Cleaning My Tank..........

[MadMan-JaMeS]

Hey,

I wanna give my tank a blody good clean on friday by means of emptying all the water and washing the gravel through.

Now its 566 litres so it might take a while so just a few questions for you all

1. How long will my 2 externals last for without no water going through them ?

2. How long will the fish be fine for in a big plastic bin ?

3. Will i be best washing the gravel in tank water thus keeping the benficial bacteria or will i be fine doing it in normal tap water ?

4. Its likely to take about 2-3 hours thats emptying the tank and filling it back up again is tht okay ?


Thanks

 

[-SPB-]

Sounds like a massive job your undertaking goodluck!!!

With regards to the filters, i would (if you can) try and keep your filters running in the big plastic tub your going to put your fish in, the least bacteria dying the better,the last thing you want is all the bacteria dying out, thus causing major trouble. I myself am always reluctant to turn my filters off, only when i really have to during cleaning. I don't think it would be a major problem cleaning your gravel in other water as most of the benificial bacteria are in the filters, but i suppose it wouldn't do any harm cleaning it in the tank water.

I think the shortest amount of time your fish spend outside of the tank the better as you will minimise the stress you cause the fish. Maybe try and keep the heater in the big plastic tub alswell, less stress to the fish keeping the temp up.

Hope this helps.

sambangert

 

[Jules H-T]

With regards to the filters, i would (if you can) try and keep your filters running in the big plastic tub your going to put your fish in, the least bacteria dying the better,the last thing you want is all the bacteria dying out, thus causing major trouble.

Or the fish getting ammonia poisoning in the meantime!

Why on earth you would want to leave filters dying through having no waste or oxygen to feed the bacteria, and fish sitting right next to them in a bucket getting poisoned because of having no bacteria to remove their waste, I cannot fathom!

Wise words Sambangert.