changing water in my tank

Question
I have a 40 gallon tank and I have been told that I need to change out the water.  Is that so? and if it is how do i do that and how often?  Thanx

Answer
HiYa!

Yes you need to change some of your water.

You should be aiming to do a 25% water change every 7 - 10 days, sometimes more often if you have particularly messy fish in your tank such as Oscars or Pleco's. The best way to do a water change is to use a 'Gravel Vac' which is a long cylinder tube that you place in the water and pump up and down a few times. This gets water moving up into it and through a tube that you have in a bucket. Once this siphoning action has started you move the gravel vac over the gravel in your tank and you will notice some of the gravel move up the tube and draw the muck out of it before it slides back down. You do this over your whole tank until you have removed 25% of your water. This way you not only do a 25% water change but you also clean your gravel and get rid of excess mess and waste that would have been sitting in it.

Remember when you top your tank back up to add the correct amount of water conditioner to the tank to take all the harmful chemicals out of the new water going in (such as chlorine etc).

Hope this helps!

Cheers! Rach