Major Tank Clean

[remf179]

We are going to completely drain down our tank for a major clean.

Its a 450 litre juwel running an FX5 filter.

We were given the tank and had to move it to our house in a hurry as the original filter had died! We managed to bag the water and the gunge from the old filter and kept it going...... just.

The tank really needs a damned good clean now and we are planning to drain it down, the filter is maintained regularly and washed out in tank water.

My questions are ? If I completely drain the tank but leave the filter as it is , is it best to keep some of the original water or just do a full water change?

Once up and running again do we need to leave it a while before re-introducing the fish (they are going to lodge in our other tank)?

Can anyone reccomend the best filter media for the FX5? at present it has the standard sponges, a tray of zeolite bags and the rest is the ceramic type as reccomended by our local shop.

The tank tends to cloud up every now and then. There are no live plants (large dollars eat them !! By the way free to a good home or swap for smaller fish along with 2 large silver sharks) and its not over stocked. Any suggestions?

Any advice gladly welcomed.

 

[dthoffsett]

I actually redid my 75gal mbuna tank a few months ago. What I did was move the fish to another tank, pull all the rock out and scrub it, scrub the whole tank out (with water and an algae scraper), put new substrate in, added the rocks, some fake plants, and filled the entire tank with new dechlorinated water. The filters (I have a Fluval 404 & an AC70) I just took off the tank without emptying any water from them. About 90% of your beneficial bacteria live in your filter(s), so unless your tap water has a different PH from your tank, you don't need to keep any of the old water aside from what is in the filters. To make sure I didn't have a mini-cycle from losing all the bene-bac that was on the decor and substrate (and the slight die off that will occur in your filter), I made sure to only feed once every other day for about a week. Also, wait 2-4 weeks before you do any maintenance to your filter.

As for filter media, I stick to sponges, and bio-media of some sort, ceramic or bio-balls are my favorite. How often are you cleaning out your filter, the nice thing about cannister filters are that you should only need to rinse them out every 4-6 months. I also prefer having a hob of some sort for water polishing which is why I have the aquaclear on mine, I put a fine filter sponge (sold for polishing) in it with the other sponge and cermic media, I pull the polishing sponge out every week or two (whenever it clogs) and rinse it well with tap water (I have plenty of other bio-media, so cleaning it in tap water doens't hurt anything), I've found my water is much clearer by doing that.

Also, make sure you set aside an entire day to do this, trusht me, by the time you are all done, you'll be ready for a nap.

 

[remf179]

Sounds like a plan to me !! Thanks for that. I am going to add a small internal filter for polishing any way. The fx5 used to get rinsed every month as ther where lots of large fish inb the tank when we got it. However there are only four large fish left now which wont be going back in, they are being rehomed!! The plan is to plant it out and get lots of nice rock and hidy holes in there.

Going back in will be 8 clown loach, 1 catfish (dont know the type) 1 upside down catfish and 1 bristle nose, also some mollies that breed like mad, a small red tail shark, 3 opaline guaramis, 1 dwarf guarami,6 botia loach, 10 danios, 4 bleeding hearts and 2 angel fish.

We want to add some other smaller fish as well but not sure yet as to which ones will go in. We sort of recued the tank and fish but prefer lots of smaller fish in it.

Thanks for the response.

 

[dthoffsett]

Sounds like a good mix you got going back in there, I love lots of smaller fish in large tanks, give you a chance to see the type of interaction they have in nature. I'll be the catfish love the molly snacks. I would probably up your bleeding hearts to 10 since they like to be in larger groups. Other than that I suck at suggestions for standard community tanks. Good luck with your clean!

 

[arvlyn]

I just redid both of my big aquariums. I didn't save any of the water, but I saved the filter media, the BIO-Wheels (from the 37, not the 29, I had to bleach them) and about a gallon and a half of the gravel. I also used Stress-Zyme, which is pretty much hated here, but I like it.

 

[adamgreen240]

i would put some floss in the FX5
- will stop the tank clouding up

 

[remf179]

Thanks for the replies peeps. Not wanting to sound dim but whats FLOSS?

 

[DevUK]

Filter floss, or filter wool. It looks like cotton wool, but is generally some sort of polyester or something along those lines. It helps to filter out fine particles from the water, often called "polishing" the water. Usually its the last filter media before the biological, or before the water returns to the tank. It needs replacing quite often though as it gets clogged up quite quickly. Every 2 weeks to a month I think.

 

[remf179]

Yep, I know the stuff now.

Looking into it further, I think I will refit the standard juwel 1000 filter with sponge and "floss" and use the Fluval FX5 as the BIo filter. I reckon that will give me chrystal clear water!

 

[remf179]

wow! what a difference.

Drained down the tank after moving all the fish that we are keeping to our other tank.

good clean inside & out including substrate, didnt do anything with the filter.

Refilled and netralised chlorine let the heater bring it up to temp, planted all my new plants fitted an internal flter full of fine filter wool and left for 24 hrs.

CHRYSTAL CLEAR !! Amazing.

Have tested water and is perfect, added about 25% of fish mainly the smaller ones. Is it worth waiting to add the bottom feeders ie my clown & botia loaches and 2 catfish?

 

[dthoffsett]

I know what you mean about it making a difference, when I cleaned mine out, by the time I was done it was like I had bought a brand new tank.

I'd go ahead an add all of your stock back, since you didn't do anything to your filters, you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[tetraqueen]

I have just done the same thing although for different reasons. My substrate was washed by rain and dechlorinated water in the end I put the substrate outside as I did not want to keep it indoors and it rained.
My tank I was surprised was not as dirty as I suspected however the colour of the water has changed now the glass and the water are cystal clear. I just left the filter and since I have had it running for a week and the stats were good and a platy had caught fin rot I moved the others into it so really it had not been fully recycled . I have done checks on the stats daily and they have not changed since adding the fish although that is 11 neons 3 platies and a gouramis so hardly anything that will give of masses.

I think the Rio 400 I have maybe similiar to yours and the large filtration is so good that when it has been up and set it takes a lot for it to go wrong where as the little tanks seem to hit wrong very quickly I guess it is the amount of bacteria they keep take longer to kill off so therfore it's ongoing.


Now I have set up from this tank a cycling middle tank and this is not doing well at all and the stats tell me I cannot add fish to this at all. I think if the stats are telling you things are fine your fish will be okay. To be safe you could add them little by little but I see that once the new tanks are cycled with good stats they add all there stock so I see no difference in you added all yours to a mature set up and its the filter that is sysled not the water.

 

[remf179]

Im really pleased. The results are amazing, ill try and post a pic.The remainder of the fish will go over in the next few days as I havent finished putting the "hidy holes" in for the catfish and loaches but the rest will go in tonite!The fish are really happy to! The danios I have are really funny, they like to "surf" in the filter outlets and keep goind round and round.!!I appreciate all the advice peeps, much better than my LFS, they tend to argue between themselves when I ask for advice!!!I think the Rio 400 I have maybe similiar to yours and the large filtration is so good Yep, the rio is a similar size, however the vision 450 has a bow front