Curious about my maintenance routine

[Alreadyunderwater]

We have a 75 gallon tank started in January 2024. We have the seachem 110 filter and a heater
Currently residing -
1 elephant nose
1 red tail shark
3 Discus
2 Angel Fish
3 Silver Dollars
3 Rainbow fish
3 Neon Tetras
4 Orange Tetras
2 Silver Tetras
4 Fancy guppies
2 bristlenose peclo algae eaters
3 Nerite snails

Currently I clean the tank every Friday with an alternating deep and cursory cleans.

Week 1 I exchange 10 gallons of water vacuuming the normally dirtiest spots in the tank. I take out the filter media basket. Swap out the blue filter for a cleaned one. Replace my finishing pad filter. Rinse the carbon filter. Swap out the purigen for one I’ve bleached clean and rinse the large filter media.

Week 2 I remove everything from half the tank. Scrub the walls of the tank. Scrub all the plants and decor. Vacuum the gravel. Put it all back, Then I do the other side. I also remove the filter scrub everything inside down to the propeller. And do everything I said above with the various media. I swap in total 20-25 gallons. New water is half filtered well water and half distilled water.

Water chemistry is stable
Ph 8
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 40

It is a ton of work. Week 1 takes almost an hour and week 2 takes 2 hours. Does this sounds like more than I should have to do. About right? Anything seem off?? It’s dirty when I clean it weekly and looks great the day after.

Thanks for any tips!!

 

[Colin_T]

Lots of issues.

Normal maintenance should be a 50-75% water change and gravel clean the open areas every week. You don't have to gravel clean where live plants are, just leave a couple of inches of undisturbed substrate around them. You can move ornaments once a month and gravel clean under them. Plastic plants can be moved and cleaned once a month with ornaments.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

---------------------

Established biological filters should be cleaned once a month. You wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn outside.

If you have ammogon/ zeolite in the filter, remove it and do not replace it. Zeolite is a small white granule that absorbs ammonia from the water and stops the beneficial filter bacteria developing.

If you have carbon (black granules) in the filter, remove that and do not replace it unless you have heavy metals or chemicals in the water.

Purigen is not needed in an aquarium so replace it with a sponge and stop spending money on it.

The best type of filter media/ material is sponge. It traps lots of gunk, holds lots of good bacteria, is easy to clean, cheap to buy, lasts for years, and can be cut to size with a pair of scissors. So even if your filter doesn't normally have sponge in it, you can buy sponge for other brands of filter (eg: Aquaclear HOB) and cut it to fit. Sponges get squeezed out in a bucket of tank water once a month and the sponge is re-used.

---------------------

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

Depending on what the GH of your water is, will determine what fish you should keep.

Angelfish, discus, most tetras, most barbs, Bettas, gouramis, rasbora, Corydoras and small species of suckermouth catfish all occur in soft water (GH below 150ppm) and a pH below 7.0.

Livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), rainbowfish and goldfish occur in medium hard water with a GH around 200-250ppm and a pH above 7.0.

If you have very hard water (GH above 300ppm) then look at African Rift Lake cichlids, or use distilled or reverse osmosis water to reduce the GH and keep fishes from softer water.

---------------------

• Elephant nose normally live in groups consisting of dozens or even hundreds of individuals.
• Redtail sharks can get aggressive when they mature. Monitor the fish and if it attacks anyone, get rid of it.
• Discus and angels can sometimes argue if kept together. Monitor them as they mature and make sure nobody is picking on anyone else.
• Silver dollars eat plants and need plant matter in their diet. They also prefer to be in larger groups (10 or more).
• Rainbowfish normally need harder water than the other fishes you have. However it depends on the species. They also require plant matter in their diet and half their diet should be plant based.
• Neons, orange and silver tetras all need to be in groups consisting of 10 or more of their own species.
• The Glo tetras (pink and yellow fish) can be fin nippers and are available in a range of colours. They are all the same species and you can have some of each colour if you like but monitor the other fish for damaged fins. If the other fishes get damaged fins, remove the glo tetras.
• Guppies normally prefer harder water than most of the fish you have and their long fins often attract the unwanted attention of the glo tetras.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. I bypass a lot of the filter, testing and vacuuming parts of the maintenance routine by just removing and replacing half the tank water every few days. I keeping 11 large tanks and perform the water change on two tanks every day and then start the process over once all the tanks are done. This saves a lot of time on non water related tank work. But, not very many tank keepers are willing to devote this much time to the water part of the hobby.

10

 

[Naughts]

Are you washing and scrubbing everything because of an algae problem, or does the tank have cyanobacteria (aka blue-green algae)? Fixing these issues if present, would reduce work.
Do you use a python/hose for water changes or are you using buckets? The former makes larger water changes easier.