How to Keep Your Aquarium Clean | Pets Care

There is something special about an aquarium in a room. The colours, the gentle play of light on the fish as they gently swim to and fro between the plants, and the soothing tone as the water is refreshed. It really is an ideal addition to any home or office. But to keep an aquarium looking its best does require a degree of care. As living creatures, the fish need to be in a clean and healthy environment in order to thrive, and the confined world of the aquarium can soon become toxic if not properly maintained. Keeping a healthy aquarium isn?t difficult, however, if you keep up a regular routine of checking and cleaning.

Here are the simple steps you can take that will keep your tank healthy and safe and looking its best for everyone to enjoy. Remember that the tank is a self-contained eco system that imitates the natural environment of rivers and lagoons that the fish come from. It actually needs algae, bacteria and living matter to maintain a natural habitat, so you are not trying to scrub everything to a gleaming shine. The aim is to keep the water and glass clean and clear so that you can see the fish at their best, but leave the right amount of natural elements. It?s not just the fish that are alive in there.

Change the Water Regularly.

Your fish breath it, poo in it and live in it. Water is the medium in which their whole lives take place, and as such should receive most of your care. The task isn?t as daunting as it sounds, however. The water doesn?t have to be completely clean, and in fact the fish actually require a certain level of bacteria and impurities to thrive. What they can?t tolerate is too much of the impurities. The filter removes most of the larger debris and feces from the water as it draws the water through (more on filters below) but you should also change around 20% of the water every week. It?s the equivalent of opening a window to get a blow of fresh air through the house, and will refresh the tank with clean, oxygenated water. Avoid taking more than this though, as when you take out the old water you?re also removing the healthy, and necessary, bacteria. Removing water also stresses the fish, so keeping the change to a smaller amount reduces the disruption. The replacement water should also be treated for chlorine before adding to the tank, as normal tap water is toxic to fish. Every few weeks you will need to do a full water change to give the tank a periodic clean, when you do this you should transfer the fish to a bucket or another tank that has some of the ?dirty? water from the tank. This preserves a portion of the bacteria that the fish need, and both the fish and this water should be added back to the newly cleaned tank so that the fresh water has a starting dose of all the right ingredients.

Clean the Gravel

It?s the tip at the bottom of the garden as far as the fish are concerned, and everything unpleasant ends up down there. It?s the repository for all the uneaten food and poo, and if left to build up, can become toxic. Filters will remove a large proportion of the particles that are in the tank, but larger pieces will become lodged in the gravel. Cleaning the gravel should also be done every two weeks using a wet vacuum or syphon. This will remove the worst of the particles and keep the debris to a minimum. When you do the occasional full water change you can rinse the gravel in a bucket or sieve to give it a thorough clean. Avoid scrubbing the gravel, however, as you don?t want to remove all the bacteria that will be coating its surface.

Clean the Filters

There are various types of filter available, so the best advice here is follow the manufacturer?s instructions for cleaning. Deciding on how often to clean them varies depending on the size of the filters and the amount of water in the tank. Suffice to say that the same principle applies as for the water and gravel. The filters, whether they?re sponge or a synthetic material, are a home for the healthy bacteria. The aim is to rinse them enough to wash out the old food and waste that will have been trapped there, but not do such a thorough job that they?re ?clinically? clean.

Control Algae

Algae isn?t a problem for the fish. It?s all part of the natural world for them. The problem is that once it takes hold it will grow over every surface in the tank, including the glass that you want to look through. Trying to watch the fish through a layer of green slime ruins the effect, and it also changes the aquarium from an attractive feature to an eyesore.

There are three ways to deal with algae. The first is to scrape it off manually. There are various cleaners available to help with this but it comes down to a bit of hard work. Depending on how you do it, cleaning the algae can distress the fish and it may be best to remove the fish while you do it. The second is to use a chemical additive that controls the algae. Whilst safe for most types of fish, the chemicals also kill some of the good bacteria in the tank, so opinion is divided on the benefit of this approach. The final approach is to add a Plecostomus. This is a bottom feeding fish that loves to eat algae, and it will spend its days grazing happily on the gravel and glass slurping up all the greenery it can find, making it the most natural of cleaners. It?s just a question of whether the algae are breeding faster than the fish can eat it.

Algae is the bane of most aquarium owners, and it can take a period of trial and error to figure out the best way to keep on top of it without harming the fish in the tank or spending an excessive amount of time dealing with it. Most find that a combination of keeping one or more Plecostomus and a certain amount of time manually scrubbing the glass works best.

Just a final note on manually cleaning the glass ? when you do this the algae will float away in to the water. The filter should then draw most of this in, but a certain amount will settle back in to the gravel. To avoid this happening, scrape the algae off just before you do your routine gravel cleaning. Cleaning the gravel will then also pick up most of the free-floating algae.

Keeping your tank healthy for the fish and making sure it?s as attractive as possible to view go hand in hand. A healthy tank is also an attractive tank, a clean and bright window looking in on a lush and natural environment with gorgeous fish swimming happily. Every time you sit and look at such an aquarium you realise all the cleaning and maintenance work is worthwhile.

Source: http://www.aucsa.org/how-to-keep-your-aquarium-clean.html

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