Anyone who has ever kept fish knows the joy of a clean and beautiful aquarium. The water is sparkling, the fish move happily, and the overall effect is relaxing and wonderful. However, anyone who has kept fish for any length of time has also experienced the unhappy effect on fish and people alike of a dirty, unsanitary tank. How do you keep a tank clean, easily and with minimal effort?
There are a few tips that should reduce your regular tank maintenance to about an hour a month; certainly a reasonable investment of time for the beauty and delight that this type of pastime offers.
Tip #1: Invest in a good quality power filter that is the right size for your tank. The correct filter will consistently remove ammonia and small debris from your tank, and if you choose one with a biological filter, it will also help maintain a healthy balance of bacteria in the tank, eliminating or minimizing that grayish bacterial “bloom” that can occur. after a water change.
Tip #2: Change the water, but not too much at once and not too often. If your power filter is working properly, you will do fine with a weekly 10% water change or a monthly 25% water change. More than this invites a bacterial bloom due to the imbalance of bacteria in the tank. It won’t harm your fish, but it is unattractive and frustrating.
Tip #3: Maintain your energy filter. Change the cartridges periodically. A ten minute investment in weekly changes will save you much more time in the future. Cartridge refills usually come in packs that will save you money and ensure that you always have your supplies on hand. Also, once a month, disassemble the filter and clean the impeller area to prevent buildup of matter that could prevent your filter from working properly. This shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes and an old toothbrush is the perfect tool for this small task.
Tip #4. Add some bottom feeders to your tank. There are plenty of gentle community tank bottom feeders that will help keep your tank free of algae. However, the idea that these bottom feeders will eat the detritus in your tank is not true. Nothing is going to eat the heavier bits of fish poop that settle to the bottom. But they will help clean up extra food that settles if you occasionally overfeed your friends. There is a large selection, so do some research and choose one or more species that get along well with the other fish in your tank.
Tip #5. Don’t skimp on your siphon to suck up the bottom of the tank. Now, if you’ve done the other steps in this article, you probably only need to do it once a month, but you’ll still need to. Heavier debris needs to be vacuumed out of the tank, there just isn’t anything else for it. Don’t skimp here. A cheap siphon will frustrate you and make you put off this crucial task. It will also take longer, adding time to your monthly maintenance schedule. Get a good one, preferably the kind with a long hose so you can siphon right into your toilet or whatever tank you’re using. The right one will also have a filter to prevent you from accidentally removing your little friends! This task, performed with the proper equipment, can take up to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your tank, from the time you remove the siphon to cleaning and storage.
Ok that’s all. A few minutes a week to change the filter cartridge and do a small water change, and about a half hour more monthly to do a little more maintenance on the filter impeller and siphon the bottom of the tank. In the middle, your inferior friends are helping you. If you don’t overfeed and have the right lighting (topics for other articles), you should be greeted every day with a tank full of beautiful, happy fish! Happy fishing!