Periodic Deep Cleaning

[This Old Spouse]

Just wondering how often and how seriously you deep clean your tanks.

 

[coldcazzie]

Depends on the substrate. Deep clean gets done more often in a gravel tank than a sand tank.

 

[Tizer]

I dont think i've cleaned my big tank since i got it, it just seems to take care of itself. ^^

 

[nurglespuss]

I find it is not beneficial, the surface area of pretty much everything in the tank (gravel/sand grains), ornaments, even equipment housing etc. is covered with a beneficial biofilm, its a little piece of what keeps things stable in an established tank.

In fact, this deep-cleaning (unless absolutely neccessary for some reason) is not good for the fish. I'm not talking about gravel vaccing, or mulm removal (if not wanted/unsightly), but the phrase 'deep-cleaning' to me conjures images of pretty much stripping the tank, and putting everything back, this is also darn stressfull for its inhabitants!

As a general rule, this sort of thing should only be done when stripping down/re-scaping a tank, and not as a part of regular maintainance.


..in fact, it's mentioned as a no-no in the latest PFK come to think of it.

 

[coldcazzie]

I'm not talking about gravel vaccing, or mulm removal (if not wanted/unsightly), but the phrase 'deep-cleaning' to me conjures images of pretty much stripping the tank, and putting everything back

I think this is a key point...

TOS - perhaps you could be more specific as to what you mean by deep clean, as I didn't interpret it like this.

 

[nurglespuss]

Cheers Caz

 

[This Old Spouse]

Removing all decorations to clean underneath, as nurglespus described. I've read of other forum members doing this and I was wondering if it's a good idea.

And what is PFK?

 

[moochy13]

i very rarely lift up bits of wood to clean underneath them, its worth doing in my tank, and i think it only being 15 inches tall makes it a lot easier. i think if my water stats were bad id do it more often.

 

[nurglespuss]

Removing all decorations to clean underneath, as nurglespus described. I've read of other forum members doing this and I was wondering if it's a good idea.

And what is PFK?

Ah!! I fell into one of my own hated things there! lol a dreaded unexplained acronym!

PFK is a good magazine called Practical Fish Keeping.

 

[This Old Spouse]

is PFK available in the States?

I wondered initially about the deep cleaning because I notice that things like empty snail shells and the like tend to collect under things and around the plant stems, and some folks leave it be and others lift out all their decorations and scrub them. I'm kind of in between, where I generally take my siphon hose (which is just a hose, 3/4" diameter and sucks like nobody's business) and swirl it around the bases of plants, etc. Seems to work pretty well and my water parameters are good but I was curious about what everybody else does.

 

[nurglespuss]

If your water parameters are good, that pretty much says whatever your doing is just fine

I tend to leave shells in (unless there's loads of them) as the snails can scavenge calcium back from the shells.

I'm not sure if PFK is available in the states.... Hmmmm over here in the UK its pretty much the only decent tropical fish keeping mag thats around to purchase...

Here are a few contacts, and it mentions overseas back issues further down?

Maybe worth checking out?

 

[Tetra-Chris]

Hey TOS, check out this link, no issues subscribing in the States...

http/www.greatmagazines.co.uk/store/displaybrand.asp?os=Y&sid=4292

Should come up with the international pricing.

Oh, and regarding deep clean... only when i change the scape

 

[coldcazzie]

I do pick up bits of wood and clean around them, but as I said I don't do it nearly so often with sand as substrate as I did with gravel. Gravel mings when it's left under decor to collect mulm I don't take things out and scrub them unless there's a good reason: I did when I was battling the cyanobacteria, but haven't done so since then - as nurggle said, it removes beneficial biofilm. So I guess I'm in between as well.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Thanks for the link, Chris ... I guess it's a bit too spendy for me! Maybe I can revisit this next summer when there's some money coming in. I appreciate your effort!

 

[Fishy friend2]

I only checked that I do them regularly (weekly) because I have one of my bettas In a 1 gallon tank temporarily, so I do 1 100% and 1 50% water change a week in his tank