Cleaning the tank how?

Question

hi, the time has come to clean my fish tank D:
i dont mean a simple water change but cleaning the tank itself since the tank has small amounts of this brown "thing"
so whats the easiest way to clean a 20 gallon without lifting the tank? (its wayyy to heavy)

i dont want to remove the fish cuz the loaches are impossible to catch....









-btw, the loaches still hide the only time i see them active is at night. but they run away when they see something move outside of the tank.
and i got them a while ago now.

Answer 1

Far better for you is to determine what the brown stuff is and kill it from the tank insead of trying to clean out the tank completely. The more you do in the way of cleaning, the more you will damage your bacterial colonies and the more problems that will cause down the road.

Most likely you are seeing some brown algae in the tank and that can be controlled by turning the light off a bit earlier ( on one a bit later) and being sure you clean the gravel well when you do your water changes.

MM

Answer 2

Buy yourself a handy fish "vacuum". They work on the principle of a siphon effect and will suck all of the nasties from the bottom of your tank and off of objects. Other than that you will want to remove any ornaments and scrub those with a never before used toothbrush in some clean, non chlorinated water. The sides of the tank can be scrubbed with any number of the different cleaning pads sold in pet stores specifically for fish tanks. Never use any sponges or scrubbers that aren't designed for fish as they may contain chemicals that will harm and even kill your fish. Other than that just remember to not suck out anymore than 1/3 of the water in the tank at one time, refill the tank with water that is non-chlorinated and the same temperature as the rest of the water in the tank, and you should never clean the filter at the same time that you've cleaned the rest of the tank or you risk harming the good bacteria levels in the tank. This bacteria helps keep the ammonia levels down and are necessary for a healthy tank. This can all be done with the fish in the tank. Oh! And If your loaches are the type that dig in the gravel then you are going to need to be super careful with the vacuum!

Answer 3

what are loaches?
when we clean the fish tank, we do a partial water change meaning, take out 3/4 of the water and replace it with fresh water.
sometimes we remove everything and clean the entire tank but we don't use soap or chemicals we use warm water and a cloth to clean. i would do a partial since the loaches are hard to catch.
i hope this helps, good luck

Answer 4

I use a green scourer to scrub the tank with the fish still in it, then I do a water change half that day and then another half about 3 days later, I use a rock vacuum cos that's where all the grot settles.

Answer 5

Scrub the fish tank with a sponge.

Answer 6

tk half the water out then keep the reat in
clean the tank w/ half the water boil the pebbles in hot water then fill the tank w/ luke warm water make sure u keep @ least half the tank water when u clean it

Answer 7

Use a sponge, & remove the brown stuff off the glass.

Answer 8

at the store they have long tubes that suck out water but not fish just ask the pet people at the store about your problemand they will tell you every thing good luck!!

Answer 9

take some of the water out and use a rag and scrub it