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Benefits of an Aquarium - Why You Should Have One
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
What are the Benefits of Aquariums?
This is an article I've been meaning to write for a VERY long time. There are a number of benefits of aquariums. Aquariums can help with some health improvements such as anxiety, depression, sleep, and blood pressure. Another benefit of aquariums is educational components, such as biology, chemistry, and even problem solving. Above all else, aquariums give you an ever-expanding hobby that you can be proud of!
While I specialize in saltwater aquariums, many of these benefits apply to both fresh and salt water aquariums.
Health Benefits of an Aquarium
There are a number of health benefits of aquariums, mainly in watching them. Aquariums have natural relaxing properties, mainly having to do with the amount of things moving around and just the calm movements in the aquarium.
Anxiety Improvements from Aquariums
One of the biggest benefits of an aquarium for me is the ability to help bring down anxiety. Watching fish, shrimp, coral, plants and just the entire ecosystem created help slow your heart rate and relax you. Aquariums can draw you in so much that you forget about many of the problems around you and focus only on the aquarium. Helping fight anxiety when times are tough.
Aquarium Reducing Stress
Much like how one of the benefits of an aquarium includes reducing anxiety, this calming effect works for stress as well. If you have a high stress career, an aquarium may help relax you at the end of the day. Keep an eye out in other stressful locations, such as hospitals and dental offices, you may find aquariums there.
Aquariums Can Help With Sleep
One of the reasons I originally had a fish tank was because I had a hard time sleeping, and my aquarium had a way to fix this. I used to sit in front of my aquarium and end up falling asleep in the chair just watching the different creatures. To this day, if I need to relax, I go to my aquarium and watch the coral, fish, and small creatures crawling around the rock and little details. The tank can really bring you down and help you sleep!
Focus Boosting from Aquariums
Fish tanks also have the ability to help you improve focus. There seems to be a variety of reasons, including giving you something to take a break from the work and look at. Another theory I've heard is that with the number of things moving, it helps train you to focus on one detail at at time.
Educational Benefits of an Aquarium
Teachers in many Middle Schools and High Schools already know some of the educational benefits of aquariums. I've actually seen some colleges using aquariums to teach students chemistry, physics, biology, and even just some different life lessons.
Teach Biology with Aquariums
One of the benefits of an aquarium is the ability to teach biology with real sources. Everything from photosynthesis, algae growth, plants, coral growth, fish reproduction, sexual and asexual reproduction, bacterial benefits and infections, hermaphroditic animals, and even more. There are nearly endless things you can teach and learn from aquariums when it comes to biology, especially because it's a full ecosystem in a box.
Learning Chemistry from Aquariums
Aquariums are a great place to teach interactions within chemistry. FYou can show how chemicals can convert ammonia to ammonium, or even the free ammonia calculation or CO2 interactions with both fresh and saltwater aquariums. With saltwater especially, you can show pH, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium interactions. You can even show the differences with carbonate dosing vs hydroxides and the effects they have. Including chemical byproducts. You can show how chemicals precipitate out too!
More about Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium
Learning Problem Solving from Aquariums
Another knowledge benefit of aquariums is that you can learn problem solving. While there are a number of examples, one of the best may be solving something like hair algae. To resolve the algae, the first part is removing the problem, or algae, but the source is still there. The next step is removing the source. Since algae grows with nitrates, phosphates, and light, you can then identify if nutrients or light are too high. Then reduce the source by finding the cause.
Aquariums let you take apart problems to smaller, solvable pieces until you find out how to get rid of the reason for the problem to begin with.
Learning Control Systems from Aquariums
This is more of an advanced topic, and more applicable to saltwater, but aquariums can teach you control solutions. Some simple systems including temperature control with redundant sources. More advanced topics could be using an aquarium controller to balance alkalinity, calcium, and pH! The entire ecosystem can be controlled based on different parameters!
Are You Ready To Set Up an Aquarium?
If you're ready to set up and aquarium, check out my article How To Set Up a Salt Water Aquarium With Ease! When you're ready to try some coral, check out the Reef Stable Store and support this blog! :)
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a number of health and educational benefits of an aquarium! These simple fish tanks can reduce stress, blood pressure, and anxiety, and even improve focus. You can even learn and teach a variety of science and STEM topics. While not everyone should set up a large aquarium, you can gain all of these benefits from a small 5 or 10 gallon aquarium and grow as you wish! Welcome to the hobby!
Recommended Reading:
- How To Set Up a Salt Water Aquarium With Ease
- How to Start Dosing Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium in Reef Tanks
- How to Start Dosing Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium in Reef Tanks
- Alkalinity in a Reef Tank - Determining Alkalinity Consumption
About the Author
John Krenzer
John is a Software Engineer with a passion for saltwater aquariums, as well as the founder and president of Reef Stable. He started in the aquarium hobby as a child with a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium. His interest in aquarium life grew and in 2008, John set up his first saltwater aquarium.
Today, John maintains an over 300 gallon reef tank system, consisting of a 120g reef and a 210g reef. These large tanks are contained within the same system, sharing a sump as a means to reduce total maintenance and increase total water volume.
John writes articles for the blog as a means to learn about more reef aquarium topics. These articles act as a reference for the readers as well as himself. John updates these articles frequently to provide additional information or make corrections as new information becomes available.
If you would like to request an article, tank tour article, or to collaborate, let me know via the Contact Me Page!
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