Wondering how professionals from your local aquarium shop come and make your fish aquarium as good as new? Well, you can do that too!

We know it seems like a handful of job but it’s not that difficult, to be honest. Here we’ll give you some tips and tricks that you can use to clean and maintain your fish aquarium on your own!

Before we jump onto the tips, let us know why it is important for you to clean your fish tank.

(Image source- YouTube)

 

Why do you need to clean your aquarium?

It is essential to keep your fish aquarium clean in order to maintain your little ecosystem and keep your fishes healthy.

To be specific, there are 3 main reasons why we need to clean our fish aquarium from time to time –

1. To regulate the nitrogen cycle
2. To remove dissolved and particulate organic compounds
3. To replenish essential minerals

(Image Source: The Aquarium Guide)

 

Let’s look into some tips to maintain your fish aquarium –

• Feed your fish twice in a day and after 5 minutes of that take out the excess or leftover food. This will ensure that the uneaten food doesn’t breakdown and hamper the water quality.

• Try changing 10-20% of the water in your fish aquarium in every 2-3 weeks. This will make routine cleaning relatively easier and quicker.

• Do not pour in water directly into the tank. You can use your hand and put it inside the aquarium and pour the water on it. This will help decrease the pressure of the water and not move any gravel or sand at the bottom.

If you keep these little tips in mind and follow them regularly, you would hardly ever need to change the entire water of your tank.

 

How you can clean your aquarium-

Now without much chitter-chatter, let’s dive straight into the point. Here’s how you can clean your fish aquarium in just 5 simple steps!

1.     Preparation
2.     Removing Water
3.     Removing Algae
4.     Cleaning Filter
5.     Adding Water

 

How simple, right? Let us brief you a little about each step.

 

Preparation – The first thing to do is to gather all the things you need to clean your tank. Things you will be needing:

•       A bucket
•       A clean cloth/ towel
•       A siphon pipe or you can also use a mug
•       A scrapper pad or you can use a magnetic one (it’s more convenient)
•       Freshwater

After you have all the supplies ready, remove any large decoration or ornament from the tank. If you have a planted tank, do not uproot the plants. But if there are artificial plants, you can remove them.

 

Removing water - If you’re using a siphon pipe, then all you need to do is remove the water with a slow pressure so that the gravel isn’t disturbed. Put a thumb on the end of the pipe to slow the pressure.

(Image Source: The Fish Doctor)

Leave in some water for the fishes to stay in.

 

Removing algae – This step cleans the glass of your tank and the easiest way to do it is to use a magnetic algae cleaner. You can also use a scrapper pad and clean the glass by rubbing it on the areas where there are algae.

(Image Source: Pet Coach)

Also, remember to clean the decorative items with a scrapper and clean water. Do not use soap or any other chemical to clean your tank or any other item of the tank.

 

Cleaning filter – The most common type of filter is the sponge one. To clean it you need to remove the sponge and clean with fresh water. The same goes for the marble rings and the rest of the parts of the filter which need cleaning.

 

(Image Source: Fox River)

 

Adding water – After you are done cleaning the entire aquarium, you need to fill it up with fresh water. For this, you can use a pipe or a mug, but make sure that you add the water on your hand or a piece of plastic to reduce its pressure. You can simply put a piece of plastic at the bottom of the tank and pour water on it.

(Image Source: japanesefightingfish.org)

Keep the water ready in advance so that it reaches room temperature.

You don’t need to remove the fishes from the aquarium while cleaning unless you have a very small tank.

 

If you still don’t want to get your hands dirty but want your aquarium cleaned, then let us help you out! Petstreet provides at-home aquarium cleaning services in Delhi NCR. You can visit any of our stores or call us on +91 9899070804.

 

To sum it up-

Do you see it now? it’s not such a laborious task after all! Just keep changing partial water regularly and you’re good to go. We hope these tips and tricks were useful to you.