Tank Maintenance

[mitch70]

Just wondered what peoples maintenance routine was?
 
I currently replace approx 25% water each week doing a good vacuum at same time and also scrub the glass to remove any algae build up.
 
 
I clean the filter media by dunking in used tank water probably once every 3 months.
 
I have been told I shouldn't vacuum the gravel as much as this as I will destroy good bacteria.
 
Any thoughts? and what do others do?
 
 
 

 

[the_lock_man]

I do about 30% each week.
 
Bacteria are very good at holding onto whatever they're on, so don't worry about vacuuming too much. REmember too, that whilst there are significant populations of bacteria in the gravel, the filter is the primary place they grow.

 

[Miller2009]

I do about a 25/30% water change every Saturday vacuuming the gravel also cleaning inside glass. I rinse the filter wool under the tap and rinse the sponge in used tank water then once a month I strip in all down including head unit give it a good clean with a brush and its sorted for another month.

 

[Shaddex]

Change 100ltr from my combined 330ltr tanks weekly.
Filter cleaning about once every 6 months, or if my flow drops.

 

[Chad]

I have found that it differs from tank to tank. I've had tanks that get daily changes, weekly, every other week, monthly, and a lagoonal tank that got a water change only quarterly.
 
Currenly the 210 gallon gets every other week about 35 gallons changed out. It runs carbone, GFO, a skimmer, and cheatomorpha algae so nutrient uptake by those methods is pretty good. Water changes are more for replinishing trace elements than anything else. It has a fine grain sand substrate that I never touch. The infauna is mature and I do not want to suck it out and kill it. The worms and other critters keep it airated and clean. It's a shallow substrate not a deep sand bed so I don't worry about phosphate build up either.
 
The 6 gallon (soon to be 10) is heavily planted for such a small tank and it's imposible for me to get to the substrate to clean it and if I tried I would suck up shrimp in the process. I change out about 3 gallons a week in it and trim the plants enough to make sure shorter ones get light.
 
That's currently. Like I said, though there are basic rules of maintenance much of it is tank specific. When I had my 2.5 gallon nano tanks I changed half the water daily. All depends.

 

[levahe]

On a Wednesday I change 30l of water and do a gravel vac, and clean the glass. On Sunday I change 60l of water after having a tidy up/trimming plants. This is on a 160l tank.

I clean the Filter about every 2 weeks.

 

[frapadoodle]

Do a 30% waterchange weekly. Have sand so just hoovering poo and other detrius.
Do a filter clean in the removed tank water when flow drops.
Wipe the glass weekly.

 

[Ny82]

My 64L fry tank gets a daily 10% water change as I feed them 3-4 times a day. My 95L gets a weekly change on a sunday, 2 buckets about 25%. 
I clean my sponges gently in tank water when it starts chugging which it's started doing a lot in the fry tank.

 

[Skies]

You can vacuum your gravel as often as you wish, twice or more a day if you really wanted to, BB attaches itself firmly to all surfaces of your tank, including the gravel, and really no amount of agitation will cause it to dislodge itself. The only thing you have to worry about in regards to vacuuming is the stress on the fish, the BB will be fine, it's main colony is in your filter, as long as you don't mess too much with that, you'll be alright.
 
Every tank has it's own maintenance schedule, to determine the best schedule periodically test your water and see when the water quality starts to deteriorate, that will determine your maintenance schedule.
 
When I had my 29g setup, slightly overstocked, I was doing a 15 gallon change a day, including a vacuum, it all depends on the size of your tank and the stock that you have...

 

[fluttermoth]

It all depends on what sort of set up you're talking about!
 
For instance, I have two tanks in my bedroom.
 
One is a 4'x18"x18" that's temporary home to our rescued oscar and a couple of catfish (while I sort their 5'x2'x2'). That gets 60 or 75% water changes, every five or six days, syphoned out and refilled with a hose (apart from a few buckets for gravel cleaning), with one load of dechlor (enough for the whole tank's volume) dumped in at the beginning. That's because it's an overstocked tank with big messy, but basically tough fish.
 
The other one is a little 55l AquaNano. All that's got in it are a dozen dwarf emerald rasboras and an ancient clown plec. That gets 20 or 25%, twice a week; mostly to clean the pleccy poop off the sand. It's well planted, so the nitrate doesn't go up much, and I keep a few shells in the filter (to buffer my very soft water for the rasboras), so don't want to be changing large amounts at one time.
 
