How Far Do You Go In Cleaning Your Tank?

[Seed]

I'm just curious... after reading several articles on this forum and getting a feel for how the forum's participants in general view cleaning their tanks, it seems like people here tend to be pretty meticulous about it, at least for community tanks. In my cichlid tank, I do weekly maintenance, but I generally stop shy of pulling the rock out to suck up waste that has fallen in places that I cannot get to otherwise. The reason is, like many of you, I have a LOT of rock in the tank to provide lots and lots of hiding places for my cichlids. It is impossible to clean a large area of the tank without removing the rock mostly or entirely. I also think that perhaps removing the rock to clean the tank would upset that part of the biological process... but if a lot of waste builds up in them, I wonder if that is more detrimental.

Anyway, how do you guys go about your weekly maintenance?

 

[darrel69]

When doing my weekly water change, i just give it a quick hoover in the open spaces. I dont bother taking rocks out to clean in hard to reach area's. Although, i do do that every 8 - 12 weeks. Thats it, apart from cleaning the algae that builds up on the front glass, heater ect.

Oh, and i clean my filters when i see decrease in flow. Never any two at the same time tho.

 

[hollyp0p]

i wondered about this, when people have a heavily planted tank, do they just hoover up open areas??

 

[Seed]

When doing my weekly water change, i just give it a quick hoover in the open spaces. I dont bother taking rocks out to clean in hard to reach area's. Although, i do do that every 8 - 12 weeks. Thats it, apart from cleaning the algae that builds up on the front glass, heater ect.

Oh, and i clean my filters when i see decrease in flow. Never any two at the same time tho.

That's basically my method, except I mess with the rocks much less frequently. It is a giant pain to put them back in the tank in the same orientation.... should I be doing it more often? My fish seem active and fine.

 

[pauly]

Not unless you're getting problems with Ammonia levels. A really good clean every 6 months or so might be a good idea though.