I thought i'd start this topic and use it so everyone can read it if they have the same problem or if they would just read to get advice.
Just to let everyone know, I'm not a pro on fish keeping but I have done it for 7/8 months now
Cleaning Your Aquarium
Performing Your Weekly 10-15% Water Change
Equipment Needed: Bucket, siphon, Declorinator, Tap water Algae Scrub, Gravel Cleaner and Algae Magnet.
Method:
Remember: The better care you provide for your tank, the healthier your fish will be, the nicer your tank will look and the easier your tank will be to care for in the future
1. When you clean your aquarium, you should just remove (10-15%) of the water and replace it with fresh, dechlorinated tap water. Bowls and vases require larger water changes more often. While you are doing this, you should use your siphon to suck up some of the gunk that collects in the gravel and decorations. If you have an under gravel filter, it is very important to clean the gravel when you do your weekly water changes, this will prevent detritus and other decaying organic matter.
2. If you have algae growing on the surface of the tank or ornaments, you should get an algae scraper of some sort and scrub the glass before removing water. Many varieties of algae scrapers or scrubbers are available at your local pet store. For additional cleanliness, you could get algae eating catfish and/or scavengers to pick up some of this work for you, however, having catfish in the tank does NOT mean that you don't need to clean.
3. Once you have siphoned 10-15% of the water from your tank, you will need to fill it again. The easiest and neatest way to do this, is to use a siphon to siphon water from a bucket into the tank. This will tend to reduce spilling and messing up the gravel and decorations. Use a bucket and fill it with water. The water should be close to the temperature of the tank water. Place the bucket somewhere higher than the top of the fish tank, and get your siphon going again and in just a couple of minutes, you should have a full tank. Be sure to watch the siphon, in case the hose gets bumped out of the tank, or if there is enough water in your bucket to overfill the tank. Remember, there needs to be some space between the top of the water and the aquarium cover, because your fish rely on oxygen exchange at the surface of the water in order to be able to breathe.
Remember, cleaning your tank is easy. Scrub for algae, remove 10-15% of the water while cleaning the gravel and top off the tank with dechlorinated water.
----------------------------------------------------------
The way I do it:
I have a 3 foot long tank and I do 20% water change every 3-4 weeks. Now when I start emptying the water into an empty bucket. I use a clean, empty yoghurt pot (the medium size from a local market -I make sure that I have cleaned it well!)
I then empty 10% of the water from my tank and throw it down the gutter in my backyard. Once I have emptyied 10/15% of the tank water, I take out my filter, put it into my bucket full of tank water and put it apart in my kitchen sink. I then wash the sponges inside the filter under the tap rubbing the two together to get out all the dirt. I go back to my tank and get a algae scrub and scrub my tank glass walls making sure the glass does not crack or break by having a stone/pebble getting stuck in the sponge. I sometimes have floating plants pop out of the gravel so I insert them back in putting a couple of pebbels around them so they dont float up again. I then get a gravel cleaner and clean the gravel.
Now I put my filter back into the tank (once I put it back together making sure the plug does not go in any water!!! and put it in the bucket so it does not drip all over the carpets) and then I start to take out an additional 7/10% of tank water and do the same by emptying it out. I then finally add clean new fresh water from the tap. about 20% or alittle bit more making sure no fish jump out in the process. Before adding the fresh clean water I use declorinator (about 1 cap full per bucket) and then slowly put it into the tank.
Once I have done all this the tank water will start to become clear after 5-10 mins or so.
FInally I now use this algae magent (one is inside the tank and the other outside attchec by a thread) and clean all the glass on the tank.
I hope this is all right and that you guys can give me and everyone else some great advice and tips on how you clean your tank and do water change.
Hopefully tomorrow I will go onto a differnet topic and update this thread if its ok with the moderaters.
I hope you all read on how I do water changes (sorry if its long and boring but just typing how I do it lol) and hope to get rates and comments!
Just to let everyone know, I'm not a pro on fish keeping but I have done it for 7/8 months now
Cleaning Your Aquarium
Performing Your Weekly 10-15% Water Change
Equipment Needed: Bucket, siphon, Declorinator, Tap water Algae Scrub, Gravel Cleaner and Algae Magnet.
Method:
Remember: The better care you provide for your tank, the healthier your fish will be, the nicer your tank will look and the easier your tank will be to care for in the future
1. When you clean your aquarium, you should just remove (10-15%) of the water and replace it with fresh, dechlorinated tap water. Bowls and vases require larger water changes more often. While you are doing this, you should use your siphon to suck up some of the gunk that collects in the gravel and decorations. If you have an under gravel filter, it is very important to clean the gravel when you do your weekly water changes, this will prevent detritus and other decaying organic matter.
2. If you have algae growing on the surface of the tank or ornaments, you should get an algae scraper of some sort and scrub the glass before removing water. Many varieties of algae scrapers or scrubbers are available at your local pet store. For additional cleanliness, you could get algae eating catfish and/or scavengers to pick up some of this work for you, however, having catfish in the tank does NOT mean that you don't need to clean.
3. Once you have siphoned 10-15% of the water from your tank, you will need to fill it again. The easiest and neatest way to do this, is to use a siphon to siphon water from a bucket into the tank. This will tend to reduce spilling and messing up the gravel and decorations. Use a bucket and fill it with water. The water should be close to the temperature of the tank water. Place the bucket somewhere higher than the top of the fish tank, and get your siphon going again and in just a couple of minutes, you should have a full tank. Be sure to watch the siphon, in case the hose gets bumped out of the tank, or if there is enough water in your bucket to overfill the tank. Remember, there needs to be some space between the top of the water and the aquarium cover, because your fish rely on oxygen exchange at the surface of the water in order to be able to breathe.
Remember, cleaning your tank is easy. Scrub for algae, remove 10-15% of the water while cleaning the gravel and top off the tank with dechlorinated water.
----------------------------------------------------------
The way I do it:
I have a 3 foot long tank and I do 20% water change every 3-4 weeks. Now when I start emptying the water into an empty bucket. I use a clean, empty yoghurt pot (the medium size from a local market -I make sure that I have cleaned it well!)
I then empty 10% of the water from my tank and throw it down the gutter in my backyard. Once I have emptyied 10/15% of the tank water, I take out my filter, put it into my bucket full of tank water and put it apart in my kitchen sink. I then wash the sponges inside the filter under the tap rubbing the two together to get out all the dirt. I go back to my tank and get a algae scrub and scrub my tank glass walls making sure the glass does not crack or break by having a stone/pebble getting stuck in the sponge. I sometimes have floating plants pop out of the gravel so I insert them back in putting a couple of pebbels around them so they dont float up again. I then get a gravel cleaner and clean the gravel.
Now I put my filter back into the tank (once I put it back together making sure the plug does not go in any water!!! and put it in the bucket so it does not drip all over the carpets) and then I start to take out an additional 7/10% of tank water and do the same by emptying it out. I then finally add clean new fresh water from the tap. about 20% or alittle bit more making sure no fish jump out in the process. Before adding the fresh clean water I use declorinator (about 1 cap full per bucket) and then slowly put it into the tank.
Once I have done all this the tank water will start to become clear after 5-10 mins or so.
FInally I now use this algae magent (one is inside the tank and the other outside attchec by a thread) and clean all the glass on the tank.
I hope this is all right and that you guys can give me and everyone else some great advice and tips on how you clean your tank and do water change.
Hopefully tomorrow I will go onto a differnet topic and update this thread if its ok with the moderaters.
I hope you all read on how I do water changes (sorry if its long and boring but just typing how I do it lol) and hope to get rates and comments!
