How to Clean Fish Tank – Complete Guide for Beginners

Placing a fish tank in your bedroom or in the living room can have beneficial effects on your mood and stress levels since fish tanks have the ability to decrease stress levels in your body. Many individuals falsely believe that fish tanks will require lots of attention and will be hard to clean and maintain however that is not true especially since you can find affordable cleaning supplies that will ease the process.

Moreover, manufacturers produce different sized fish tanks that also vary in price and shape hence you can purchase a small fish tank to begin with or if you have the space and the financial means you can buy bigger fish tanks with stand-alone stands.

Furthermore, latest studies by scientists have found that fish tanks also help regulate blood pressure thanks to the ‘happy ‘hormone that is released. Lastly nowadays you can find different fish tanks with different features such as remote controlled temperature, additional filters, automatic heating and lighting.

How to Choose and Set the Right Fish Aquarium?

Before, you go out and purchase a fish tank think about what kind of fish tank you want to place in your home as there are many models that vary in size and shape. You can purchase a small fish tank that you can place on a coffee table by yourself or you can buy large fish tank that will need a separate special table to be placed on.

Moreover think about whether you want to have a freshwater or saltwater fish tank, mainly this will depend on what kind of fish species you would like to purchase and keep. Saltwater fish species tend to be more colorful and there are plenty of different types you can choose from however remember that saltwater fish tanks will require much more attention plus you will also need to buy and add reef salt so as to maintain the needed salt level in the water.

Furthermore, with saltwater fish tanks you will have the ability to place corals or reefs in the aquarium instead of usual plants. However, most professional fish tank keepers recommend for individuals to purchase and set up freshwater fish tanks especially if an individual is new to the whole process.

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How to Clean a Fish Tank?

Before you actually begin cleaning your fish tank, make sure to gather all the necessary fish tank cleaning supplies. You might want to gather the following;

Moreover, make sure to carefully choose each cleaning product that you’re going to use because some of cleaning agents can increase or decrease the ph level of the water which in turn will affect the fish in the fish tank. For this reason it is highly advisable for you to use water conditioner size to prime the water before you mix it with the rest of the water in the fish tank especially if you’ll be using tap water.

Depending on whether you have algae problem in your fish tank or not you may need to purchase and use a specially designed glass scraper that will help you to quickly and efficiently get rid of algae. Lots of customers also prefer to use a siphon vacuum cleaner to clean the gravel. Once you are done with the glass walls and the gravel you can proceed to any fish tank decorations that you might have such as ships, anchors, or any other aquarium statues.

How to Clean Gravel on the Bottom?

You can also clean the gravel by using the gravel vacuum cleaner, pay special attention to the gravel because of most of the debris sets in between the stones. Once you are done with that, you can clean the decorations by either taking each piece out or cleaning it manually or by placing the decoration in a bowl with water and bleach solution.

If you notice that your fish tank has a lot of algae growing, then you might need to think about moving your fish tank away from the window because excess sunlight causes excessive algae growth.

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What Fish Are Best to Start With?

To begin with, you would need to purchase the fish tank itself as well as other attributes such as decorations, gravel, lighting and filters. You would need to set the fish tank to cycle for at least 7 to 10 days so as to set up the needed ecosystem. Then, you could add fish to the fish tank.

But, remember that there are many different fish species and some of them are highly territorial which means that there are likely to fight and even kill each other for space. If you are new to this hobby than you could look to purchase and place small schools of guppies bettas or even tetras.

Furthermore avoid buying fish species that will require lots of care and will need specific temperature and lighting levels. For example, fish species such as discus are considered very difficult to keep because they require almost daily water changes and are very sensitive to any little difference in usual temperature or lighting.

Plus,with discus you would need to perform regular water tests to determine the acidity, pH and nitrate level. To begin with, you could purchase a small school of tetras, cichlids and guppies plus you could even buy bettas.

What to Feed Your Fish?

In addition to deciding what size and shape aquarium you would like to purchase, think about what you going to feed your fish however before you buy fish food read on about what exact diet the specific fish species that you have chosen to purchase requires.

If you’re planning on populating your aquarium with more than one fish species than make sure that they will eat the same food so you can feed them at the same time with the same flakes.  Moreover, keep in mind that some few species will need live food such as frozen blood worms and dried mosquitoes.

Plus, there are also fish species that would prefer organic waste as their food however such species usually live way on the bottom of the aquarium and feed from leftovers.

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Remedy for Fish Tanks With Lots of Algae

If you happen to notice that algae is growing on the walls of your fish tank you might want to place it somewhere else if that is possible especially away from direct sunlight because that leads to excessive algae growth. You will also need to totally clean the fish tank without destroying or damaging the ecosystem that has been formed.

The best way to do this would be for you to remove everything extra from the fish tank such as decorations and even gravel. Once that is done take a hard bristle toothbrush and thoroughly scrap everything so as to remove the algae.

Don’t forget to clean all the extra accessories that you have removed from the fish tank such as the decorations. Once you’re done cleaning place everything back the way it was and add algae growth controller as per the instructions.

Lastly if you happen to notice that some of the decorations still have the algae’s stains that are hard for you to clean with water and cleaning agent you could prepare a special paste of baking soda and toothpaste.

Just make sure that the consistency is exactly of toothpaste and not very runny because otherwise the vinegar and baking soda will start to react and the paste will become useless. Once you’re happy with the paste apply it to the stain and gently rub it in.

Conclusion

To avoid algae problem altogether you will need to ensure that your fish tank is placed in a sport that is not in the direct path of sunlight but will still get the needed natural light. Moreover you could purchase specially design sprays that you will need to use to coat the walls of the fish tank as the spray has been invented to be used as a barrier between the glass and the algae.

Plus, look for fish tanks that come with minimal number of corners, hooks and crevices as this will significantly simplify the cleaning process of your aquarium. Furthermore, to help prevent evaporation you will need to either buy a fish tank with a lid or you would need to order it separately based on the exact specifications of your fish tank but make sure that it is not heavy so that you could lift it every time you need to.

In conclusion, regularly check your fish for signs of illness such as the whitening of scales, fins or tails. Also, pay attention to any boils or other skin damage that could occur on your fish. If you do notice anything wrong, you will need to add a special water antibiotic into your fish tank as per the instructions on the bottle.