How are HUGE tanks cleaned?

Question

I've heard of 180 gallon tanks. How do people clean the gravel when the fish poop enough?

Answer 1

the ones like seaworld are set up and designed differently than the tanks we have at home. Same with some pet stores. Large display tanks 1000+ gallons have a back flush system in them. There are reserve tanks that get pumped into the tank while bottom drains are pulling (draining) water out.

These tanks do not get cleaned as often like smaller tanks do. The even larger tank like the 20,000 gallons are basically cleaned the same way however people actually use razor scrapers to remove algae from the glass. Some believe it or not use magnets to clean the glass.

Some of the lower tanks (like the river dolphin and manatee tanks at Niagara Aquarium actually have people walking around with large vac hoses cleaning the bottoms.

Answer 2

I have a 75 gallon tank and I use the same gravel vaccum as I do on my 10 gallon tanks. I just take out more water and have to stand on a stool to reach the gravel as it's on quite a tall stand.

But yeah, the bigger tanks all use gravel vacs too. Just bigger ones ;) and larger amounts of water taken out.

Answer 3

On my freshwater 180gal I overfiltrate with five filters and utilize severeal powerheads to provide water movement which keeps larger waste suspended in the water column until it's efficiently extracted by the filters intakes.

I rarely have to siphon waste since it doesn't settle beneath the sand. I occasionally stir up the sand and it's consistently clean (not like the 'mud clouds' that would appear when I stirred up the gravel from my previous tanks).

Answer 4

I have a 150 gal salt water tank with a sand bed. We have a sand sifting goby that helps filter out some of the crap, as well as about 150 hermit crabs and snails. Every two weeks or so we have to clean the algae off the glass with a razor blade. We also have to do water changes...it can be a lot of work.

Answer 5

Well I have a 125 gallon and I just use a vacum. Bigger tanks are wayyy easier to keep clean than smaller ones.

Answer 6

With bigger tanks people use siphons that siphon tank water directly to the sink, then the same siphon is also used to refill the tank with new water. The Python is one brand that does this.

Some people set up automatic water changers. Old water is always slowly being removed while the tank is refilled with new water constantly. There are many ways to do this.

Answer 7

A gravel vac. just like the smaller tanks.

Answer 8

Honestly larger aren't harder to clean than small ones. You just use a larger gravel vacuum.