Step Three: Maintenance

Fish tanks are great, and if you keep up with maintaining them, they last much longer and have fewer problems. There are three important things for aquarium maintenance.

Water Changes

Water changes are the most important part of fishkeeping. They remove any need to tear down a tank every 6 months. A fish tank is a closed system, meaning wastes have no way to get out. Cycling solves part of that problem, but water changes still have to be done. This is even more important if you want fish to breed, or are keeping sensitive species. Some people base water changes on how much Nitrate is present in their tank, and others just do a water change every week, or other week at the same time.

A standard water change is between 20% and 30% of the tank water getting removed, and being replaced with dechlorinated tap water of the same temperature. Most people get a 5 gallon bucket and a siphon and water changes are fairly easy. Most siphons come with gravel vacuums, which is another important piece of cleaning. If you vacuum your gravel there is less waste to break down and become nitrate.

Waste water can be just dumped down the drain, or used to water gardens, or lawns. It is very good for houseplants as well, provided there is no medication in the water.

Filter Cleaning

Periodically filters need to be cleaned so that they do not slow down, or even overflow. This is easiest during a water change. Only ever clean a filter in water from the tank, never in tap water. Chlorine in Tap Water kills the bacteria that are keeping your tank cycled. Most filters come with sponges, and those should be squeezed out, and often the impeller assembly should be cleaned with a brush or q-tip (not the antibacterial kind.)

Plant Pruning

If you keep live plants and they are healthy, you should need to prune them regularly. Remove any dead leaves, as they will just decompose and hurt your water quality. Also, with bunched stem plants they often grow very tall and can look stringy. These plants you can cut down to a level you prefer and replant their tops. The cut bottoms can be removed, or left to resprout as many do.

Floating plants often need to be thinned out so that they don't take over the tank surface. Plants like duckweed can be fed to goldfish as a snack.

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