums were clearer even without cleaning for two weeks; there was no foul odor from the live seafoods (which can easily radiate through the airconditioning system of the restaurant) and the overall physical condition of the fishery products on display was healthy and so was the color of shells or skins of the fishery products.

Gredonia only adds saltwater to the aquariums to their desired levels and puts in a packet of soil conditioner every week. But he cleans the saltwater aquariums every two to three months now while the freshwater aquarium is cleaned once a month.

"We buy our saltwater by tanks and store them in the bodega near the restaurant. Now we are able to save."

He said he observed the arowana, two to three months back, "to be bleeding somewhat near the neck area, was very inactive (almost motionless) and had spots on the skins. (It) is now very briskly swimming; the bleeding has stopped and its spots are slowly disappearing as a result of the soil conditioner."

"I usually feed my boss‚ pet — the two-feet long whitish/pinkish arowana — (a fad especially among Chinese in the ’90s) with six pieces of small shrimps or chopped squid or fish. My boss‚ pet arowana comes with a birth certificate," Gredonia said.

Two other aquarium fish hobbyists "Ruby Santos and Rhoneil Rayo" share Gredonia’s observations on the benefits of Exquisite soil conditioner to their aquarium fishes.

Santos’ husband takes care of a flower horn (the new fad that replaced arowanas among aquarium fish collectors) at home while Rayo has a 15-gallon aquarium each of flower horn and red cap.

Using Exquisite, they now clean the aquariums and change the water every two to three months whereas before they cleaned and changed the water every week.

Flower horns are usually imported and sell locally at P12,000 to P20,000 a piece, especially for those with "papers" or certificates of origin, Rayo said.

Santos and Rayo said they have separately tried not using filters and aerators for two weeks on their aquariums that were treated with Exquisite soil conditioners. Normally, cutting off the aerators would result in fish deaths but with Exquisite the fish did not die nor did they show signs of weakening, Santos said.

Santos’ husband bought the Flower-horn in 2000 and had been having difficulty making it grow. But ever since they fed the fish with Exquisite soil conditioner she said she noticed that it had become longer and its color had turned to its natural pinkish state. Now the fish is very active, she said.