Water cleaning with gravel and lot of dirt below

[manishr78]

Hi Team,

I maintain a 35-liter aquarium that houses four angelfish, one honey gourami, and one koi. I have some concerns regarding water changes. I typically perform a 30-40% water change each week; however, this week I observed that the water had become excessively cloudy, despite the filter operating effectively with appropriate biological media. Given that the gravel was heavily contaminated, I utilized my electronic pump to clean the water.
Unfortunately, due to the significant amount of debris, the water became nearly opaque during the cleaning process. Consequently, I had no choice but to remove the fish and empty the tank to clean the gravel. I did not completely clean the gravel while the fish were out of the tank.

I have a few questions: Is it advisable to remove the fish for cleaning in this manner? Alternatively, should I clean the gravel while keeping the fish in the tank? What method would you recommend as the most effective?

I took care to minimize harm to beneficial bacteria by keeping all my hardscapes covered with cloths moistened with tank water. When water was fully changed I specifically added one dose of nitrifying bacteria.

 

[AJ356]

Is 35 liters a typo, as even 35 gallons would not be enough size unless the angelfish are very young and even then 35 gallons would not be enough when they grow. The koi as well.

The usefulness of beneficial bacteria in the substrate is always overestimated. If your filter media is mature it doesn't matter about the bacteria in the substrate at all. Make sure you keep the filter media in tank water and don't turn the filter off for long
.

 

[manishr78]

Is 35 liters a typo, as even 35 gallons would not be enough size unless the angelfish are very young and even then 35 gallons would not be enough when they grow. The koi as well.

The usefulness of beneficial bacteria in the substrate is always overestimated. If your filter media is mature it doesn't matter about the bacteria in the substrate at all. Make sure you keep the filter media in tank water and don't turn the filter off for long
.

Yeah I have pretty small tank I agree and yes they are very young and koi as well. My main concern was about water change and my HOB is on 24 hours with proper bio media which I hardly wash even at the time of water cleaning or at the max I wash it with water removed from tank

 

[Lcc86]

Yeah I have pretty small tank I agree and yes they are very young and koi as well. My main concern was about water change and my HOB is on 24 hours with proper bio media which I hardly wash even at the time of water cleaning or at the max I wash it with water removed from tank

Your tank is way too small. Like way way way too small. Return all of these fish and get some nano fish or upgrade your tank yesterday. You can't keep a tank of this size clean and your fish healthy because you are massively overstocked.

That's probably why your koi is trying to escape as per your other thread, your water quality must be horrific. Sorry to be so blunt but this is borderline cruel.

 

[MaloK]

I agree, your tank is heading for a catastrophic outcome.

If you can re-home all these fishes while they are still healthy and go with smaller ones.

You will save yourself an avoidable traumatizing experience.

 

[Colin_T]

Get yourself a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link. Use it to clean the gravel every time you do a water change. Due to the number of fishes in the tank, you should be changing 75% of the water every week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

I agree with the others about tank size. Ideally you want a tank that is 4 foot long or bigger to keep angelfish. And Koi carp should be kept in large ponds because they can grow to 3 feet long or longer.