How Often Should I Clean My Tank?

[Peter C]

90 litre

How often should I clean it?

Starting to notice a bit of algae on the inside of the tank

When cleaning what's the best way? All the fish into a bucket and clean the tank? Or leave about 20% of the water in an clean above the water line?

Cheers

 

[fluttermoth]

Every week you should do a partial water change. What percentage you do depends on how heavy your stocking is. Try to do enough water changes so that your nitrate doesn't get to more than about 20ppm above what comes out of your tap. You have to find the right level and frequency of changes for your own particular set up. I do 50 or 60% a week on all my tanks, but if your tank is very heavily stocked you might need to do larger than that, or twice weekly ones.

Get a piece of pipe, or a gravel cleaner, and a bucket. Switch off all the electrics before you start!

Start off the syphon (I just suck on the bucket end of the pipe, but you can immerse the whole thing in the tank, turning it round to get the air out, and then move the free end of the pipe to the bucket, with your finger or thumb over the end if you'd rather), and suck up as much 'mulm' as you can. It might be easier to have two or three buckets so you can carry on gravel cleaning without having to stop and empty your bucket all the time!

Once you've got enough water out, wipe down the sides (I use a new washing up sponge; a cheap one that doesn't have any soap or detergents impregnated in it) to get rid of any algae. You can also gently swish out your filter media in one of the buckets of old tank water to stop it getting clogged.

Then refill the tank with warmed, dechlorinated water ans switch everything back on. I normally save my frozen food feeding day for after I've done a water change, just to say 'sorry' to the fish for messing with their home

You don't ever need to totally strip down tanks to clean them, unless you've had disease or are changing the substrate, times like that.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yeah I clean the glass and substrate once a week. Unlike fluttermoth though I clean the glass before I take any water out as then I figure I'm more likely to hoover up any of the mess that comes off the glass/gets stirred up in the process

 

[Peter C]

If I'm cleaning the substrate / gravel then that's the entire tank surely? Or can i get get a Hoover type thing to suck the #105###e ff the top of the gravel?

I can do a 50% water change and wipe the glass into the tank, should I just leave the fish in?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yep just leave the fish in. If you use a gravel vac (which is just a large plastic tube on the end of a small plastic tube lol) it does clean the stuff off the top and you can stick it down into the gravel to suck everything from in between as well. Do a search on youtube for "cleaning aquarium gravel" or "gravel vac" something like that to see an example of how it's done

 

[elmo666]

No point in cleaning the glass after removing the water, anything on the glass will remain in the tank, best to do it before. Frequency and amount is dependant on stocking, but to get it right in the early stages keep a close eye on the nitrate level and do water changes as needed. Have fun tho, I actually enjoy my water changes even tho thge oscars think am edible

 

[fluttermoth]

No point in cleaning the glass after removing the water, anything on the glass will remain in the tank, best to do it before.

It's a good point, but I only ever get a few spots of algae, and that always seems to stay on my sponge

 

[Peter C]

Just bought a gravel vac off eBay. Didn't realise is just a siphon, I had images of some kind of hand held Hoover lol

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Lol yeah you can get some pretty fancy ones but it's the plastic end that matters!

 

[Peter C]

It's going to be awkward as near enough all my gravel is covered in plants! But il have a go when the vac arrives

 

[OldMan47]

Peter, once you have that gravel vac, be ready to limit its use to areas that do not have plants. You clean what you can without disturbing plant roots and then you stop and just siphon what more you need to for your water change. Do not dig up plants to get every last bit of dirt.

 

[Peter C]

Peter, once you have that gravel vac, be ready to limit its use to areas that do not have plants. You clean what you can without disturbing plant roots and then you stop and just siphon what more you need to for your water change. Do not dig up plants to get every last bit of dirt.

Nice 1, cheers

Think I'm going to replace the missing / dead endlers with a plec to keep the waste down and try and prevent as much algae in the future

 

[Lufbramatt]

"plecs" just convert otherwise harmless algea into huge amounts of poo which breaks down releasing ammonia etc into the water and raises the nitrate level, meaning bigger water changes . . . they wont eat fish waste. Easiest just give the glass a wipe over with a sponge as said above once a week before you do your water change. The fish wont mind your hand in the tank for a minute or two.

 

[Peter C]

"plecs" just convert otherwise harmless algea into huge amounts of poo which breaks down releasing ammonia etc into the water and raises the nitrate level, meaning bigger water changes . . . they wont eat fish waste. Easiest just give the glass a wipe over with a sponge as said above once a week before you do your water change. The fish wont mind your hand in the tank for a minute or two.

Yeah it's the algae that's makin the tank look untidy. Thes not much poo I can see on the gravel

Vac should be here in a few days anyway

Cheers for the advice everyone

 

[Jayladd]

How long do you keep your lights on? You shouldn't get too much algae that wont take a minute to clean up.