How And When?

[dishyfishy]

Hey all, I have gotten myself a brand new 10gal tank with 5 guppies and artificial plants in it. Looking around online I see a lot of people say that you should do a 20% water change weekly. So I guess my question is, is that correct? If so, do I use a siphon to do that? Also, how often should I completely re-do the water and clean out the tank (I'm assuming it will have to be done); by that I mean dumping all the water out and cleaning the gravel, plants, etc. Also, should I boil stuff to clean it, or use bleach, or what?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[blesser13]

First did you cycle your tank before add any fishes? Yes you can do water changes weekly 15 to 20% , don't forget to use a water conditioner for the tap water, it removes chlorine, chloramine. You could get some real plants to. Some Anubias don't ask any requirements.

 

[minnnt]

Welcome to the forum!

A 20% waterchange will be ideal. If you do this and keep on top of it then you will never need to do 100% water change. Clean the inside of the glass with a scouring sponge before you do the water change, then remove 20% of the water with the siphon, then add 20% dechlorinated water back in again using the siphon. Another question is did you cycle the tank? If you just added the fish to a spanking new tank then you will probably find dead fish pretty soon. Cycling is the process of adding ammonia to the water so that the filter can build up it's bacteria levels to deal with the waste from fish and keep the harmful things like ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at bay. You need a test kit to do this properly. There are numerous threads on here detailing how to do a "fish-less" cycle. There are also numerous threads on how to complete a "fish-in" cycle.

Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[comocrayfish5]

with taht many fish, clean once a month (or 2 times) take out like 3-4 gallons

 

[Louiseness]

Hey all, I have gotten myself a brand new 10gal tank with 5 guppies and artificial plants in it. Looking around online I see a lot of people say that you should do a 20% water change weekly. So I guess my question is, is that correct? If so, do I use a siphon to do that? Also, how often should I completely re-do the water and clean out the tank (I'm assuming it will have to be done); by that I mean dumping all the water out and cleaning the gravel, plants, etc. Also, should I boil stuff to clean it, or use bleach, or what?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Please don't use bleach! You don't need to take out all the water or any of the fish to clean either.

Get yourself a gravel vacuum if you haven't got one already (it's just an attachment on the end of a normal siphon tube). You use it by pushing it down into the gravel - it will suck up the waste but leave the gravel behind.

If you want to clean decorations or whatever just take them out and give them a rinse, or use a (dedicated to fish only!) clean toothbrush to get in any crevices if you really want to.

Please don't clean out your filter or throw any cartridges away or anything like that, it's a bad idea - if you read the info on cycling and how filters work that will show you why. It sounds like you might need to do that anyway as you haven't said anything about cycling!

And 20% or so a week is a good idea if all of your water parameters are good - if you have any ammonia or nitrites you should change more water more frequently.