Every aquarist, both beginner and experienced, wants to enjoy the view of a clean fish tank.
It is essential to keep your fish tank clean to avoid disease or algae growth. And it will look nice when you present it to others.
Cleaning an aquarium is not as difficult as it seems. With this simple step-by-step guide, you’ll be doing a water change easily.
It should be remembered that the fish tank is a place where animals and plants live, so you should keep it clean. Nobody likes living in dirt, even if they control it.
That is why it is so important to keep the tank clean. How to clean the tank? Cleaning the tank is as easy as it sounds but you should keep a few things in mind.
The essence of the matter is to remember that bacteria also live in the tank. They can work in two ways to keep the aquarium clean. They will make the water clean or dirty.
In addition, many elements of the decoration can release into the water compounds that affect water parameters, which will directly translate into the quality and cleanliness of the tank.
Key Takeways:
- Clean fish tanks are vital for fish health and aesthetics.
- Simple steps: Prepare tools, unplug equipment, rinse filter media, clean decor, glass, vacuum gravel, do water change, clean exterior.
- Change water every 1-2 weeks (¼ – ⅓ volume).
- Maintain a natural habitat for fish well-being.
What makes water dirty?
- Poor filtration that will insufficiently filter the water
- Compounds released from decorative elements
- Uneaten food sinking to the bottom
- Too early introduced fish into the fish tank
- Overfertilization or bad positioning of the aquarium
- Too many water changes that disturb the biological balance of the tank
- Wrong physical and chemical parameters
- Decaying plants suffering from deficiencies in the parameters necessary for life
- Dead fish. Each time remove the dead bodies and find out about the cause of their death to prevent possible disease in the water
- Wrong ratio of the duration of lighting
How to clean your aquarium in simple steps?
Here are 8 easy steps to clean your aquarium.
Step 1: Prepare the tools
Make sure you are fully prepared and have all necessary equipment:
What things are going to help to clean up the aquarium?
- A algae scraper with a fixed razor blade
- Magnet cleaner
- Water siphon for collecting pollutants from the bottom and the water itself
- Bucket for dirty water
- Glass cleaner and disinfectant
- A bowl for washing filter media and decorative elements – you can wash filter media in bucket for dirty water
- Brush for washing in the nooks and crannies of the decor
- Towels to wipe up any spilled water
- Net for fish if you want to move them elsewhere at the time (you don’t need to move your fish when cleaning the tank)
- Pre-prepared water
- Water testing kit
- Water conditioner
Step 2: Unplug equipment
Before starting, wash your hands thoroughly.
Remove your lid and lights. Make sure your heater is unplugged.
Aquarium heaters should not be left outdoors. If they overheat, crack, shatter, or melt, it’s probably time to upgrade to a new aquarium heater.
They’re so delicate that you can burn yourself just by accidentally touching them when they’re hot.
Make sure to turn off your heat 30 minutes before you drain the tank to avoid damaging the heater.
Take out the other aquarium equipment (filter etc.). Take out the fixed elements that make up the decoration.
If you have a natural aquarium, you don’t need to remove all stones, roots or plants. In this case, you will clean everything inside the tank.
Should you remove the fish from the tank? Absolutely not. You don’t need to remove the fish when you perform your regular water changes.
Step 3: Rinse your filter media
Remember that there are beneficial bacteria in the water, so it is best to rinse the filter sponge in a bucket with aquarium water. Repeating several times.
You can also rinse your filter media in dechlorinated water or tap water treated with dechlorinator.
Tap water containing chlorine can kill tank-friendly bacteria. The filter media do not need to be cleaned every time, unless the water indicates it.
Decorative elements should be thoroughly washed with a small brush, e.g. toothbrush, with warm water.
Step 4: Clean the decorations
Make sure that everything in your tank looks good. Decorative elements should be thoroughly washed with a small brush, e.g. toothbrush, with warm water.
If everything looks good, don’t waste your time with this step.
You don’t need to clean your aquarium decor each time you do a water change.
As a cleaner I use a 50/50 mix of water and white vinegar. It’s completely safe to use.
If it is necessary you can take out the rocks or decor and place them in buckets in the bathtub. You can soak the decor for 15 minutes in a mix of bleach and water. Mix 1 part bleach to 20 parts water.
Soak the items that need to be cleaned in water again until you can no longer smell bleach and add five times the normal amount of dechlorinator.
Step 5: Clean the inside tank glass
Thoroughly clean the inner glass of the aquarium with a sponge. Don’t use chemicals!
You don’t need to turn off the light when the aquarium is in use because you can see the algae so well under natural light.
When you have the algal blooms in your tank, get as much of the algae as you can while you still have the lights on. It’s hard to navigate when your tank light’s off.
