General Tank Maintenance

[Ruthc1985]

I am interested to see what peoples cleaning regimes are.....previously I think I went onto overdrive with cleaning, and am trying to decide on a good schedule for cleaning

1)how much of a water change and how often?

2) gravel washing - how much and how often?

3) filter cleaning - how often?

 

[Malawi MaD]

All depends on your tank size, what species you keep and what filtration your using etc..

I do 45% weekly water changes on both my tanks, give the sand/gravel a little mix around when Im doing the water change (remember to turn off the filter if you have sand) Usually clean my filters every 3 to 6 months (externals). If your using internal filters id clean them ever 2 weeks or so, You could give it a slight rinse every week in a bucket of water from the tank just to remove the thickest of the dirt

 

[The Taffy Apple]

+1....
A weekly change of 40% of my tank volume (sand substrate), external filter taken apart and cleaned every 8-12 weeks, small internal filter used to help with tannis is squeezed weekly (floss) and changed monthly, coral gravel changed every year.

Terry.

 

[Ruthc1985]

I used to clean my filter too much I think, so am aiming to only do it when the flow rate starts to suffer. Thinking 20% water changes weekly, and washing alternative halves of the tank gravel weekly maybe?

 

[ShinySideUp]

Two tanks both with external filters.

120 litre tank has gravel but only small fish so vacuum gravel rarely at the moment (totally cleaned just eight weeks ago so there is nothing much to clean).

240 litre tank has sand. I have started on a program of taking a section of the tank and then using a hosepipe, I start to siphon the water into a large bucket outside near the drain. Once the water is running strongly I start to dip the end of the hose into the sand. This obviously sucks up the sand [BEWARE BURIED KULHI LOACHES (no, I haven't sucked any up)], takes it through the hose and into the bucket . The bucket can fill up and overflow into the drain leaving the sand in the bottom. Every now and again I stop, stir up the water and pour off the detritus then carry on. After I've finished, I use a plastic beaker to put the sand back into the tank at the back so the fish can spend their days moving it to the front again!! . This method cleans the sand, removes any methane bubbles and generally tarts things up.

In both tanks I change about 35% of my water each week with an extra change midweek to the large tank ('cos I have large fish in it) of about 15%.

I used to clean my filters every couple of weeks but realised quite quickly that I was wasting my time so I intend to leave them until the flow drops off a little before interfering or every six weeks or so whichever is the sooner.

I was reading about Hamburger Mattenfilter (See Here) and learned that bacteria perform better with a slower flowrate. The Mattenfilter are not changed or cleaned for up to two years and are expected to go brown as that is the bacteria so I thought why am I cleaning my filter material so often, so I stopped. So far, so good.

 

[dbanner]

I do a sand vac to take out all the mess/waste at the bottom of my tank/s first then when it's all i let the water drain out until iv taken out around 40% of the water. As its draining I give the inside and outside of the tank glass a quick wipe over with the magnetic glass cleaner. Then refill the tank with dechlorinated water (I use seachem prime) I do this this weekly...

I clean my filters around once every 3 months (all are external filters). I used to clean them out once every few weeks but I heard doing it too often can be bad.

I have a 5 foot 450 litre tank with black sand and running 2 external tetratec ex1200 filters and is home to an Ornate Bichir and a Delhezi Bichir....

A 4 foot 260 litre with Argos play sand running an external fluval 406 filter home to 2 rainbow snakeheads..

And a 4 foot 150 litre with sand (not sure which kind as I was given it out of a friends tank) an external fluval 205 filter home to 2 Mississippi map turtles.

I always do a sand vac and water change of 40% weekly