how to maintain the aquarium?

Answer 1

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The best formula for successful fish keeping is to keep a regular maintenance schedule. This must be habitual, either weekly or bi-weekly. Wastes accumulate continuously. Remove as much as possible at every cleaning. At the same time remove some old water and replace with dechlorinated tap water.

Weekly maintenance includes algae removal from inside glass surfaces. Use an approved algae cleaning pad so as not to scratch the glass. Clean the gravel using a properly sized Hagen Gravel Cleaner or Multi-Vac. Drain about 10% - 20% of the water. Unplug all electrical accessories before placing hands in the aquarium or prior to removing water. NEVER take out all the water and clean the entire tank; the biological filtration will be destroyed. Be sure to replace any water you remove with properly conditioned and dechlorinated water. Replacement water should be the same temperature as the aquarium. Drastic temperature change causes stress and disease.

Filter media should be checked and regularly changed as required. Leave some old media in the filter to promote bacterial population of the new media. Don't change both foam and charcoal insert at the same time. It is much better to change them on alternating weeks, rather than putting all new media in the filter. Changing too many things at once may result in having to biologically restart the aquarium. After the water change and filter media have been changed, add the weekly dosage of Cycle to the filter intake or simply add to the aquarium.

When reconnecting electrical items, check that the temperature is correct. It is a good idea to check temperature regularly to be sure that the heater has been supplying consistent heat to the aquarium. It is wise to place your hand on the glass every time you check the thermometer. This will give you a "feel" for the temperature as well.

Be sure all other electrical items are working properly.

Answer 2

Once the aquarium is really mature after months, and you have the right amount of fish and a good bateria colony in your filters the whole system becomes a biosystem that requires less maintainance. I never replace more than 20% of the water every few weeks.
Siphon out the dross drawer. I even let the algae grow on the rocks and rear glass. Wood is a good biosystem. Jet the water from the hose into a 30lt and let it stand 24 hours and the chlorine evaporates as it is unstable in water.

Answer 3

Perform regular cleanings:

I recommend changing 20% of your aquarium water once per week (best) or at least 25%+ once per month (minimum). With good filtration and plants (live rock in marine aquaria), you often can go longer than once per week. Use a de-chlorinator such as Start Right while refilling your aquarium if tap water is used.
For cleaning your aquarium (freshwater or saltwater) a Gravel Vacuum attached to a siphon or re-circulating filter works best. If you have a planted aquarium, I recommend #00 sand (3-5 cm) mixed with laterite or conditioned soil with #3 gravel (2-3 cm) on top. You should NOT vacuum the sand, as this will tend to be sucked all the way thru the vacuum, and this will also disturb the natural aerobic and anaerobic filtration going on in the substrate being performed by the bacteria and plant roots.

Proper Feeding:

I recommend feeding high quality fish and plant based foods. Quality ingredients include: spirulina, fish meal, FD Brine Shrimp, shrimp meal, Vitamin C & E, lobster shell.
Fish cannot digest proteins from beef well, and fish get most their energy requirements from fats. Some quality foods include: Omega, Spirulina 20, Ocean Nutrition, Hikari, Sanyu.
Feed you fish two to three times per day what they will consume in three minutes.
Feeding foods high in poor quality proteins can increase your nitrate levels, as an essential ingredient in protein is nitrogen, and if unusable by the fish, it is excreted, entering into the nitrogen cycle.

Maintain proper water chemistry:

Keep your ammonia level at 0, your nitrite at 0, your nitrates below 20-30, and your KH above 80 ppm. Ph depends very much on the fish you are keeping. Discus prefer under a ph below 7.0, while Mbuna African cichlids prefer above 8.0
A very general ph of 7.2 -7.5 works for many community fish.
Crushed Coral and/or Wonder Shells (Wonder Shells are much faster at dissolving to the desired KH) can help maintain a high pH when you desire an aquarium with a higher pH, KH, & GH, especially where tap or well water is very acidic.
For a lower pH in aquariums where the tap water used is very high (usually 7.8 or above), I have used blends of RO (Reverse Osmosis) water and tap water. The ratio varies with the tap water pH, KH, & GH and the water conditions I want to achieve.

Maintain Proper filtration;

I always recommend two filters minimum per aquarium for redundancy and for improved biological (denitrifying) filtration. For a small aquarium, a combination of a hang on the back (power) and a sponge filter. Or a sponge filter and an internal power filter. You want to make sure and rinse your sponge or cartridge out in used aquarium water to maintain your beneficial bacteria for bio filtration. Another note about the HOB filter is that they are far more efficient as bio filters if used with a sponge pre filter such a filter max.

This is very basic information to a very broad question, for much more information, visit this site:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Information.html

Answer 4

1. make sure that your aquarium is the right size for your fish, for eg. use the metric: every gallon of water= 1 inch of fish (this is the metric commonly used).

2. Make sure that the water is suitable for the fish, by adding chemicals to the water which will remove harmful chemicals (such as chlorine).

3. Vacuum the tank with a siphon.

one trick is to get a Chinese algae eater, this will cut down on your algae. (I know the name of the fish isn't very politically correct, but this is what they call them in stores).

4. Change the water, not all at once, but parts of the water at a time. for eg, half of the water.

Answer 5

get info from here

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk