Aquarium Cleaning

Cleaning your aquarium

Cleaning your aquarium is very important for your fish’s health.

There are a few reasons why you should clean the tank:

First of all it smells - there are many reasons why the water smells. It could be the fish excrement or old food that is causing the smell.

Algae overgrowth - if you don’t have enough good bacteria, or plants, algae will grow. Algae spoils the water quality, and bad water is bad for the fish.

Removal of toxins – these toxins can be introduced in your tank through air

Water becomes brown or yellow – these are caused by decoration, driftwood, and other components.

For pH control – in order to maintain a good quality of pH, you have to clean the water.

How to clean your aquarium

An aquarium should be cleaned at least once every 2-4 weeks. Once a week the water should be changed with 20% fresh water.

 Before you start the cleaning process. Remember to unplug the heater.

 Filter some water into a large container, and then carefully remove the fish into this container.

 Once you have removed all the water, clean the glass on the inside. Use algae pads.

 Next step is to remove the rocks and all decoration that have algae growth. You have to scrub off all the algae.

 Next in line is the gravel, use a water siphon to vacuum all the debris. Vacuum carefully so that all the debris is removed.

 After the inside is clean, clean the light, tank top and outside glass.

 Once the inside and the outside are clean, return all the decorations, rock and plants.

 Next step is cleaning the filter, but for that you have to wait a few weeks. Why do you have to wait? Because now that the tank is clean, all the beneficial bacteria is gone. But fortunately there still are some beneficial bacteria in the filter media. Changing the filter media now would be a disaster for the entire ecosystem.

 The final step now that everything is clean is to fill up the tank with water, and then return the fish to the tank.