How do i clean my fish tank?

Question

I have just started to keep fish as pets.My fish tank is quite large and i do not know how to clean it.How do i go about doing it and how often do i have to change it?

Answer 1

First of all, don't listen to these people who are telling you to remove 50% or more of your water. That is wrong! Change smaller amounts and do it every week or so. somewhere between 10% and 30% depending upon what type of filtration you have, how many fish are in the tank, and long long it has been since you last did a water change. Use a gravel vacuum (siphon hose) available at fish supply store. First, wipe down the inside of your glass with a clean scrubbing pad. Don't use anything with cleaners or soap in your tank. I usually only clean the front and side glass and leave the back glass untouched as beneficial bacteria are on the glass and I don't want to remove all of them. After you clean the glass, then start siphoning through the gravel. Dig down into the gravel just a little bit and don't worry about going all the way to the bottom of it. After you've removed however much water you're taking out, then you will refill the tank with fresh water, at approximately the same temperature as your existing tank water, treated with a dechlorinator. Use the water you removed to water your plants....it is an excellent fertilizer! Do this frequently enough and you'll only need to remove minimal amounts of water each time.

Answer 2

Cleaning a fish tank is hard work. I hope you have a big pump and not a small one for such a big tank.

REMOVE your fish, fill a container with some water from the fish tank. Then wash all side of the tank. Clean the pump also and filter. Fill the tank back up with room temp water. Once that is done dump the fish and water and all back in the tank.

The easiest way to get keep a fish tank clean is too buy some bottom feeder's. They will keep it spot less. The best ones to buy are called Bacasamis. They will get pretty large. But they are the best bottom feeders to have in a fish tank. GOOD LUCK! Don't over feed them, that could be another reason why the tank is dirty :)

Answer 3

the larger the tank is the better it is to clean, the good thing about it is that you only need to to change about 25% of the water every week and vacum the gravel and that should be all other than getting an algae pad and cleaning the sides of the tank with it. Oh and to clean the filters just keep some of the water you take out from the tank in a clean bucket and just dunk them in that water but do not scrub it hard cause that brown stuff you see on it is not all dirt, but bacteria that you need in it to help you clean the tank, so just get as much of it out by just shaking it uder water and the rest is good.

Answer 4

The best way is to purchase a item called gravel vacuum to get the dirt that is laying on and under the gravel it also get the water out at the same time I would only change about 50-70% a week depending on the kind of fish you have and how big they are once the 50% of water is out of the tank replace it with new water just add a dechlorinator to the new water and you should be fine. if you keep up on your weekly or even bi-weekly changes it will be easy to clean

Answer 5

They sell these hoses in the store that can help you clean the tank it will suck out the water from the bottom of the tank and clean the gravel easy. don't take out all of thee water only take out about a 4th of the tank or less then replace the watter with clean water that has sat out and is at room temp. You will also want to buy a water conditioner to put in the water so it won't hurt the fish. I would clean it once a week.

Answer 6

First, the best thing you can do is to keep the fish in the water. So get the fish out, then put them in another water filled container.

Then pour out all the dirty water in your tank, and clean it in anyway you please (wipe the sides with tissue paper, a scrub, a sponge etc.)

Then, just refill it with water, then put the fish back in. It depends on the size of the tank to determine how often, usually small tanks takes more time to clean that big ones.

Answer 7

this would depend on soo much. if you have a filter you can expect to make a half change (half empty the water, treat new water then add) every 2 weeks or so and a full change once a month (if u havent got a filter you will be doing it weekly if not more!) i empty my tank putting the fish into a bucket (dark) and then i scrub everything in the tanks water then i treat the new water before adding all the ornaments, gravel etc and then filling with the treated water before adding the fish then carry on as normal with your routine xx