how do i clean my fish tank and how often?

Question

i have a 10 gallon tank with 2 female balloon mollys along with 3 male guppies, an aquatic bamboo plant, everything else is fake plants or rocks. thanks for your help! :)

bonus question: would it be okay to add 2 or 3 more neon tetras? or would it be to overcrowded? would i need to clean it even more often?

Answer 1

DON'T dump out all your water and replace it, or move your fish! You will destroy all the good bacteria growing in there, stress your fish and cause more problems than you solve!

If it's a new tank you should be doing 25% water changes at least once a week. This includes using a siphon to "vacuum" the waste and debris off of the top of your gravel, plants and decorations.

You should also remove all uneaten food from the bottom of the tank after each feeding. This is less necessary if you have bottom feeders, such as shrimp, catfish or plecos in your tank, and once your tank has gone through the nitrogen cycle, you can do less frequent water changes, like once a month or so, especially if you have few fish or live plants.

When you set up a tank, you should try to create a miniature ecosystem. The better of a job you do of creating a self-sustaining system (with plants and balanced amounts and types of fish) the less maintenance you have to do.

Always try to match the temperature of the water you add to the water that's in the tank and make sure you use a water conditioner and add the new water slowly - don't just dump it all in at once. Small changes more often are always better than bigger changes less often.

Your tank could hold a few more fish without straining it, but you would need to clean it more often if you had too many more fish. Neon tetras are small so you could support a small school of 6. You would need at least that many to keep them happy. They are more aggressive if they can't school properly. You also might want to look at getting a small bottom-feeding fish, like a couple coryadoras catfish (the pandas are small and very cute) or a few shrimp.

Answer 2

The best way to clean is remove 25% of the water bi-weekly with a gravel vac.
The tank could support a few more fish (not many) and 2-3 neons will be miserable. These schooling fish need to be in groups of 6+.

Answer 3

You're suppose to clean your tank every week with a gravel siphon and doing a partial waterchange of 25%, without taking your fish out (very bad advice from others)

And yes you can add neon tetras, but you should add at least 4-6 of them since they are schooling fish

I would also recommend putting a couple of bottom feeders in your tank like pepper corys


Hope that helps


EB

Answer 4

Clean your tank by removing 20-25% of the water every week. Replacing it with dechlorinated water. You can add neon tetras to the bunch, but keep in mind that they like to school so it would be better to have 5-6 neons total. If you don't already have one, invest in a filter.

Answer 5

With proper maintenance and filtering you should only have to clean it about every six months. By clean it you need to remove the fish and empty at least 2/3 of the water and start over. Also you want to change your filter cartridges and make sure the PH balance is right for your fish (7.0 is your safest bet fro a community tank).

It would probably be fine to add 2 more small fish but be sure whatever yoyu choose will not be aggressive towards the fish already in there. Tetras can be mildly aggresssive. Also since you have 3 male guppies I wouldnt recommend adding any female guppies. You want the ratio of female to male guppies to be atleasto 2 to 1 and since you have 3 that would require 6 females. Thuis keeps the males from worrying the females to death with mating.

Answer 6

I clean my tank every month, sometimes every two months. When you clean the tank, take everything out and pour out the dirty water.I have those one gallon bowls to put my fish in for the wait time, while cleaning the tank. Make sure you wash/rinse out the gravel again (you don't have to buy another bag of gravel). Get a wet rag and clean the sides, do NOT put soap on the rag, it can be harmful. When you get to the filter, you will see gooey stuff in it, do NOT wipe off the goo, it's better that the bacteria stay inside the filter than inside the tank. So do NOT clean out the filter, just replace the filter cartridge if needed. Also, when your cleaning the decor, just rinse it off with hot water (it will probably feel a little slippery or gooey), but it's fine, just rinse them. Then you can set your tank back up and fill it back up with water. Get some TetraAqua AquaSafe Water Conditioner and for a 10 gallon tank, just poor in one teaspoon of the liquid. Then poor a little water into the cartridge and turn it on. It will start the water cycle and you can leave it to clean the water for about 30 minutes to an hour. Then you can put your fish back in and they should be fine.
For the bonus question, I suggest that you not put in more fish, it will make the fish feel crowded and might start killing each other. I have 5 fish and one little frog in my tank and they do just fine.