Cleaning Tank

[sweetykemi]

What is the best way to clean your tank?

 

[Great Lakes]

Sweety, Do you mean clean out a tank, or clean the gravel during water changes and such?

 

[Jimthefish]

On a general basis, change 20-25% of the water every two weeks. Use a gravel vac on the syphon pipe to clean the gravel when you do. Only use the water you've taken out of the tank to clean the filter - this preserves the filter bacteria. To clean the glass, use agreen nylon pot scouring pad (the kind without added soap!) Wood or rocks that need to be cleared of algae can be done in tap water.

 

[Josh Q]

I have a question as far as cleaning the algae off the wood. I have some alae growing on two of my pieces of bogwood. Can I leave it on there? My platies seem to like snacking on it and it doesn't seem to be hurting the water conditions at all. Snails love it too.
-Josh

 

[Peculiar Clown]

On the subject of gravel cleaning, I also have a question )

I have a gravel vac and use it during water changes. I notice that I get some cloudy water when I disturb the gravel, which I clean up.

I am worried that I am removing some/all of the good bacteria that my tank needs as the colour is the same as my sponges in the filter. I would welcome any advice on this. Thanks.

 

[Doohic722]

as far as I know you only clean a portion of your gravel bed at a time, being sure to document where you cleaned so that next time you go in there with the vac you can do the next section of gravel.. so on and so forth, that way you dont suck up all the bacteria in one big job.

my noob opinion

 

[Peculiar Clown]

Nice one, thanks.