How Often Should I ?

george4 · Dec 12, 2008

Clean my tank out ? , i have a 400 litre tank , with 5 large silver dollars , 3 large angel fish , 2 oscars (4 inch only) , 3 clown loach and 7 inch common plec

i am currently doing a 25% water change with gravel clean once a week , is this adequate or should i be doing more ?

many thanks

MermaidMel · Dec 12, 2008

See my opinion is this. Once or twice a week, we clean our houses [ok toilets and sink and hallways etc. maybe more often but you get my drift] but when do we ever take everything out of our house and put it outside and clean rip up the carpets and start again? I don't think there is harm in a yearly spring clean, removing or changing things round a bit, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. You seem to be doing the right thing, your fish are healthy and happy right?

Colin_T · Dec 12, 2008

Hey Mels back, welcome back MermaidMel

-------------------------------------------------------

Hi George

If you do regular maintenance then you should never have to do a full clean. Keep doing the 25-30% water changes and complete gravel cleans each week until the oscars are a bit bigger. Then do bigger water changes (50%) each week and check the nitrate levels. If the nitrates go up rapidly with a 50% weekly water change, then do 50% twice a week water changes and gravel clean.

jonny_dw · Dec 12, 2008

MermaidMel said:
See my opinion is this. Once or twice a week, we clean our houses [ok toilets and sink and hallways etc. maybe more often but you get my drift] but when do we ever take everything out of our house and put it outside and clean rip up the carpets and start again? I don't think there is harm in a yearly spring clean, removing or changing things round a bit, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. You seem to be doing the right thing, your fish are healthy and happy right?

I agree. I do 30% water change a week, clean algae off the glass, gravel vac, cut dead leaves off the plants, pretty much it on a weekly basis.

george4 · Dec 12, 2008

Yes fish are pefectly healthy and eating a lot lol , thank you for your replies . i know not to do full clean out unless major problem was just wondering what sort of percentage to do as most places say 10% but figured this was too little for the way my tank is stocked . will stick to 30% a week but keep eye on water stats , thank you