Tank Cleaning

[MadridKid]

how often should I plan on cleaning my tank? Should I get one of those cleaning magnets? also, i got a 22gal. tank...

 

[Cichlid-Man]

I try to clean my tanks once a week, at least once every 2 weeks. Personally.

 

[pearl_aqg]

The cleaning magnets are nice; they basically give you an easy way to clean your tank without getting dirty, but if you don't mind or are trying to save $ you can buy scrapers and apply some elbow grease for pretty much the same results. Magnets are great if your aquascaping leaves you less room to get at your walls, but in a tank that size you probably will be fine either way.

Just make sure you are getting the right kind - they are specified either for glass or acrylic tanks and if you use the wrong type you can get scratches.

We recommend weekly cleaning in a tank that size; makes sense to do it when you do your water change! That way you can easily siphon out the gunk you remove while cleaning.

 

[seastaar88]

i love magfloats because i can do a quick swipe of my tanks daily. i get in there with a scraper once per week to really get any algae off down by the substrate.

i agree w/ pearl, it's easy to just do all your maintenence at once whenever you do your water change.

 

[zombiefetus]

What do you have in your tank? It really depends on the bioload of the tank.
I clean out all my tanks once a week doing 50% water changes.
Then once a month of so I take out all the decor and scrub it clean.

 

[seastaar88]

50% weekly!? geez, what do you have in there!? hehe

i have a pretty light bioload, so i typically do a 25% water change every other week.

 

[MissFishy]

I also have light bioloads (I'm a chronic understocker), so do 25-50% water changes every other week or so. When I do the water changes, I always clean out the gravel with my siphon. Once a month or so I also swish around my filter media in the treated water to get the gunk off. On my fry tanks, I obviously do many more water changes.

 

[tom91970]

Then once a month of so I take out all the decor and scrub it clean.

Unless you have an algae problem or something similar I would not bother doing that; you're just depleting the beneficial bacteria that's growing on the decor.

 

[zombiefetus]

Unless you have an algae problem or something similar I would not bother doing that; you're just depleting the beneficial bacteria that's growing on the decor.

I have a single Green Spotted Puffer in a brackish tank and tons of algae, manual labor is the only way to clean the stuff as any algae eater would die in brackish water or get eaten by the puffer and I'm very against putting any chemicals in the water. It's okay to take out decor and clean it as long as you're not messing with the rocks and filter too, as long as there's still something for bacteria to live on it's fine.

50% weekly!? geez, what do you have in there!? hehe

i have a pretty light bioload, so i typically do a 25% water change every other week.

I have a bunch of understocked tanks actually, lol, I just like my tanks to be nice and clean. I know quite a few people with the same weekly cleaning regiment.

 

[MadridKid]

Thanks you guys! I plan on a full deep scrub down once a month, and plenty of water changes in between...

 

[tom91970]

It's okay to take out decor and clean it as long as you're not messing with the rocks and filter too, as long as there's still something for bacteria to live on it's fine.

Well, yeah, that's true, too. I've got so much decor in my 29g that if I were to take it all out and clean it you can bet the bacteria count would drop dramatically. On the other hand, I have practically no gravel in my 10g, just a few pieces of decor.

So I guess it depends on how much decor vs. gravel one has.