Cleaning Your Fish Tank

Introduction

Once you have your aquarium established, the only activity you think is difficult is cleaning it. But it can be very rewarding to perform this action to keep your fish healthy and happy. Plus it will only take you abut thirty minutes a week to perform this operation.

I did a lot of research on how often and how much water to remove when I clean my aquarium. Because of all the conflicting information out there I decided to take all this information and make up my own frequency of cleaning.

I found that the frequency I developed for cleaning and the amount of water I replaced with each cleaning is ideal for my 75-gallon fresh water aquarium. After over five years, my fish are healthy and happy.

Frequency Of Cleaning

The frequency of cleaning I found depends on how much water you remove at each cleaning. I did not want to completely drain my tank just to clean it but I wanted to keep healthy and happy fish.

I decided on cleaning my aquarium once a week with a manual vacuum that I use to remove the debris that has settled beneath and between the substrate. This frequency of cleaning has worked well for over five years.

Amount Of Water Removal

What I found on trying to determine the amount of water to remove during cleaning, is that I did not want to upset the environment I had established in my aquarium. If you are going to establish an aquarium, one of the first things you learn is to establish an environment that your fish can live in.

This means adding bacteria and waiting till they are in equilibrium before you add your first fish and then slowly adding more fish. This slow build up of fish population in your aquarium will not upset your aquariums environment.

Keeping this in mind, I elected to change out ten per cent of my 75-gallon aquarium each time I vacuum the substrate. I actually change out ten gallons of water each week rather than 7.5 gallon.

For the many years I have been removing ten gallons,Freshwater Fish, I have had good chemistry in my water and have not lost any fish in that period of time.

Conclusion

After much research I have elected to clean my 75-gallon aquarium once a week and at the same time replace ten gallons of water. I have performed this for over five years and have maintained good water chemistry and quality. Plus I have not lost a single fish.