Tank cleaning

[jbjnc63]

I just cleaned out all my tanks last night. In addition to my 29 gal I have a 2 gal betta tank and a 5 gal. The 2 and 5 were pains in the you know what. I had to keep adding water to the tank to allow for all the siphoning I was having to do. Both tanks had a lot of crap on the bottom. Some may be from over feeding which I tend to correct. The 29 wasn't as bad, probably cause the cories are cleaning up a bit. The question is this though. How much vacuuming should I do. It doesn't seem to matter how much you vacuum there is still some more. Also, how do you handle rock formatins and caves. I know there has to be some crap in there but don't want to disturb the scene. I pretty much just vacuumed around everything. Any helpful hints or info would be great.

 

[Mollymomma]

I vac my 55gal. every week. 1/2 of the tank one week the other half the following week. This way I don't kill off every thing good in the tank. When I do the weeks vac I really dig pretty deep into the gravel in the open area's, go a little easier around the live plants ( so ya don't damage the root system) and if I have a cave on the side I'm cleaning I will pick it up and vac under it. But only 1/2 a tank at a time. It has worked pretty good for me & I'm sure others will give their thoughts on the matter too.

On my betta tanks ( I have 2 1gallon tanks) I just do full water changes with aged treated water. It's just easier and I have never had any problems doing it this way.

Hope this helps
Take care

 

[smb]

I don't know anything about bettas at all, so can't comment on that aspect of it, but per your question of how often- I do 2 water changes a week because I have a bigger and messier CA cichlid with a few Mbunas in there.

I do a 5-10% water change or even smaller, just enough to clean the gravel and get the food and waste and then on the weekend I'll do a 50% water change.

 

[pondfreak4365]

I clean my tanks every week, siphoning from the bottom until I get most of the waste. Sometimes I do siphon too much, but so far no ill effects that I can see or measure. I usually reserve water from my 2 small (2 gallon) baby tanks before I stir it up, about 50%, then net up the babies, transfer to the reserved water, rinse the gravel and reassemble the tank. A lot of work, but too small to siphon

 

[jbjnc63]

I can see the vacuuming the tank half at a time, that is a good idea. I have a couple of slat caves using several pieces of slat, and I know some people have massive formations that take hours to build. Surely you don't move those to vacuum. I'm assuming that nothing falls inside the caves and hopefully since thats where the fish hang out alot, especially the cories that they eat any food that drifts in. The don't crap in their cave do they? I can't believe you completey break down the 2 gal every week. That is a lot of work. Thanks for the input guys. Good info. Anymore suggestions?

 

[CFC]

When I do the weeks vac I really dig pretty deep into the gravel in the open area's,

When vacuming a tank it is best to not dig in any deeper than 1" into the substrate.Within the substrate are both aerobic and anerobic (spellings) bacteria colonies both of which have there own jobs to do,the anerobic bacteria live deeper in the gravel where it is denser and recieves less oxygen,these bacteria help by converting some of the nitrate in the tank into harmless nitrogen but mixing them with oxygen that is present in the aquarium kills the colonies off.

 

[CFC]

I usually reserve water from my 2 small (2 gallon) baby tanks before I stir it up, about 50%, then net up the babies, transfer to the reserved water, rinse the gravel and reassemble the tank.

If the tank is only for the growing of fry then why do you have substrate in there? Fry and hospital tanks are best left bare bottomed so that they are easier to clean.

 

[totalbolshevik]

Don't mean to sound dumb but what's aerobic and anerobic sounds like something you do at the health club

 

[nightlife20]

also not meanin to sound dumb (god u so know im gonna ask a thick question)

but do u actualy leave the fish in the tank whist u do the gravel? (waites for the cat calls of 'jesus how thick are u!!!')


see atm i have no fish what so ever in me tank this is why im askin... i mean do u have to take the fish out an stick em in a bucket? or do u leave em in whilst u do water changes an gravel cleaning?


(think im better off not havin any i just dont know where to start)

fish tank for sale )

 

[MAM]

for the two smaller tanks, esp. the 2 gal betta tank, try using a turkey baster to suck up the gunk at the bottom. it doesn't remove near as much water that way. you could do for the five too, but that could take awhile, i use a syphon pump style vac on my five and jsut vac til only 1/2 the water is gone, add more and then do another round.


nightlife, i leave mine in. you just have to be careful not to suck out too much water that they hav nowhere to go. you also ahve to be careful if you have cats for fish (ie. overly curious little stinkers), like my mollies, who like to come right up the vac tube and check it out, and go down to the gravel where the suction is, and get themselves sucked into the tube (stupid little black molly....... don't worry, she's fine, caught it quickly and stopped the suction )


cfc, i agree on the substrate less baby tank. my baby mollies make such a mess between poo and uneaten food. i go in every evening and using my famous turkey baster, suck up the stuff on the bottom, so quick and easy, and no fry are harmed in the process.

 

[lizard]

Don't mean to sound dumb but what's aerobic and anerobic sounds like something you do at the health club

You don't sound dumb for asking for word definitions

Aerobic bacteria are those that grow in the presence of oxygen. Some aerobic bacteria are strict anaerobes and *must* have oxygen to survive. Other can survive without oxygen but prefer to have oxygen.

Anaerobic bacteria are those that grow in an oxygen-free environment. Some anaerobic bacteria can survive with oxygen present, other anaerobic bacter will die when exposed to oxygen.

There are different names for the different types of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria - the ones that can live without oxygen but don't like to, the ones that can't live with oxygen, etc. Facultative anaerobes are bacteria that prefer an oxygenated environment but can grow in an oxygen-free environment.

We just finished studying this stuff in Microbiology If you want any more info, just holler!

Hope this helped some people out!

Pamela
aka Lizard

 

[Juggernaut22988]

For some reason, my tropical tank seems to maintain itself


I do serious water changes once a month (with syphoning)