Tank Maintenance

[lrhodes]

Looks like I have a ton of tank maintenance to do today... ugh. Ben decided to poor a whole thing ofbetta pellets into the 55.... and the cichlid tank is looking pretty rough... iI'm having a diatom issue in that...
Anyone have suggestions on what to do about the ugly brown algae? I have a magnet cleaner for the glass... but there's only so much that will do...
When vacuuming in an African cichlid tank, do you move their caves to vacuum under them? I haven't been doing that very often, but I think its causing some cloudy water...

And on tip of all that.... my betta tank needs to be completely cleaned (because its hard to vacuum a 5 gallon......) and I find that its much easier to just strip that one down and clean it.

 

[star4]

A household sponge with the scrubby green bit on is the best thing I have found for algae on the glass. I do mine every week, I have a sponge for each tank and do the whole glass whether I can see algae or not and I dont tend to see any.
 
I move all wood, rock etc every 2 weeks and clean under.
 
Change from gravel to sand and get some trumpet snails to turn the sand over if vacuuming gravel is too difficult, sand only needs a run over the top. well would do in a small tank.

 

[lrhodes]

I've been debating on switching my 5 gallon betta tank to sand. The only problem I have with vacuuming it is because when the water gets lower it loses suction because I have a big vacuum.

 

[baker360360]

What cichlids are they? Not sure with new world or Malawi If tanganyikan I know that cave dwellers spend a lot of time and effort establishing homes and if moved around they have to repeat the process of building and establishing territories. I don't know if this will stress them but I wouldn't want some one blowing my house down every time I put it up lol.
Also diatoms will go away by itself. Other algae depending on which type can be removed by fixing the the cause of it. Maybe lights are on too much or not enough water movement ( due to the rocks).

Also cloudy water could be a bacterial bloom, try to work out how much you feed your fish check to see if any of the food is finding its way down to the substrate and not being eaten.

Hope this helps

 

[lrhodes]

I have 2 kenyi. 2 red zebras. And one auaratus.
I did a serious vacuum and took out most of the caves and wiped off the ugly brown junk!
They do establish their territories. But I do know that people move them around from time to time to help with aggression.
They didn't like when it was happening. But seem pretty happy now. I put the caves back almost exactly like they were.