Keeping a Tank Clean for Longer

[Marty]

Besides doing water changes, srubbing sides etc. (oh, and filters).

Anyone got any ideas? I've heard about, and looked at UV Sterilisers, which seem to be most common for salt water tanks - mine is fresh water. They look to be a good investment.

I'm trying to find some things like this that aren't to expensive, so my tank will stay clean longer. Being quite new to fish keeping I don't know much, so please bear with me

Cheers,
Marty.

P.s. Don't get the impression that I intend to reject my poor fishies... I would never do that

Just curious to see if there is anything worth looking at.

 

[marks69]

only thing i could suggest is live plants, but the also require work.i wouldn't bother with the uv.
gl
mark

 

[Bol]

Plants would definitely help.

They can mean a lot of work, if you go all out with a high-light, high-tech rig. But, if you get some fairly tough, low-light, low-maintenance plants (like anubias, hornwort, hygrophilia, java fern, etc.), you can probably get good growth without any special stuff (substrate, extra lighting, fertilizers, etc). Just plant 'em and walk away, basically. You might need to prune some of them a bit occasionally.

 

[Marty]

Thanks. I was actually planning on getting some fake plants until I heard that

I also heard that snails are good. What are they like in a tank with bettas??

As far as hardware goes, there is a stack of stuff out there, and I don't even know what it does

My main concern is that I have a spawning setup for bettas which I plan to use before long, and I don't want to clean it while the eggs are laid, and while the fry are still young. I thought a UV steriliser would work great, but I know lots of people don't like them, and I was wondering if they could be harmful to my fry...

Thanks.