How Should I Clean My Tank Effectively

[QuotheRaven]

I have a 32 gallon tank with 22 fish in it about 5-6 plants and some decorations. I clean a third every two weeks I add chlorine negater stuff mineral stuff stress zyme and two scoops if aquarium salt so my water I put in should be fine but when I use the Gravel Siphon should I take out all plants decorations and everything? As the plants root themselves in the gravel is it a bad idea to take them out?

Any suggestions would be great

 

[d3tained]

Hi,

I had the same tipe of problem you have.

Dont take plants out when using syphon.Also only use syphon when dirt is visabile on the bottom.

My setup and problem:

I have UGF with power head in my tank that is highly planted and also have allot of fish in it. ( 60 L ).Then located on other side of tank I have Dolphin H500 power filter.It cleans very nice but I then noticed after a while that the waist buildup under the gravel is allot and randomly you will find the power head blowing out some waste sucked in from the UGF.This caused a problem for me.Im not gonna clean the tank every 2 -3 months and uproot all my plants.( This is also your problem )

What I did:

- Went to LFS and bought a Dolfin H200 Power filter and mounted it in such a way that the intake is located exactely where the waist will randomly blow out of the power head.This solved my problem bigtime.So currently what will happen is when wais build up becomes heavy the power head blows out waste it get pulled in by the filter and so the cycle goes on.Maybe you should try something like this.Also added more cotton to the filters and have had major improvments.

For cleaning your tank somtime you will have to no matter what.Will have to unroot your plants and yes it will sit them back but they will soon recover if you have enouth firtz and C02.Dont clean it with any tipe of soap, liquid, jik just plane water.Also dont clean it to much as you dont wanna loose your bacteria.After what i did i will only have to clean the tank all over every 12 months.

Do you ahve any fish that cleans your bottom?

 

[scubadoo]

Do you ahve any fish that cleans your bottom?

Now I'm not sure what to say to that................

 

[d3tained]

HAHAHA good one.

Ment any fish that is pick up all the bits from the gravel like cory's, loaches.HAHAHA

Ek is uintelik afrikaans..

 

[sparklefuzz]

HAHAHA good one.

Ment any fish that is pick up all the bits from the gravel like cory's, loaches.HAHAHA

Ek is uintelik afrikaans..

Bottom feeders like corys etc will eat stray uneaten food, but not waste matter. If only poo eating fish were available! Use a gravel vac where you can and dig deep into the gravel and swirl it around to lift the crap out. If you don't, the muck in the gravel will get really bad and probably send your nitrates sky high. Where you have plants just try your best to clean amongst them.

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Do you ahve any fish that cleans your bottom?

Now I'm not sure what to say to that................

 

[babybell911]

I thought cories and salt really didnt get on?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

right it depends what substrate you have how you should clean it with your siphon, gravel just push it in and it'll suck everything out, with sand the poo just rests on the surface so you just hover the siphon above it and it sucks it up.

What I do is every week I vac the tanks and change about 20% of the water, I add dechlorinator to the water before adding it to the tank.

You don't need to uproot all your plants to vac, it's bad for them to be disturbed and the poo acts as a fertiliser. Just go very gently and carefully around them. You should however lift up any rocks/decorations etc and vac underneath them.

Weather you should be adding salt depends totally on what fish you have, some of them need it, for some it can kill them so if you haven't already then you'd best check what's right for your fish, if you post your stocking someone will help you.

Bottom cleaning fish such as cory's can be helpful as they eat uneaten food, this stops it decaying and turning to waste, but your always still gonna have fishy poo that needs cleaning.

 

[BiffMalawi]

Hi there:

I have been following this thread and the advice you have receive is good but I think you are hughly overstocked. I only say this as it is a common problem that I myself have had until recently. I did a little research and here are some numbers. Please if I am wrong someone please correct me.

You have a 32gal tank = 32" of fish.

Although many people think the 1" per gallon rule is not useful and flexible. I think it is at least a general guide line(varies for aggression, waste production)

all adult sizes

1 Angel 6" 6"
4 khulis 4" 16"
3 tiger Barbs 3" 9"
2 swordtails 4" 8"
4 Platys 2" 8"
4 corys 3" 12"
2 yoyo loaches 3" 6"
1 ram 2" 2"

Total so far 67"

As for your clown knife(sorry) it will grow up to 40". These fish get enormous and grow fast. Even small they should be kept in a 48" tank, that is at least 65gallons and require several hundred gallons as adults.

That being said I am sure your fish are all small at the moment which means you have time to make adjustments like buying a bigger tank and/or returning some fish. The fish load you are caring now means that your maintenance schedule should be very aggressive. 2 25% water changes per week with as much gravel vaccuming as possible. You need filtration rated for at least double your tank size.

You don't say how long you have had the tank set up as it is right now. You may have been lucky so far and not had any problems but as I am sure you can see problems are coming soon. Overstocking can stunt the growth of fish and it severely limits their quality of life and lifespan. Some loaches have been know to live for decades in captivity.

