how often should i clean my fish tank?

Question

i have a one gallon tank and a very small (3/4 inch) goldfish. i have this thing that makes bubbles (i forget the name of it) and I am buying plants tonight. i have heard that the minnimum water/fish ratio is 1 gallon/1 inch of fish. i am following this ratio, but how often should i clean this tank?

Answer 1

First, that ratio is for the birds. it really doesn't work at all so no matter where you heard it, forget it. Second, when planning a tank you need to think about the size the fish will be when it grows up. Your little 1 inch gold fish will grow to be over a foot long! He's just a baby right now, so you need to know you will have to find him a new home pretty soon.

As far as cleaning your tank... While you are at the pet store tonight get a gravel siphon if you don't already have one. Use it to clean the gravel while removing about 1/3 to 1/2 of the water from the tank once a week. This will keep your tank nice and clean. Be sure not to give your little fish too much food. He only needs as much as he can eat in about 2-3 minutes twice a day. Extra food will go to waste and pollute your tank very quickly.

MM

Answer 2

A one gallon tank is much too small for a goldfish! Even though he looks small now, he won't stay that way. Goldfish can get 8-24 inches at maturity, depending on the type and will live for decades with proper care.

The one inch "rule" doesn't apply to goldfish - or, in fact, hardly any species of fish! Goldfish have deep, heavy bodies and produce a considerable amount of waste. They should be allowed 10 -20 gallons of water per fish at least. Along with the wastes, goldfish will produce lots of ammonia - something toxic to fish in high amounts. If kept in a larger aquarium, the amount of water will keep this more diluted than what he's in now, plus once the tank has cycled (built up a population of beneficial bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrate), he'll have a better chance to have a long, healthy life.

As far as the plants, you'll find that goldfish like to "root" around in the gravel - he'll constantly be tearing the plants out. They are herbivores, so any live plant is "lunch". So save yourself some aggrivation here and skip any plants, real or otherwise.

As far as cleaning, you should plan of getting a filter for your fish. This will aerate the water and do a better job than the air pump. It will also remove some of the solid material from the water. You should plan to do 25-30% water changes at least once a week in a 20 gallon tank. In the one gallon tank, you'll probably need to clean and do water changes 2-3 times a week to keep the ammonia down if you haven't cycled your tank.

I'm putting in some links in the "sources" section for what I've told you here - these will give you info on cleaning and cycling the tank.

Answer 3

First of all, goldfish are huge ammonia producers and grow to 1 1/2 feet long. Even if it is a tiny goldfish, it will most likely not live much longer because of ammonia poisoning. Also, the 1 inch per gallon rule is not really a good rule. You couldn't put a thirty inch fish in a 30 gallon tank. A thirty gallon tank is thirty inches long.

You should get a 10 gallon tank for now with filtration and water testing stuff. When the fish grows, get a bigger tank.

Answer 4

That fish will be 3" before you know it. Goldies need companionship of at least 3-4 of their own kind. For messy fish like goldies, its more like 3 gallons per inch. Once they mature, say 6" you will need close to 20 gallons per fish. Three goldies barely fit a 55 gallon tank. Plan for the future and provide it a good environment. Goldfish are pond fish, not really aquarium fish.

Answer 5

well i have a fish at home and what i do is do it at least a week and make sure 25% of the water in ur tank right now gets takin out every week..

although what i do is every saturday i change the whole entire tank so it can be extra healthy..

make sure you dont change it so often( less than a week) its because fishes get stress out with new water and they might stay at the bottum of the tank

make sure that the water is at least 60 degrees!

hope that helps ;]

Answer 6

definitely once a week do at least a 10 percent water change and never do more than a 30 % change because it can be stressful to the fish and using a gravel vacuum is a very efficient way of also cleaning the gravel. also like to use an algae magnet

Answer 7

Try cleaning the tank once a week or your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate can reach dangerous concentrations that can kill your fish. Also to keep diease from striking your fish.

Answer 8

clean it when you see our tank getting dirty,when a fish just died,sometimes after one week has passed or when the water gets cloudy.

Answer 9

at least once once a week but id it is not fillthy once every two weeks. make sure it is really cold wayer. my friend had a fish and they cleaned it with to cold water and her fish went bye bye :-(

Answer 10

i would clean it every 2 weeks at least. gold fish are very dirty so you might need to clean it more often