How Do You Clean Your Aquarium?

[N30n T3tr4]

There are some magnificent looking aquariums out there, some of which I could imagine cost a few $$$$ to setup and maintain. That said, although I'm just a beginner at tropical fish keeping I would defiantly love to get more involved in it.

I'm curious to know how exactly people go about cleaning their tanks when they are half full of plants, rocks and loads of other stuff. Do you need to take all that stuff out when changing the water? If not, how do you get any excess food and so on that may of drifted behind the plants, rocks etc? Is that where the under gravel filters come in?

How do you do it?

 

[nukeonekitty]

Gravel vac what you can, shake plants lightly and I keep a power head over my rock to prevent a lot of stuff from getting into the rock work.

 

[leafs]

Depending on how heavily the tank is planted, you shouldn't have to gravel vac since the plants use the waste. If theres spots where there isn't plants, then you can vac it. When it comes to rocks or wood, you can vac under them once and a while.

 

[AquaDreams]

A gravel vac is good for cleaning the gravel and helps keep the water clean. I wouldn't advise using it with the plants in the water whether they be real or fake. So if you want a gravel vac I advise that you remove ALL the plants first. Second remove a few gallons of water and replace it with clean water. (dont forget to condition the clean water that you put in...tap water can kill your fish)...so use a good water conditioning agent. Let the filter run it through a about 30 min. then add your plants and fish back in the water. (It's best to take the fish out when you clean the tank so you dont stress them out while cleaning the tank). ***Make sure you don't replace ALL the old water with new clean water because the fish will die...they need some of they're old water to swim in....it's just a rule so remember that.***
Hope this helps you out. It's not as hard as it seems just remember all the guidlines and you should have a nice clean tank with healthy little fishies!

 

[leafs]

A gravel vac is good for cleaning the gravel and helps keep the water clean. I wouldn't advise using it with the plants in the water whether they be real or fake. So if you want a gravel vac I advise that you remove ALL the plants first. Second remove a few gallons of water and replace it with clean water. (dont forget to condition the clean water that you put in...tap water can kill your fish)...so use a good water conditioning agent. Let the filter run it through a about 30 min. then add your plants and fish back in the water. (It's best to take the fish out when you clean the tank so you dont stress them out while cleaning the tank). ***Make sure you don't replace ALL the old water with new clean water because the fish will die...they need some of they're old water to swim in....it's just a rule so remember that.***
Hope this helps you out. It's not as hard as it seems just remember all the guidlines and you should have a nice clean tank with healthy little fishies!

Bad advise. Why would I take out all my real plants that have rooted in the substrate and disturb everything? Secondly, theres no need to take out the fish, it would stress them out more than leaving them in when you vac. Maybe you should do more research before giving people advise.

 

[AquaDreams]

I breed fish for a living. It's just my opinions on what they could do, whether you agree with it or not.
Yes you can leave the the fish in...but it's safer to take them out. --(AGAIN MY OPINION). If I am correct he asked " What do YOU do?" I'm telling him what I do with MY tank...which is exactly what he asked for.
As for the real plants in the tank...it really is not nessesary to use a gravel vac with them...I was simply giving him advice on what he could do if he still wanted to buy one while having the plants at the same time...however using a gravel vac would'nt be all that nessesary because the plants use the waste...yet and still the gravel vac is still a good tool to use for cleaning.

 

[leafs]

I breed fish for a living I think I would know. It's just my opinions on what they could do, whether you agree with it or not.
Yes you can leave the the fish in...but it's safer to take them out. --(AGAIN MY OPINION). As for the real plants in the tank...it really is not nessesary to use a gravel vac with them...I was simply giving her advice on what she could do if she still wanted to buy one while having the plants at the same time...however using a gravel vac would'nt be all that nessesary because the plants use the waste...it's still a good tool to use for cleaning.

Well then you should know better if you breed fish for a living. If you asked the majority of the people on this forum, I'm pretty sure most people would NOT take the fish out. Why would it be safer to take the fish out? What's the logic behind that?

 

[AquaDreams]

My employee's have killed several fish using the gravel vac. Taking the fish out is just a solution I use for my guys. I didn't ask for your opinion. If you don't agree with it then so be it because I didn't ask you. He asked for MY opinion so I gave it to him. You can give him your opinion. However I don't feel it was nessasary for use to judge mine because I never judged yours.

