Gold Fish Care

How to Clean your Aquarium?

Moving your fish and changing the tank or objects in the tank is a topic that receives mixed views. The major concern about changing tanks is over M bacterial colonies. To maintain a healthy aquarium is to have thriving colonies of good bacteria. These help to break down and neutralize wastes produced in the tank. And changing the tank would mean leaving the bacteria behind. These beneficial bacteria also live in the gravel bed and the filter, so changing it is also often debated. But this does not mean that you can't remove anything from your aquarium. Your fish may even enjoy a change in gravel.

You should clean your aquarium atleast once in 2 weeks. Transfer your fish and tank ornaments along with 80% of the tank water into a temporary container. Scrub the sides and the bottom thoroughly and rinse it out. Put the water, fish and ornaments back into the tank and add fresh conditioned water to fill up the remaining 20% of the aquarium capacity.

Here is the list of items you need to clean the tank:

Algae scraper/pads
Razor blade (plastic blade for acrylic tanks)
Bleach
Water siphon
Bucket
Lime remover (made for aquariums)
Glass cleaner (made for aquariums)
Filter media
Filter brush
Old bath towels
Paper towels

You can clean your aquarium in the following order:

Step-1

Cleaning your tank makes your fish stress. First, transfer your fish to a temporary bowl or another tank.

Step-2

Remove the plants and decorative items in the tank.

Step-3

Remove filters, heater and lights from the tank.

Step-4

Now, remove gravel or rocks from the tank and any other items in the tank you can discard from the tank water. Pour this water onto your rose plants, they will grow nicely.

Step-5

Clean the rocks or gravel with algae scraper or pad followed by washing the gravels with bleach water. Remove wetness from the gravel using a towel.

Step-6

Cleaning of plants can be easily done by soaking the plants in a mixture of bleach and water. You must remember to clean and rinse the plants well before adding them back into the tank or it may cause diseases to ur fishes

Step-7

You should wash the hood of the tank firstly. Use scrub pad or scraper to clean the hood. Do no use any chemicals to clean it. Clean the outer and inner side of the glass tank using algae pad. Please do not use soap or chemicals to clean the algae in the tank. You can use razor to clean acrylic in the tank. After this, clean with bleach water. Then,leave it for sometime till it dries.

Step- 8

You can clean the filters with a filter brush or a filter cleaner Remove the wetness in the filters with a towel. Fix the filter immediately in the tank after it is cleaned.

Step-9

Leave your tank to dry and then fix the filters, heaters, and light one-by-one. Add dry gravel once again to the water tank. Arrange the plants and other decorative items in the aquarium.

Pour treated fresh water into the aquarium. Now, you can switchon filters, lighters and heaters. Make sure all are working properly. Check the water quality level of ammonia, pH, and nitrate / nitrite. All the three should show zero level. You can run the aquarium setup for one to two hours without adding your Fish.

Step-10

After making sure everything is working properly, float your fish from temporary tank to the main tank or aquarium.

Steps to replace old gravel with new gravel

You have to understand that it is not as simple as buying new gravel and replacing the old with the new. It is a complicated procedure and logistics of changing the gravel may seem to be a bit challenging. It however isn't impossible.

With proper preparation and methodical execution, you will be able to make things easy for you and also make the transition easy for your Fish Planning ahead is very important and making a checklist is essential.

This will ensure that you have all your bases covered. First you need to buy a water testing kit and then decide what you want to change in the tank. Buy all the things you want to put into that tank. If you want to change the entire tank, the following is a list of things you should buy.

New gravel
Holding tank (10 gallon tank is a good choice)
Cover for holding tank
Siphon
Nets
Buckets for gravel
Clean cup to scoop gravel
Stress coat/water treatment

Preparation

Your prime focus should be on making the transition easy and stress-free for your Fish. If you are changing only the gravel, make sure you move the Fish into a temporary container before doing so.

Changing the gravel is invasive and often affects the Fish the most. You should always have a spare 10-gallon tank in storage. It comes very handy when you want to quarantine sick fish or new fish.

You could make do of a 5-gallon bucket from your house. Just ensure that it is clean and never had detergents or chemicals in it. After you move the fish, top the tank off completely and test it for nitrate and ammonia levels. This has to be zero, else you shouldn't change the gravel. On the day you plan to move yourfish back into their renovated tank, do not feed them as this will cut down the amount of waste produced. If you are changing the filter as well, keep the fish in their temporary tank for at least a couple of weeks. This is to allow the bacteria in the filter to stabilize.

Procedure to follow on the day of moving Fish into their renovated tank:

Rinse the new gravel until the rinsed water runs clear. Then set up the holding tank as close to the main tank as possible to make transfer of the Fish easy. Turn off the filter in the main tank. Quickly siphon off enough water from the main tank to fill the 10 gallon holding tank until about two thirds of the tank is full.

Remove any live plants, rocks, and other decorations, from the main tank and put them in the holding tank. Just make sure that you don't overcrowd your temporary tank with ornaments. Net the fish and move them to the holding tank. Cover the holding tank with a tank cover or newspaper or cardboard. Add more treated water to the main tank and allow the filter to run by turning it on.

Scoop out the old gravel and place it separately in the buckets acuum debris from the bottom of the tank. Put the new gravel into the tank. Move rocks, plants and decorations from the holding tank back to the main tank. Lastly move your fish from the holding tank back to the main tank.

Keep the lights switched off for a day and add the stress coat to the water.

Three days after the gravel change, test the water for ammonia. If it is zero, wait another three days and test again. If it is still zero, repeat test after one week to be on the safer side. If the test shows a rise in ammonia levels, treat the tank as if it were a newly set up aquarium. This includes frequent testing and water changes until the ammonia and nitrite levels fall to zero.