Introduction: How to Do Complete Routine Aquarium Maintenance

By

In this Instructable you will learn how to do routine aquarium maintenance.  This is what you should do weekly to your aquarium!  It will keep your fish happy and healthy by keeping your nitrates low  and your water clairity high!  As you can see from the pictures ive been having some pretty bad algae issues >.<

Step 1: This Is What You Will Need

You will need:
A bucket!
A net! (for various cleaning needs)
Water changer tube siphon thingy! (the thing wrapped around the bottle of chemicals! ^-^)
Pitcher (not pictured)
Water conditioner and other needed chemicals!
Thermometer (not pictured)



Step 2: Siphon Out That Old Water!

This is the fun part!  For this step i would get the bucket and the siphon tube...and some towels if you don't have good aim!  (if your a guy you can easily test this out...hee...hee)  Its sorta hard to get the siphon started.  What i do is get the end of the tube (small end!)  and put it right above the bucket. (that you have right in front of the tank) Then put the big end so that the whole "big end plastic part" is submerged.  Then (wait for it) suck on the small end until it starts the siphon.  WATCH THE TUBE SO THAT YOU CAN TAKE THE TUBE OUT OF YOUR MOUTH AND PUT IT INTO THE BUCKET BEFORE YOU GET A MOUTH FULL OF FISH WATER!!!!  This method is the easiest, quickest, and probably most reliable out of the "Shake method" or the "Blow Method" 

Once you have a constant flow of water going from the tank into the bucket you're going to want to shove the Big end into the gravel, or to use the proper lingo, the "substrate."   then pull it out and let all the gravel fall out of the tube.  Then move to a different section.  Keep moving around until you have either sucked on all of the gravel or sucked out 30% of the water.  In the picture i have sucked out around that 30%.  DO NOT GO OVER THIS AMOUNT!  if you do you will risk stressing out your fish.  if you're doing it right you will see dirty nasty water going up the tube and into the bucket! (duhh)

Step 3: Get Some Fresh Water!

Go dump out that nasty, dirty, water!  I dump mine right in the yard.  At the worst it could do is fertilize the grass....Anyways...

Go get the bucket and rinse it out in the sink! 

Grab your chemicals and measure out the correct amount for your size tank.  ALWAYS USE A WATER CONDITIONER!!  i don't care if you have tap or city water! Use it! Pour your chemicals in your now clean bucket.

Then, Grab that thermometer and adjust the water temp coming out of the tap to plus or minus 2 degrees of the temp of the water in your tank.  You dont wanna put your poor fishies through temp shock! :O  (the ideal temp of a tropical fish tank is around...eh...76-78 degrees fairenheit)  Then you just fill up the bucket!

Step 4: Top Off Your Tank!

Take that pitcher and scoop some water out of the bucket!  Some hints:

Don't pour the water in to your tank too fast.  Nobody wants those pretty little decorations floating around!

Don't pour right out of the bucket.  go ahead and try to do it.  you'll see why you don't want to soon enough!

Step 5: And Thats It!

Thats it!  You've just completed weekly aquarium maintenance!  Good job!  :DD  As seen in the pic, you might have some cloudiness at first but it should clear up!  Thanks fro reading through this!  comment and rate! ;)