Print PDF
Favorite
Email
It starts out slowly. The first day you get your fish, your tank is sparkling clean. A few weeks later you notice the tank is looking a little cloudy. You ignore it. Two more weeks go by and your fish tank is starting to look like mine did. This can be very overwhelming for a new fish owner. Don't sweat it, I've got you covered. Just follow this step-by-step instructable, and before your fish know what's happened they'll have a fresh, clean tank.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1Background
Before beginning the tank cleaning process it's important to note a few things first. This instructable is designed for small to medium sized tanks (5-20 gallons). The instructable is also designed for freshwater tropical fish, meaning that the water temperature is meant to stay in the mid 70's. The tank that I am demonstrating on is a rare case. It is much dirtier than it should ever be. Most cleanings should not wait until the tank is this dirty. In fact, every other week you should plan on cleaning your tank.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
Of course use an area that can accomdate alot of splashing. Hose down the aquarium, if you need some courseness for cleaning use a little bit of regular table salt. If the rings persist use a razor to "shave" off the film. once you are satisfied rinse. No detergents please. Please remember this is for glass only!
After 25 years in the marine tank husbandry and manufacturing I may have learned something.
Rock On!
on a 55 gallon tank, I had 2 bio filters & 1 particulate filter. never once did I have to remove any water in over 8 YEARS.
Now, I'm not saying I'm right & you're wrong, I'm just saying that it doesn't make sense to me.
not bad tho. you did pretty good. 8-)
- For larger aquaria it's better to clean them every two weeks.
- About the waterconditioner/aquasafe and similar products: Before you buy one of these, make sure you really need it. There are many countries where the quality of tap water is good enough. In that case it's better not to use this product in stead of using them. Sellers won't tell you this...
- Never go longer then 2 weeks without any water changes.
- When you have this problem dirty cloudy water it can mean two things:
1. Algae, solution: keeping real plants in your aquarium.
2. Dead bacteria, solution: make sure your filter is on 24/7. When you have an internal filter you'll have to shut it down during water changes. Prevent the filter from being down more then 20 minutes. To achieve this you'll have to make sure the new water is ready in a few buckets before starting to empty the aquarium. (this is what you did wrong, jtvreeland) Never change more then 30% of the water. In fact: if water values are good, only change 10% of the water!
It's also very important that your aquarium isn't to small for the fish. The length of the aquarium has to be 10 times the length of the adult fish. (exept fish who don't move a lot like ancistrus species) Make sure also you don't put all the fish at once in a new aquarium. After the first week only 3 who belong in the upper water level. A week later you start working on the lower water level for 2 or 3 weeks. Another week later you start again adding fish who belong in the upper water level. Fish who belong in the middle water level enter the aquarium last (and at once).
- Never clean the entire filter (in the same time). Also never change the water and clean the filter at the same time!
- Rules like 10 gal per inch of fish don't make sense. The lenght of the fish doesn't tell anything about how polluting it is. Just follow the other advises and you can add as many fish as you want. (ok, not as many fish as you want but you'll be happy long before you reach the real maximum of what your aquarium can take.)
- Only use the fish net if you really have to (and not to get your fish in another tank which is totally unnecessary), the risk of damaging the fish is to big to do it when it's not really necessary.
- Get two species who clean the tank for you if your not able yourself. I advice two species of a different kind like an ancistrus or pleco and a corydoras. Taking two species prevent them from being lazy because then there's a competition between them. If your aquarium is clean (no algae on the windows) you'll have to feed these fish extra food, don't think let them clean the aquarium is enough. Try cumcumber for their vegetable diet (don't try salad, it decays to quickly).
- Don't use a vacuum siphon on the bottom when your keeping corydoras or something like that. You'll take away their food and they'll have to search for food on the surface, their not made to do that.
- Keep real plants for oxygen and only use an O2 diffussor on the outlet of your filter and an aerator at night. To many aeration causes the carbondioxide to be absorbed by the air. This causes disbalance in cation-anion ratios and consequently increases the pH.
Salt - don't use if you have snails! I have trumpet and ramshorns living happily beside the fish but it means I can't treat with salt if there's a health problem so I just use a 1%/100ml tea trea solution (as in Melafix). doestn't seem to bother the snails but one fish who seems to have gained a small wound is healing well.
Removing the fish isn't always necessary then again with small tanks with only a fish or two its not a problem! Fish are intelligent and get to know their caregiver and the routine well enough!
I knew someone who had a very large goldfish in a 5 gallon tank she cleaned daily while removing him to a bucket. No bubbler or filtration either! She had him 12 years that I knew of and refused offers of bigger tanks... what else can you do? I lost touch with her so I don't know how old this fish lived or if he still lives! :-)
Its not something I would ever recommend! A goldie 3" or a bit bigger needs at LEAST a 30 gallon tank. Rule of thumb is 10 gal per inch of fish I think
I've used pickling salt for more than 5 years now in my brackish tanks and for curing any ailments
Firstly, changing the filter media? Very bad plan. That's probably got a good deal to do with why the water is so cloudy. The filter media is what houses the bacteria required to remove the ammonia and nitrite produced, only a very tiny percentage occupy the substrate and water.
Salt is completely unnessecary for a freshwater tank, hence the name. Fish don't gain anything from it, you're just wasting your money.
There's no need to remove the fish; that's just going to cause stress that isn't needed. General reccomended water change regime is 25% once a week. Dechlorinate the water in the bucket before you put it back in the tank. However, if the tank is in the process of cycling with fish, then more frequently is definitely a good idea.
1) 25% water change monthly - more often if you have a problem or imbalance.
2)Salt is good - I've used it in my tanks. It color enhances the fish and is good to use if there is a proplem like ick.
I agree with your last statement - there is no need to remove the fish. The only time I may remove one is if I move it to a hospital tank for treatment - so I don't dose the entire tank.
I believe in keeping things as simple as possible when keeping fish. If it's too much work it is not fun, and the maintenance doesn't get done.
In my years of fish keeping and reading about it I've noticed many styles of keeping the tanks. So, if your having success keep doing what your doing!