Happy Fish Means Clean Tanks
Taking good care of tropical fish tanks involve diligent cleaning and maintenance checks. Doing so will ensure that your fish will stay healthy by preventing any problem from happening.
Daily maintenance tasks
Daily checks would only require a few minutes of your time. This involves checking the water level, doing fish head count, and checking for floating detritus. If the water level drops, you need to replace the water. You must also take out any dead fish or plant matter to maintain a suitable water condition for your tank.
You should also check the water level. If it has dropped, replace the evaporated water to prevent salinity and pH levels from fluctuating.
Weekly maintenance tasks
Water change and light cleaning of tropical fish tanks are usually done during the weekly maintenance checks. You have to remove and clean dirty ornaments, clean the tank walls, siphon off floating particles and dirt, and prune and re-anchor live plants if you have them in your tank. When changing the water, do not remove more than 25% of the water in the tank. Before you put in the new water, make sure that it is filtered, dechlorinated, aerated, and of the correct temperature. You can leave the fish inside the tank while cleaning as long as you won’t make sudden movements that will disturb them.
Monthly maintenance
Tropical fish tanks need a more thorough cleaning every month. Aside from cleaning the tanks’ insides and the other weekly tasks, you will also need to clean the filter media and refill filter cartridges. You should test all aquarium equipment during this time. Do your monthly cleaning the same time as the water change. This way, you will be able to use the discarded water in cleaning the filter media. You do not have to clean the biological media. Only the mechanical and chemical filter media need to be cleaned. To finish your monthly maintenance, do some testing on the pH levels, ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites levels.
It is advisable to keep a record book where your observations, activities, and testing results are noted down. Referring to those notes will help you later on in case concerns regarding water conditions or fish health will arise.
Bi-annual maintenance
The list of tasks you have to do twice a year mainly involves checking the equipment such as the pumps, filters, light bulbs, pipes, and protein skimmers to see if they need to be cleaned or replaced. Check the impeller of the pumps if it needs to be replaced. The insides of the intake and outlet pipes should be cleaned as well. It is advisable to change light bulbs at night as they will be cool to the touch during this time.
Cleaning tools
Using the right materials during cleaning will ensure faster cleaning time with less hassle. Your cleaning kit should include algae pads, magnetic cleaners, gravel vacuums, water changing tools, scrapers, brushes, tongs, gloves, and cleaning fluids. Examples of cleaning fluids specially made for fish tanks are scratch removers, salt creep removers, lime dissolvers, and glass polishers.
Greg Simms is a pet store manager and an aquarium lover who likes to assist others be successful in raising their fish as well. He is a featured associate and invited speaker at many aquarium organizations. He knows also of tropical fish tanks and acrylic reef aquariums.
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