Routine Fish Tank Maintenance

Tag: Fish Tank Maintenance

When you purchase a new aquarium one of the things you must remember to do is regular fish tank maintenance. If you just set up your tank and leave it then you will encounter a variety of problems regarding your gravel, filter and water quality, which will probably result in the loss of your fish.

The most obvious part of your maintenance is to regularly clean the glass. Algae can build up even in the cleanest of tanks, so it is wise to invest in a glass cleaner. It is basically a clean, rough sponge on a long plastic arm and it is incredibly easy to use. All you need to do is to run the sponge along the glass, removing any build up. This will result in your water becoming cloudy to begin with, due to the disturbance. However, if your filter is working well then the water will be clear again within around an hour. This device is very inexpensive, but it works brilliantly and is very useful.

Making sure that your gravel is clean is a great way to ensure your filter doesn't become clogged up with fish waste which makes it inefficient. Again, there is a gadget on the market for cleaning your gravel. It is very cheap, but fantastically efficient. It looks like a mini plastic hoover on one end and it is attached to a tube. All you need to do is submerse all of the gravel cleaner under the water then put the tube end into a bucket. The hoover end will begin to siphon water and when this happens you should start pushing the hoover end into the gravel. You will see the waste going along the tube and into the bucket. Again, the water will become cloudy to begin with due to the disturbance. Once you have finished cleaning your gravel don't forget to replace the water that has been siphoned with fresh clean water.

Nitrates and nitrites are just two of the chemicals that you will need to keep an eye on and testing the water is the only way to do this. The pH level in your aquarium can also vary and the level needed will depend on the type of fish you are keeping. Usually 6.5 to 7 is about right for tropical fish. To test the water you will need to buy a kit from a good aquarium store. Just take a sample of water and drop in the tester and compare the result to the chart included in the kit.

The piece of equipment that is most effective at cleaning your tank is your filter. It may be an under gravel filter or and external or internal one, whichever one you have it is the most important aspect of maintenance to keep it clean. If your filter is not clean then your tank will never be clean. With an under gravel filter the main way of keeping it clean is to do the gravel cleaning described above as this reduces the waste that this type of filter deals with. If you have an internal or an external filter then these will have replaceable media inside them and to make sure that they work as efficiently as possible the filter media should be changed regularly. If you have an internal filter then just take off the bottom box, replace the media and put it back. If you have an external filter then it is only the part that contains media that will need removing to change. All of the tubes can stay in place.

If you keep up with regular fish tank maintenance then hopefully your fish will have a long and healthy life and you will have a lovely clean tank.