Cleaning Your Tank?

[Warhawk]

Our tank has been running for about 3 weeks now and we are starting to see build up on the rocks (food, waste..ect) My question is: What is the best way to clean the tank with out loosing all the beneficial bacteria? I was reading something about a siphon is that the best way?

How often should we clean our tank?

How often and how should we clean our filters? Or change our filters?

And anything else we should know about cleaning our tank and keeping our fish happy!

Thanks!

 

[marieukxx]

The beneficial bacteria is in the filter sponge. I only clean that when it gets sluggish so not very often at all. And when you do clean it in the tank water you have siphoned off and don't be too thorough with it.

As for inside the ank you can take out ornaments and rocks and give them a good scrub as much as you like just don't use any chemicals at all. A scrubbing brush and water will do the trick.

I siphon the gravel once a week and clean anything looking too mucky. I take out 20% of the water when I siphon all the poop and debris up then when that's out I clean anything that has any algea build up like ornaments with water and pop them back in. I use an old rag to clean all the inside of the glass, I just pop it in the tank and give it all a good wipe. then pop in 20% fresh water that is the same temp roughly as the tank so a mixture of hot and cold till it feels the same to the touch. Decolrinate it and bung it in. Lid back on, job done.

 

[minnnt]

Wash your filter media out once a month when it is established (about 6-8 months) in old tank water, this will help to keep the sponges and pads working efficiently. Siphons and gravel cleaners work well for removing any debris etc and is a good habit to get into when maintaining a tank. Use a kitchen sponge for cleaning the glass but make sure you don't get sand or gravel caught between it and the glass otherwise you will get scratches on the glass.

Have you any fish? If so consider some bottom feeders like corys and maybe a bristlenose plec which will help with the up keep of you tank. Corys are very good scroungers and will clean up any uneaten bits of food.

 

[Warhawk]

I picked up a siphon, although we got bigger pebbles so I had to get a bigger Siphon, only thing that sucks about that is my tank is so small! Took me a little bit to figure out how to get the siphon working and next thing you know, I just disturbed the whole tank and went from being clear to dirty..lol

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[marieukxx]

When you siphon it will kick up loads of stuff. Mine looks very dirty and clouudy for a bit then settles and is really crystal clear again.