How often do you need to clean out your tank?

Question

I have a either 20 gallon or 10 gallon tank, with 2 zebra dianos, 1 dwarf gourami, 2 mollies, 1 sucker fish, and a tiny sunset platy.
The tank is starting to get dirty, like the rock has a lot of green stuff on it, but not a huge amount. so does the plant and the pot. I don't know what to clean the rock with, i already tried with a clean rag and water but none came off. i want to make sure that i don't clean it with harmful chemicals that will hurt my fish, but i want to clean it because i looks bad. I have a filter, but i only clean the WATER in the tank. What do i do?

Answer 1

Your best choice is to first invest a few dollars in a gravel siphon. These are available at any pet store usually for under $10.

From here on out, change 25% of the water in the tank each week with the gravel siphon and clean the gravel as you go. Directions will be on the siphon. Rinse out the filter cartridge in some of the water you are removing from the tank so that it doesn't get clogged. Replace the removed water with fresh, dechlorinated water. Remove and large rocks, plastic plants or other decor that has lots of algae and wash them under hot water if you wish. A clean new toothbrush used only for aquarium stuff will clean them well and the hot water will help prevent the rapid return on the algae (the green stuff).

That's really all you need to do for the tank and following this will keep the tank clean. You will notice less algae over time and this program of cleaning starts to have a positive effect on the water chemistry.

Hope that helps

MM

Answer 2

You should ideally change about 10% of the water every week siphoning from the bottom. Clean the filter at this time as well. You can also change 15-20% every two weeks as well or even 30-40% once a month. But, smaller more frequent water changes are better and more stable.

As for the decorations. You can soak your decorations and plastic plants in a 5 gallon bucket of water with 2 cups of bleach added for a few hours. Then soak them for a few hours in freshwater. Once you've soaked them in freshwater rinse them off in running water and allow to dry. Bleach is SAFE to use on aquariums as it evaporates quickly and leaves behind no residue.

DO NOT, use detergents, soap,or solvents on anything that comes in contact with the fishtank as theywill leave toxic residue behind.

Answer 3

You can spray out your filter and use them over and over again i always did mine twice a week but i had a high algea content in my water.
To the root of the problem, make sure that the tank isnt getting to much light. and get one another placo or chinese algea eaters (my fave, they hardly get killed)

A unused tolit brush works wonders for cleaning algea off stuff and as long as its not been used for its original purpose then you can stick it in your tank to clean the sides. However my favorite thing is the magnetic scrubbers that way you dont have to cross contamiate your tank or get wet, its actually kinda fun for cleaning the glass.

Get some real plants and through those plastic ones away, the do nothing and the real plants will help your tank allot

Answer 4

Take an old toothbrush hold the rock under running water and brush.

Answer 5

well....i use a product called "no more algae" and you can get it at walmart, it kills any algaein your tank and prohibits the growth of new algae....but i wouldnt use this if i were you, since you said you have a suckerfish

Answer 6

5hrs