An additional reason to clean the inside of the tank before filling with water is that any scraped-off algae will float around in the water. Algae will suck up with the gravel vacuum when you drain the tank.
Step 6: Vacuum the gravel
Collect dirt from the bottom of the tank by simultaneously taking up to 30% of the water volume. Use gravel vacuum.
You can also use a vacuum with a very long lift tube and hose. Watch out for the fish so they don’t get caught in the water intake pipe!
If you have sand in your aquarium, be careful not to suck it up with the gravel vacuum.
You’ll have to stop the suction frequently to prevent your pump from being overwhelmed by too much sand.
You can use the water taken from the aquarium to water house plants. It is a great breeding ground for them.
Gravel vacuum removing fish waste from the aquarium water. This is how you get rid of the nitrate in the system.
Step 7: Perform a water change
Fill the tank with water previously prepared at a similar temperature. Add preparations that stabilize water parameters and destroy unwanted elements, such as chlorine.
Unless you have really good quality water, you need to use some sort of dechlorinator every time you do a water change.
Seachem Prime is my go-to dechlorinator. It destroys chlorine and detoxifies ammonia, leaving your tank looking clean. It’s much more concentrated than other dechlorinators, so it will last longer in your tank.
Step 8: Cleaning the outside of your aquarium
Turn the filter and decor elements back on. Turn on the filter, heater, etc. and watch if everything works as before.
In this step you can clean the outside of your aquarium. Great for cleaning aquarium glass is to mix water and vinegar in ratio 50/50.
Wash your hands after work with warm soapy water.
Does the order in which the elements are cleaned matter?
Yes, yes.
Make a tank cleaning strategy plan so that everything goes smoothly and without too much hassle. First, you should turn off all elements that improve water quality, i.e. filter, heater.
Then you move on to cleaning the inner walls of the aquarium. You take out decorations, filter elements and all accessories. You proceed to collecting the dirty water from the bottom of the tank.
You start cleaning the elements of the decor: roots, stones, filter, etc. After this, you put them back in place, add the previously prepared water and turn on the filter and the heater.
If you have moved the fish to another tank at that time, let’s wait for the changed water in the aquarium to stabilize, and then let the tenants in.
However, I think it’s best to have the fish stay in the tank while you cleaning. There is no need to move them. This will create additional stress, which can make your fish sick.
Cleaning of the internal glass can be done with a scraper with a razor blade or a magnet washer, which will collect the algae located on the glass by magnetization.
It is best to clean the decorative elements with a small brush that will mechanically get rid of impurities.
Do not wash these decorations in any detergents, as this may disturb the natural bacterial flora and cause the death of living organisms.
If you clean the aquarium by restarting it, remember to disinfect the interior with, for example, potassium permanganate, available at any pharmacy.
It is a harmless disinfectant. However, it should be remembered that it can strongly and permanently stain some elements, so handle it with care.
Clean the filter in the aquarium water collected in the bucket, rinsing it several times until no more dirt comes out of it.
It should be done in such a way as not to get rid of naturally occurring beneficial bacteria from the surface of the sponge that stabilize the parameters in the aquarium.
So how often should you clean a tank?
- Observe fish and other living organisms how they behave in the water
- Study the parameters of the water
- Partially change the water in the aquarium
- Check the operation of your aquarium equipment regularly
- Perform regular maintenance to ensure that your tank is running properly
Perform a water change once a week
It is important to do these activities regularly. Changing the water to fresh water should take place once a week or 2 weeks in the amount of ¼ – 1/3 of the total water volume.
Cleaning of all elements should be carried out as rarely as possible so as not to disturb the natural biotope that prevails in the aquarium.
Regular care will allow you to enjoy the beautiful view of the aquarium with healthy inhabitants for a long time.
To sum up:
- Create a logistic aquarium cleaning plan that you will stick to
- Remember about certain rules that will allow you to avoid fish mistakes and death, for example: do not use detergents, etc.
- Do not overfeed fish and light up the aquarium
- Be regular to enjoy a clean and beautiful aquarium for a long time
- Try to avoid activities that may accelerate the contamination of the water in the aquarium
In conclusion
Keeping the water clean is a very important element in both hobby and professional fishkeeping.
The basis of aquarium hobby is to provide conditions for living organisms as close as possible to those in the natural environment.
It should be remembered that water in nature has the ability to self-purify, so that living organisms can function in it.
It’s easy to do a water change. Following all recommendations in this step by step guide will allow you to enjoy a beautiful aquarium with unique decor with its inhabitants.
Remembering the regularity of cleaning and water changes will save you a lot of time that you can spend watching your “live TV” like a documentary about the best water biotope.
