Properly Cleaning Your Fish Tank

For most beginners who plan to set up their brand new aquarium, the notion of having to clean and maintain the tank is something that they rarely consider. One common delusion about keeping fish in an aquarium is that all you have to do is set up your aquarium with nice decoration, a good filter and pretty little fish and all you ever have to do after that is just feed the little pets. But once the water starts getting cloudy and a layer of slime accumulates at the bottom of the tank that panic would begin to set in.

Cleaning an aquarium really isn't that difficult after all. What you do need is a schedule set aside for regular maintenance. The tasks that you need to do can be divided into daily, weekly and monthly jobs, broken into bite size chunks that will not sap your energy in one go. I will be guiding you on the task of cleaning an aquarium the right way in this article.

You Mean There Is A Wrong Way?

Sure there is. The wrong way, which sadly a number of sites on the internet actually teach, is to remove all the fish and plants, throw away the water, wash the aquarium deco and gravel and put everything back in with fresh water. After keeping an aquarium for a while, it will grow colonies of beneficial bacteria which are important for healthy aquatic life. If you clean the aquarium too thoroughly, it will kill off the beneficial bacteria colonies and prevents proper biological filtration.

Also, never use household detergent to clean your tank or other decorations and parts that you will place back into the water. These detergents leave chemical residue that are harmful to the fish, plants and bacteria.

The Right Way To Clean Your Tank

No matter how great you think your filter may be, it would be an excellent idea to roster a cleaning session each week. Here are the things you will need to do:

1) Change The Water: This is essential if you want healthy fish. The water in your aquarium may seem clean but it still is important to top up fresh water. Never use water that came straight from a tap because it contains chlorine. A simple idea is to allow a bucket of water to sit for a day before putting it into the tank. Each week you will only need to change 20 of the fish tank water into another bucket. Don't throw away this water, we'll need to use it in a bit. Fill the fish tank with fresh water.

2) Vacuum The Gravel: You could buy yourself a fish tank vacuum or just place the hose that you use for siphoning the tank water closer to the gravel. Try to get as much of the muck that has accumulated as possible but it doesn't really have to be so thorough. Once you do this regularly each week, there won't be that much muck after all.

3) Turn Off Everything: Practice safety. Switch off everything that is connected to electricity such as the heater, filter and lights. No matter how safe they say the equipment may be, don't risk your life.

4) Wash Aquarium Parts: Use the water that you siphoned out earlier to wash all the decorations or parts that are slimy. The reason we do not use tap water for this is because there may be colonies of beneficial bacteria on these items that will be killed by the chlorine from tapwater.

This simple method of cleaning your aquarium will not take more than half an hour each week and will guarantee that your fish remain healthy and vibrant for a long time.