When it comes to maintaining your aquarium, you’ll need to perform some basic daily and weekly tasks to keep your aquarium clean and healthy for your fish.
One of the most important parts of setting up a new fish tank is ensuring it cycles properly. You can add your new fish to your aquarium when your tank has fully cycled. Then you should know how to maintain your fish tank.
There’s no need to worry about maintenance if you cycle your tank correctly but there are some basic tasks that you will have to perform.
To be successful in fish keeping, you need to be organized and look after your tank properly. Learn how to take care for your fish tank with this article. If you want to keep your fish healthy and happy, you will have to keep their tanks clean.
Set a schedule
Your fish tank is different than someone else’s so your maintenance schedule for your tank is likely to be different than what they do. Some of the steps will, of course, be the same. There are several factors that influence your maintenance schedule.
Location of tank
Placing your aquarium where you can easily access it is the key to maintaining a clean tank. If you don’t have easy access to your tank, it won’t be cleaned on a regular schedule. To ensure that your tank is positioned correctly, make sure that you leave enough room at the front of the tank and don’t place it too close to the edge.
Tank size
Interesting fact: a larger tank actually requires less maintenance than a smaller tank. It is very easy to explain. A larger aquarium requires more water volume so the waste excreted by the fish is dispersed over a larger area. If you want to clean your aquarium less often, then buying a 50-gallon tank will save you time in your cleaning routine. That means if you buy a 10-gallon tank you can expect to clean the smaller one more often.
Filtration system
An important step in the tank-cleaning process is to care about filtration system. It will keep the tank clean and protect the environment.
The biological type of filtration used in an aquarium affects the level of nitrites, bacteria, and other chemicals that pass through the water.
The mechanical filter is a device used to catch and remove the waste from the water.
The chemical filter uses chemical media to remove the pollutants from the water.
If you don’t have a regular schedule for cleaning and maintenance of your water filtration system, the filter itself may become clogged causing problems. If necessary, replace the filter media.
Number of fish
The rule is that for every gallon of water, you should have no more than one inch of slim kind of fish.
When fish tank is stocked to its maximum capacity, there is much unnecessary waste and food floating around in the water.
The more fish in a tank, the more waste, more nitrates and then more algae. Overstocking making it a hassle to maintain, as well as make it unhealthy for the fish.
The way of feeding
A fish owner should always remember to feed their fish enough food and just enough of it at one time. If there’s an excess of food in the water, it leads to pollution.
If you’re considering purchasing a specific type of fish for your aquarium, it would be wise to first do some research so that you purchase the appropriate food for the fish you have and learn how to feed them.
Feed fish only as much as they will eat in one setting. In this way you can avoid problems like overfeeding.
Keeping your fish healthy is dependent on making sure that their environment is clean and contains enough nutrients to support them in the long term.
An important roadblock for new aquarists is not knowing what routine maintenance they should perform. I will tell you what types of maintenance you should do when and how often.
It’s one of the best aquarium maintenance plans, which includes everything you need to know for keeping your aquarium healthy, thriving and beautiful.
Aquarium owners often ignore routine maintenance. Of course, nobody is cleaning the rivers, lakes and oceans, and the fish do just fine. It’s true that nature does a good job of cleaning things up.
Water in lakes, rivers, and oceans circulate because they have currents and waves. The sheer volume of water also helps clean out any harmful toxins.
Aquariums are much smaller than the bodies of water in nature. Remember that your tank is a closed system, and it becomes quite different from a habitat in nature.
Filters help maintain high quality aquarium water, but if not maintained, they become clogged and will no longer function properly.
Fish produce waste, uneaten food decays, and potentially harmful substances build up over time. If you want your aquarium to remain clean, then you’ll need to take the time to regularly perform maintenance.
Overcrowding the tank, overfeeding the fish, and not doing partial water changes can cause the filter to stop working effectively. You’re almost certainly doing one of these three things wrong when you come across dead or dying fish.
Frequency of Maintenance
For the best results with a fish tank, don’t clean everything at once. It’s both impractical and unhealthy to clean your aquarium daily or weekly.
To keep the benefits of beneficial bacteria, the process of cleaning the aquarium should be done properly. If you disturb the bacterial colonies too much, it can cause an excessive amount of ammonia and nitrite in the water. For your own safety, it’s always smart to test the waters for a few days after a significant cleaning.
Daily
Quickly scan the aquarium to ensure it’s working properly, all its equipment is in good working order, and there are no signs of problems. Make sure the water temperature is correct, and if necessary, adjust it.
Take a look at the fish and see how many is in tank. Check if their fins are clean and if there are no signs of illness. The sooner we react, the better for your fish. Look at the tank after they have finished eating to make sure there is no more food left in the tank.
If your fish seems to eat for more than 5 minutes after you feed them, you should cut down on the amount of food you give them at each meal. If there’s uneaten food in your aquarium, use a siphon or gravel vacuum to remove it.
