How to clean aquarium?

You got your first fish and an awesome aquarium for it. Life seemed good for a few days, till one day you noticed that the aquarium water and glass walls look a bit filthy. Time to get your gloves on and clean your fish tank. But how exactly, and what fine points should we keep in mind while cleaning a fish tank?

We will cover all the aspects involved in cleaning an aquarium in this article.

Table of Contents

• Steps involved in cleaning a fish tank
• How often should we change aquarium water?
• Some more tips to keep your Aquarium clean

Steps involved in cleaning a fish tank

There are various steps involved in cleaning a fish tank.

Step 1: Secure your fish(es)

Before you clean your fish tank, you should take out your fishes using a net and place them in another water container/bowl.

Instead of using new water, just take out some water from your aquarium and fill that in the container/bowl, so that fishes do not have to endure drastic ambience change, like temperature change in water etc. Also, keep in mind to fill the bowl with water first, before putting your fishes inside it.

However, we can also clean our fish tank without taking out our fishes from the aquarium. We will learn that method too soon.

Step 2: Clean the fish tank

Now, you can start cleaning your fish tank. You will need the following equipments for this purpose:

• Some water conditioner - Always use a good water conditioner. There are many.
• A siphon to suck the dirty water out of the aquarium.
• A big old bucket to keep the dirty water.
• A piece of cloth to scrub the walls of the fish tank.

How to clean aquarium gravel?

Now, let’s see how to clean the bottom of a fish tank.

There are gravels at the bottom of a fish tank. To clean them you need to move your siphon into the gravel in vertical motion, i.e. move straight down into the gravel, and then move straight up, letting all gravels fall back. Then move to the next spot. While you’re siphoning, don’t pull it above the water level or else it will stop working.

While doing this you should not drag your siphon. Otherwise, it will stir all the stuff and this will make your tank water look realy dirty.

Should I clean the algae?

Algae is not something bad or dirty. It’s natural and even gives a good look to your fish tank. But it may block the view on the front glass and hide the decorations. So, feel free to clean it off the front glass and the decorations. Afterall, what use is having an aquarium at home, when you can’t even have a look at your fishes!

You should also clean the filters, decorations, heater etc, before putting them back in the fish tank.

Step 3: Fill-in the tank with new water

Now, you may fill-in the tank with new water and add your water-conditioner.

Add the water in small amounts multiple times, each time adding a measured amount of conditioner with it, to ensure that you are not adding excessive amounts of conditioner (rather than filling up the tank in one go and then adding the water-conditioner by guess work).

Initially, the water may not look so clean. But give it some time. Slowly, the dissolved sediments will settle down and the water will start looking pristine clean.

Also, make sure that the new water being filled has approximately the same temperature as the old dirty water. Fishes are very sensitive to temperature changes.

Note

Instead of taking out the whole of the water, you may replace a part of it.

For example, you may change 50% of the water every two weeks, or 33.3% every week.

Even here, you need to make sure that the water being added is also of the same temperature. You may use a thermometer for this purpose, or just put in your finger and try to get an estimate.

How often should we change aquarium water?

Generally, you should clean your fish tank on a weekly basis or atleast once in two weeks. But if you have very few small fishes in a large tank or you have installed good quality filters, then you may get by just by cleaning it once a month.

So, a lot depends on the kind and number of fishes you have, the kind of filter you have and the size of your fish tank. Your fish tank water and its bottom, stones etc. should look clean and the fishes happy. That’s the bottom line.

Some more tips to keep your Aquarium clean

• Do have an external hang-on-back filter in your aquarium. Internal power filter or sponge filter do not work as good. Sponge filter is perfectly alright in case you have a barebottom tank, but for planted tanks it’s advisable to use external filter.

• You can use any old credit/debit card of yours to clean the insides of the glass walls of your fish tank. Hold the card at an angle (say 30 to 45 degree) and scrub the glass walls of any algae etc. It pretty effective.

• You would have noticed that it’s pretty hard to clean the corners and edges of the fish tank. For scrubing those we can make use of any old toothbrush. We can also use it to scrub the stones off algae and any wooden elements of white fungus etc.

• To clean the outside of the glass walls we often use cloth. But sometimes some small stone may get entangled in the fibers of the cloth and we run the risk of scratching the glass. So, a cheap and safer alternative is to use a paper, say use a sheet of your newspaper. Spray some water on the glass and scrub with the paper. It cleans the glass pretty well.

• If you do not want to empty your whole tank everytime you have to clean your fish tank, then instead of a siphon use a thin pipe (that can be covered by your finger tips). Just direct the pipe where you see dirt or algae and collect that water in a bucket. It has an added advantage that you will be able to reach even narrow parts of the aquarium, say between the stones, plants etc. It will take some time but you will not have to take out your fishes or disturb the whole fish tank. Narrow pipe is a more precise way to clean your tank, it will drain less amount of water, and as you do not change a lot of water, the temperature fluctuation will be less.

Winding Up

Apart from routine cleaning of the fish tank, you should monitor your fishes and aquarium daily. Check if the temperature is fine, filters are running, lights are fine etc.

Unlike dogs, cats and parrots, your fishes won’t be able to convey any discomfort. So, it’s our duty to be extra responsible to take care of them and look out for any signs of uneasiness. Of course keeping the fish tank clean is the most basic thing that we must do to keep our fishes happy and healthy.