You have to find out what works best to keep the water in tip top condition for your particular circumstances

 

[dgwebster]

My 4' is very heavily stocked, so I complete two 40% changes every week. I dont touch my sand substrate (the plec rearranges that every night for me). Clean the glass every couple of months, filter when output looks like it is slowing (6 months or more). Dead plant bits/poop debris hoovered once a day (water returned straight to tank) and if I am up early enough, twice a day.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Fresh water tank maint. breaks into a few basic discrete areas.
 
Changing water
Vacuuming
Filter Media Cleaning
The rest (algae scraping, plant pruning and fertilization, etc.)
 
Each is needed for different reasons and can be performed in a number of different ways. I could write a few pages on each area and likely not cover it all I think. But some quick thoughts.
 
The bacteria is everywhere in a tank. There is more outside of the filter than many realize. The less properly and often one maintains the filter media, the more bacteria will be somewhere else. Allowing bio-media to clog is the main culprit.
 
The bacteria which is living in the substrate is not on all the substrate. It is in the top layer of the substrate, where food and oxygen are readily circulating (an exception is in UGF/RUGFs where the entire substrate is the bio-media). Moreover, the bacteria is photosensitive, so it is on the undersides of the pieces of gravel or grains of sand. Vacuuming can disturb it to some extent. Doing a deep vacuum which turns over the top layer and what is below for sure will effect the substrate based bacteria. It is one thing to vac off surface junk regularly vs doing deep vacs all the time. The latter are usually best done in sections over a few weeks.
 
Changing water is pretty much a good thing. There are a few instances where it should be put on hold- for ex: fish are in the process of spawning- don't interupt it. You ran out of the required dechlor, go get and then do the water change. I am still waiting for a post claiming fish died from the water being too clean (note this is not the same as being too pure). But the key to changing water only about what comes out, its as much or more about what goes back in. In many cases the new water is restoring things that have been used up by the tank and inhabitants. So doing weekly changes for a tank with average stocking is a decent changing guideline, imo. As tcamos noted, some tanks can go a bit longer and others not that long. Many higher tech planted tanks need the nutrients reset every few days.
 
Filter maint. means not only insuring good flow, it means getting out the trapped solid wastes, especially the organic ones. Even if they don't completely glog up the filter flow, the will eventually degrade into small enough particles to exit the fine media and go back into the water column.
 
I have kept 16-18 tanks for over 10 years now. For the most part I have changed the water and cleaned the filter media almost every single week. I have vacuumed some tanks (bare bottom ones) every week and some with plants a few times a year and with heavy planting almost never. This year has been an exception due to non-fish issues until very recently. Even so I would say my record on weekly maint. is over 90% for sure. That is a lot of time and effort- trust me when I say I would not have spent that time if I did not think is was beneficial. Oh yes- big tanks are more forgiving of missed maint. than small ones, lightly stocked ones overly heavily stocked ones as well
 
Oops, I got long winded again. Sorry, but I hope it helped some.

 

[Noahsfish]

When most people start out they're told about 25-30% weekly, in my opinion smaller amounts more frequently is a better option. For example on some tanks I do 10% daily, and on others I do 20% every 2-3 days.

 

[stanleo]

I do 30% WC every week and clean the glass at this time. I use 1/2 dechloinated tap and half r/o because my tap pH is 8 and I want my tank at 6.4.
 
I thoroughly clean the filters once a month and put new floss in one of the compartments so tht each compartment gets changed every two months. There are four sponges that never get changes, just rinsed thoroughly once a month.
 
That's my 29gl comm FW
 
My 10gl shrimp tank gets 20% weekly with the same mix and when I had a sponge filter in there I rinsed it in tank water at water changes. I will be rinsing the HOB filter once a month and changing the carbon cartridge every 3 months. I have cut up pieces of the sponge in the filter that I don't plan on taking out any time soon. I only clean the front glass panel as the shrimp LOVE to eat the algae on the other glass panels.
 
My 55gl reef tank gets 25% changes every week and the glass scrubbed every other day, skimmer emptied and cleaned daily, equipment and filters cleaned monthly and am planning on changing the floss and carbon in one filter every 3 months. This is the only tank that I vacuum the sand in because its a new system basically and I am battling diatoms. Once they are under control, I don't plan on vacuuming the sand in this one either.
 
I keep track of everything because I have 4 filters so every week I am cleaning one filter. This week was SW filter #2 and next week will be the first time for shrimp tank.