Anyone who has kept fish knows the joy of a clean, beautiful aquarium. The water is sparkling, the fish are moving around happily and the overall effect is https://sparklecommercialclean.com.au/ calming and wonderful. However, anyone who has kept fish for any length of time has also experienced the unhappy effect on fish and people alike of a dirty, unhealthy tank. How do you keep a tank clean, easily and with minimum effort?
There are a few tips that should keep your regular tank maintenance down to about an hour a month; certainly a reasonable investment in time for the beauty and delight that such a hobby provides.
Tip #1: Invest in a good quality power filter that is the right size for your tank. The right filter will remove ammonia and small debris from your tank constantly, and if you choose one with a biological filter, will also help to maintain the healthy balance of bacteria in the tank, eliminating or minimizing that greyish bacterial “bloom” that can happen after a water change.
Tip #2: Change your water, but not too much at one time, and not too often. If your power filter is operating correctly, you should do well with either a 10% water change weekly, or a 25% water change monthly. More than this and you invite a bacterial bloom due to the imbalance of bacteria in the tank. It won’t harm your fish but it is unattractive and frustrating.
Tip #3: Maintain your power filter. Change the cartridges on a regular basis. A ten minute investment in weekly changes will save you much more time down the road. The cartridge refills usually come in packs that will save you money and ensure that you always have your supplies at hand. Also, once a month, take apart the filter and clean the impeller area to prevent any build up of matter that may prevent your filter from working properly. This shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes and an old toothbrush is the perfect tool for this little task.
Tip #4. Add some bottom feeders to your tank. There are any number of gentle community tank bottom feeders that will help to keep your tank clear of algae. However, the idea that these bottom feeders will eat the detritus in your tank is not true. Nothing is going to eat the heavier pieces of fish poop that settle to the bottom. But they will help to clean up extra food that settles, if you occasionally over feed your friends. There’s a big selection, so do a little research and choose one or more species that will get along with the other fish in your tank.
Tip #5. Don’t skimp on your siphon for vacuuming the bottom of the tank. Now, if you’ve done the other steps in this article, you’ll probably only need to do this once a month, but it will still need to be done. Heavier detritus needs to be vacuumed out of the tank, there’s just nothing else for it. Don’t skimp here. A cheap siphon will frustrate you and make you put off this crucial task. It will also take longer, adding time to your monthly maintenance schedule. Get a good one, preferably the kind with a long hose so that you can siphon directly into your toilet or whatever repository you’re using. The right one will also have a filter to prevent you from accidentally siphoning out your finny friends! This task, done with the right equipment, might take you 15 minutes, depending on the size of your tank, from the moment you get the siphon out, until you’re cleaning it up and putting it away.