These are some basic tips on how to keep your aquarium clean and your fish healthy. Assuming that you already have your aquarium set up with fish in it, these are a few tips to help keep your aquarium clean in order to maintain a healthy environment for your fish.
If you have small to medium size fish such as tetras, barbs, mollies, platies or swordtails, then you probably feed them tropical flake food. It is a good idea to only feed your fish 2 or 3 bite-size pieces of food 2 or 3 times per day. Only feed what they will eat right away, so no food is left as excess in the tank. Excess food will create ammonia poison, and can cause your tank water to get cloudy and make your fish sick.
If you have larger fish, such as oscars, or other cichlids, or larger goldfish, you may feed a pelleted food. Feed in the same manner. Just feed a few pellets for each fish, so there will not be any excess food. You don’t want to see excess food fall to the bottom, or get sucked up in the filter. If you have bottom feeders, it’s okay to let a little fall to the bottom. Fish will do better on 2 or 3 small feedings, rather than one big feeding. Careful feeding will help keep your tank clean.
Another good tip for keeping your tank clean is to invest in a gravel siphon cleaner and siphon about 1/3 of the water from the gravel at least once a month. If your tank is newly set up you may want to change water more often for the first few months, until the aquarium gets established. If you have a lot of fish, large fish, or if someone feeds them a lot of food, then it is wise to gravel vacuum and siphon the water much more often. Gravel siphoning is pretty easy, and gets the dirt out of the gravel along with the water being siphoned.
Another thing to check on your tank is the filter. Make sure that the filter is working well, and is circulating the surface of the water. The filter should have a turnover rate of 5 to 10 gallons per hour per gallon of tank volume. A filter for a 10-gallon tank should have a rate of about 100 gallons per hour. A 20-gallon tank should have about 100 to 200 gph. A 30-gallon tank should have about 150 to 300 gph. You will want a larger filter if you have large fish, or a lot of fish.
Check out these gravel siphons and filters:
STRETCH GRAVEL VACUUM
5 INCH GRAVEL VACUUM
SIPHON KLEEN
ULTIMATE GRAVEL VAC ECONOMY KIT
AQUEON POWER FILTER
WHISPER EX20 POWER FILTER
PENGUIN 150 POWER FILTER
CANISTER FILTER
Tags: Fish & Ponds