I do not say any of this as critizism, we have all done this before especially when we start out and the LFS is our only source of info. You have found a great forum, full of people who know and care about fish and I'm sure you will enjoy many years of fish keeping. There is just a lot to learn in the beginning.

 

[babybell911]

right it depends what substrate you have how you should clean it with your siphon, gravel just push it in and it'll suck everything out, with sand the poo just rests on the surface so you just hover the siphon above it and it sucks it up.

What I do is every week I vac the tanks and change about 20% of the water, I add dechlorinator to the water before adding it to the tank.

You don't need to uproot all your plants to vac, it's bad for them to be disturbed and the poo acts as a fertiliser. Just go very gently and carefully around them. You should however lift up any rocks/decorations etc and vac underneath them.

Weather you should be adding salt depends totally on what fish you have, some of them need it, for some it can kill them so if you haven't already then you'd best check what's right for your fish, if you post your stocking someone will help you.

Bottom cleaning fish such as cory's can be helpful as they eat uneaten food, this stops it decaying and turning to waste, but your always still gonna have fishy poo that needs cleaning.

Stocking is in the signature. x

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi there:

I have been following this thread and the advice you have receive is good but I think you are hughly overstocked. I only say this as it is a common problem that I myself have had until recently. I did a little research and here are some numbers. Please if I am wrong someone please correct me.

You have a 32gal tank = 32" of fish.

Although many people think the 1" per gallon rule is not useful and flexible. I think it is at least a general guide line(varies for aggression, waste production)

all adult sizes

1 Angel 6" 6"
4 khulis 4" 16"
3 tiger Barbs 3" 9"
2 swordtails 4" 8"
4 Platys 2" 8"
4 corys 3" 12"
2 yoyo loaches 3" 6"
1 ram 2" 2"

Total so far 67"

As for your clown knife(sorry) it will grow up to 40". These fish get enormous and grow fast. Even small they should be kept in a 48" tank, that is at least 65gallons and require several hundred gallons as adults.

That being said I am sure your fish are all small at the moment which means you have time to make adjustments like buying a bigger tank and/or returning some fish. The fish load you are caring now means that your maintenance schedule should be very aggressive. 2 25% water changes per week with as much gravel vaccuming as possible. You need filtration rated for at least double your tank size.

You don't say how long you have had the tank set up as it is right now. You may have been lucky so far and not had any problems but as I am sure you can see problems are coming soon. Overstocking can stunt the growth of fish and it severely limits their quality of life and lifespan. Some loaches have been know to live for decades in captivity.

I do not say any of this as critizism, we have all done this before especially when we start out and the LFS is our only source of info. You have found a great forum, full of people who know and care about fish and I'm sure you will enjoy many years of fish keeping. There is just a lot to learn in the beginning.

gosh I didn't even look at the stocking, I'll 2nd all that.

But don't feel disheartened, when I first started out on the advice of my lfs I was stocking a 25g with bala sharks and kissing gourami's..... both of which get absolutely enormous, I just didn't know and I'm very sad to say the fishies died

But I've learnt from my mistakes and now I always do my research and *touch wood* I've hardly had any problems in my tanks for years now.

 

[d3tained]

Well I would put it like this.

The more fish you add the more poop there are the more filtration you need / maintanince.

In my 60 Litre tank I have:

4 Platys
3 Black Skirt Tetras
5 Neon Tetras
2 Swords
2 Leopard Cory's.
3 Leopard Danios
1 Pakastani Loach
1 ZigZag Eel ( George, very tame... )

I think as soon as you can see a tank is over crowded it is.Like my tank if you take a full tank photo you hardly see the fish.I do believe that if you keep more than normal amount of fish in your tank you need to have good filtration aswell as having plants.I run 750 litres per hour filtration on my tank.Thats almost 15 times the tank in a hour which i have noticed is doing the Job very nicly and now poop or particils on the gravel or in the water.

So ADD more Filtration!Double more if you can...

 

[QuotheRaven]

I know my tank is very stocked (One platy died today...no signs of ill health at all just died......MFD!) however they are very small and I am very into fish so if im lucky enough to keep my BGKF alive till it gets that large I would probably have bought a new tank....My filtration is...a atman 1000 cf.....It is a internal filter and does 1000 litre an Hour...I have many bottom feeders.

the tank is 123 Litres.......the filter is strong for the fish but they enjoy going into the slip stream and going with it....it hasn't harmed them at all

 

[BiffMalawi]

The black ghost seems to be one of the smaller species of knife and slower growing. If you are already thinking ahead to the purchase of an additional bigger tank, then it should be ok. It isn't an aggressive fish so it shouldn't bother any of the smaller fish. The good filtration will help. Although I still recommend a significant increase in water changes with careful gravel vaccuming.

Your BGK sure is a cool fish. It would look amazing in a big tank designed to show it colour.I hear you can even hand feed them. Enjoy.