If you want to learn how to start a successful aquarium journal, this is a good place to start. You should write down anything that might be important. By getting involved, you can become a good fish keeper.
For example, when the temperature drops, don’t take it lightly. If the temperature drops for four consecutive days, there’s likely a problem with your heater. You’re able to do this all within a few minutes, so it’s not a huge time.
What activities should we do daily?
- Check the condition of fish and plants
- Count fish
- Check the condition of the plants
- Check temperature
- Check all the equipment (filters, CO2 system, lighting, heaters etc.)
- Add water if needed
- Fertilize plants (how you fertilize depends on many factors, you don’t have to do this every day)
Weekly
Some aquarists change the water every few weeks, while others prefer a weekly water change. In my opinion, the most important thing is regularity, not frequency. If you change your water every two weeks, but regularly, you won’t have problems with its quality.
Use water without chlorine or RO water. Also remember that the water for the change should have a temperature close to the temperature in your tank.
First of all, perform activities such as removing dead plants and cleaning the glass from algae. Shake the plants to remove debris.
During this time, turn off the filter and wait for the floating debris to fall to the bottom and then vacuum the gravel.
Chemical products should never be used to clean the aquarium. Chemicals can harm our fish and plants.
What activities should we do weekly?
- Change 25% water
- Remove of dead plant parts
- Clean the glass
- Vacuum the gravel
Monthly
One of the most important activities performed once a month is water testing. Test the following parameters: pH, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and phosphates. If you have an aquarium with a lot of plants, you can test other elements.
Always perform all tests first before the water change. If the results are incorrect, check the parameters again after partial water change. Poor parameters can contribute to the growth of algae, plant death and stress the fish.
When you changing water, use the removed water to clean the filter. Cleaning the filter system with tap water will destroy beneficial bacteria and cause an biological imbalance in your tank. If the media filter is very dirty, you can replace it with a new one.
Remember: don’t change all filter media at the same time!
By removing all media at the same time, you will remove beneficial bacterial colonies. Filter media should be changed at intervals of several months. Mechanical filter media (foam) can be replaced two or even once a year.
You can trim the plants once a month. Depending on what plants you have, this activity can be performed more or less frequently.
What activities should we do monthly?
- Trim plant
- Change or clean filter media
- Test water
Periodic
While it’s important to have routine maintenance of your equipment, there are a couple of things that need to be done as needed.
Replace the light bulb if it’s burned out. You can find replacement bulbs at your local parts store, or you can order them online. You should also inspect the air pump tubing and the filter tubing.
It is also worth changing more than 25% of the water once or twice a year.
What activities should we do periodic?
- Replace light bulbs
- Inspect or clean tubing
- 50% water change
Proper aquarium maintenance ensures a stable, healthy environment for plants and fish. However, please note that these are only general maintenance tips. Depending on the size of the aquarium, the stocking density and the types of livestock kept, the percentage and frequency variations may exists.
The table below shows the maintenance activities and how often to do them.
| Maintenance activities | How often do it? |
| Checking the condition of fish and plants | Daily |
| Temperature control | Daily |
| Checking all the equpiment (filters, CO2 system, lighting, heaters etc.) | Daily |
| Counting fish | Daily |
| Adding aquarium water (if needed) | Daily |
| Fertilizing plants | Daily |
| 20% water change | Weekly |
| Removal of dead plant parts | Weekly |
| Cleaning the glass | Weekly |
| Vacuuming the gravel | Weekly |
| 50% water change | Twice a year |
| Testing the aquarium water | Monthly |
| Filter cleaning | Monthly |
| Plant trimming | Monthly |
| 50% water change | Twice a year |
| Replacing light bulbs | If needed |
| Cleaning tubing | Monthly or less |
This is just my suggestion for aquarium care. Remember that the list can be freely modified to suit your needs.
Aquarium maintenance doesn’t require a lot of equipment, but having a few specialized tools on hand helps. If you want to know what you might need, take a look here.
Tips you should remember:
- Regulary change water. Accumulation of nitrogen compounds is toxic. But do not change more than 50% of water in the aquarium at a time (don’t change this large amount of water regularly; you can do it once or twice a year). By changing the water, we control the level of organic waste in the aquarium, ensuring its cleanliness and the health of its inhabitants.
- Never take fish out of aquarium to clean it. This causes excessive stress to the fish.
- Do not replace all filter media at the same time. It can disturb the biological balance of your aquarium.
- Wash the filter media in the water from the aquarium. Tap water or too warm water will kill the developed bacterial flora of your filter.
- Do not use soap or other detergents to clean the aquarium.
- Use only professional aquarium cleaning tools
In conclusion
So does an aquarium require a lot of maintenance? Setting up the fish tank system and making sure it works properly during the first or three months requires a lot of work and patience. It may take a few weeks before the nitrogen cycle stabilizes. Once you have a good filter running, freshwater aquariums are probably the easiest to maintain.
If you have any insights, please leave a comment below.