 

[jordan.m]

A gravel vac is good for cleaning the gravel and helps keep the water clean. I wouldn't advise using it with the plants in the water whether they be real or fake. So if you want a gravel vac I advise that you remove ALL the plants first. Second remove a few gallons of water and replace it with clean water. (dont forget to condition the clean water that you put in...tap water can kill your fish)...so use a good water conditioning agent. Let the filter run it through a about 30 min. then add your plants and fish back in the water. (It's best to take the fish out when you clean the tank so you dont stress them out while cleaning the tank). ***Make sure you don't replace ALL the old water with new clean water because the fish will die...they need some of they're old water to swim in....it's just a rule so remember that.***
Hope this helps you out. It's not as hard as it seems just remember all the guidlines and you should have a nice clean tank with healthy little fishies!

Bad advise. Why would I take out all my real plants that have rooted in the substrate and disturb everything? Secondly, theres no need to take out the fish, it would stress them out more than leaving them in when you vac. Maybe you should do more research before giving people advise.

I agree with you whole-heartedly. Ripping out all of my rooted plants just for the sake of using a gravel vacuum does not seem like a good idea!

Jordan

 

[leafs]

My employee's have killed several fish using the gravel vac. Taking the fish out is just a solution I use for my guys. I didn't ask for your opinion. If you don't agree with it then so be it because I didn't ask you. He asked for MY opinion so I gave it to him. You can give him your opinion. However I don't feel it was nessasary for use to judge mine because I never judged yours.

You didn't ask me for my opinion, but when I hear bad advise, I speak up. Maybe you should teach your employees how to use a vac properly. Theres a lot of people that use this forum and by giving advise like you have, you put fish at risk. I'm done with you.

 

[AquaDreams]

I completely understand what you both mean...the advice was given in the case that he wanted the gravel vac and the plants. It's no problem for my tanks because ours only consist of a few plants...we don't make ours a jungle...exactly because of the cleaning factor. Having a business to run we try to keep things very simple and easy.

 

[doresy]

My employee's have killed several fish using the gravel vac. Taking the fish out is just a solution I use for my guys. I didn't ask for your opinion. If you don't agree with it then so be it because I didn't ask you. He asked for MY opinion so I gave it to him. You can give him your opinion. However I don't feel it was nessasary for use to judge mine because I never judged yours.

Personally, people killing fish with a gravel vac shouldn't be working with fish.......but to quote you, that's only MY opinion

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

ok have a look at some of the tanks in the planted section, how on gods earth do you think they take out all those plants and get them backin each and every time you do a water change, for breeding fish for a living you dont know alot now go look at some of cfcs fish where would he put them when he done a water change? sorry but your wrong.

 

[N30n T3tr4]

Sorry for starting an argument guys. I thought everyone would do it a similar way but have a couple of different small techniques they use which help in the process.

Although I am just a newbie, I honestly don't see any point myself in taking all the fish out as well as plants etc. Although AquaDreams may find this the best way to do it, I can completely understand why others don't agree with it; and I certainly wont be doing it that way either.

If anyone else has any other techniques, tips/tricks they wish to share, it would be good to hear them, especially from a newbie point of view. That said, it sounds like if there are lots of plants in the tank, then a gravel vac (which I do have and use most times when I change water) shouldn't need to be used all that much except for places where there are no plants etc, underneath rocks, wood and so on.

Thanks a lot for the advice.

 

[TerraDreamer]

First off, don't remove your fish. This is not a good idea and should not have been suggested. The average person (at least in my neck of the woods) has enough brains to not vacuum up fish. When I clean my tank, I remove large decorative rocks and bogwood to make cleaning easier. I use a simple tube with a gravel attachment and carefully clean the gravel. I use fake plants but leave them where they are and clean up next to them. I can effectively clean my gravel with about a three gallon water exchange in a 29 gallon tank. I then clean my glass of algae if required, and then replace my rocks and bogwood. I then refill, and then replace filter media if needed a few hours later after the floating debris have been collected. Takes me 30 minutes, but obviously tank size determines how long the task takes.