Step-by-step Guide To Weekly Maintenance

[Amdonim]

The more hygienic way is to purchase a self-starter kit

Ten minutes ago I had was vacuuming my tank and I wasn't paying attention and got a mouth full of water.....I might be looking into one of these kits.

 

[Queen Bee]

I am new to the hobby. It's been about a month. 2 days ago I lost a red coral platy and a guppy. I checked the ammonia level and it was quite high. It was at 2. I've been changing the water once a week and using the waste control, cycle, and water conditioner. I changed the water in the tank yesterday (20 %) Today I checked the ammonia level and it was reading quite high again. It is at a 1.

I don't understand what I may or may not be doing that is causing this. I have no real plants in the aquarium. It is a 10 gallon and I have 2 red coral platy, 4 male guppy, 1 female guppy, and a snail. I use the vacuum to get all the stuff in the rocks.

Don't want to lose anymore fish. Any ideas??

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's because the tank isn't cycled, if you read the link in my sig 'whats cycling' it will explain more to you.

best bet is to start up your own topic in the new to the hobby forum and more people will chip in, if you tag your post onto the end of one of the pinned topics like this it can get missed.

 

[Wrams]

Great Thread, Thanks Buddy!!

The more hygienic way is to purchase a self-starter kit

Ten minutes ago I had was vacuuming my tank and I wasn't paying attention and got a mouth full of water.....I might be looking into one of these kits.

I have 2 vacs the second is awsome lifts all the waste from the gravel..Get one you won't regret it.

 

[MattM1124]

Tank Maintenance


[*]Vaccing. You can now gravel vac. This will do two things. One, it will clean the gravel of fish waste, uneaten fish food, and other nasties; two, it will remove a portion of your water. Here's how gravel vaccing works:

• Place a bucket directly below your tank.
• Insert the larger end into the tank until it reaches the bottom; you'll have to keep a hand on this end at all times.
• Get a siphon started in one of two ways. Here is the less hygienic way: Suck on the smaller end until water just passes the highest point of the vac tube (you can clasp your hands around the tube if you don't want to directly touch the tube with your mouth). Quickly put the end into the bucket. The more hygienic way is to purchase a self-starter kit. Just put it in the tank and fill the cylinder with water..lift it up and let it start to drain then dip it back in the water and you should have a suction after that. Either way you chose, water will begin flowing from the tank to the bucket without you doing any work. Gravitational potential energy does it for you!
• Move the larger end that is still in the tank back and forth through the gravel. Lighter particles such as poo and uneaten food (a sign of over-feeding!) will be sucked into the vac, leaving the heavier gravel behind. Be careful of bottom dwellers such as cories; you may find it helpful to keep a ready hand by the smaller end of the tube to stop the flow of the siphon incase a fish gets sucked up accidentally. But if you are careful, this should never happen.
• Once about 20 to 25% of the tank water has been removed, stop the siphon by raising the larger end above the now lower water line.

Thanks to wuvmybetta for the self-starting kit suggestion and Irf for the possibility of metals in hot water notice.

I have fake plants in my tank. Would it be best to remove my plants before using the gravel vacuum? Or should I just vacuum around the plants? Also should the gravel be vacummed every week?

 

[Corleone]

You can just leave them in. They might get uprooted, particularly short ones, but they're easy to replant. Do that before refilling the tank, it's easier to do most tasks inside the tank while the water level is lowered.

Gravel should be vacuumed as often as water changes are done - generally, that's weekly. With a big tank, it can be tough to clean all of it in a single water change - I usually do one half of my 55 gallon with each water change.

 

[spikegomez]

That is a great ideas and procedures for maintaining my tank... and yeah a great process of water maintaining... thanks for that...


_________________
A cool idea from Busby SEO Test

 

[Jimbo1984]

Hi. We have mixer taps so I match the temperature by hand testing the water coming out of the tap against some old tank water in a measuring jug. I've never used the kettle method.

Is boiler heated water a problem?

 

[tanny]

thanks for this, this really helps. hope lot's of newbies read it like me.

tanny

 

[stonedcamel]

ok, am i hearing this right? i do approx 10% water change every week, this is because my tank is 260l and i have 2no 15l buckets which i leave the water in over night with dechlorinator in also i might add... i use a gravel vac and emtpy the water into another 10l bucket.

if im reading right, is it possible to clean 25% of the water from the tank and then fill it back up with water from tap straight away, with dechlorinator in? this would save alot of buckets left standing in my lounge. or should i keep doing what i was doing previous?

 

[hippie-chick]

very informative...thank you and i gotta say them gravel vacs are fantastic the amount of debris they remove is mad...

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok, am i hearing this right? i do approx 10% water change every week, this is because my tank is 260l and i have 2no 15l buckets which i leave the water in over night with dechlorinator in also i might add... i use a gravel vac and emtpy the water into another 10l bucket.

if im reading right, is it possible to clean 25% of the water from the tank and then fill it back up with water from tap straight away, with dechlorinator in? this would save alot of buckets left standing in my lounge. or should i keep doing what i was doing previous?

no need to have buckets hanging round your house at all, add dechlor to the tank and fill with water from the tap.

 

[stonedcamel]

so i should change my water changes from 10% to 20% and miss wiggle, you are saying just add the declhorinator, add tap water and then add straight to the tank? no leaving it to wait

 

[Miss Wiggle]

correct

 

[stonedcamel]

oh fantastic, thankyou