How To Clean Aquarium Filter

When people find out y'all go on fish, they probably imagine a crusty, algae-coated tank where yous can barely see annihilation pond inside. But with just a few easy steps, you can keep your aquarium looking like a beautiful work of art. Follow along as we share our top tips for cleaning your fish tank like a pro.

Before You Get Started…

In that location are several frequently answered questions nosotros ofttimes hear from beginners, and so let's address those first:

How often practise you need to clean a fish tank?

Some people say once a calendar week, while others say in one case a calendar month. The real reply is that it totally depends! Several factors include the size of your tank, how many fish you keep, and how much biological filtration (eastward.yard., beneficial bacteria and live plants) you have. Fortunately, nosotros have a free guide to help you lot effigy out exactly what frequency is correct for your aquarium.

Practice y'all take the fish out of the tank when cleaning?

No, become ahead and leave your fish in the aquarium. Yous won't be completely draining the aquarium, so at that place will be enough of water left for them to swim in. Besides, the process of communicable them is more stressful for the fish than slowly cleaning around them.

catching aquarium fish

There's no demand to catch the fish before cleaning an aquarium considering it will only cause undue stress.

How long exercise you lot let h2o sit down before putting fish in?

This old school slice of communication comes from the fact that municipalities often put chlorine in tap h2o (which is lethal to fish), only if you let the h2o sit out for 24 hours, the chlorine evaporates. Nowadays, chloramine (a more stable form of chlorine) is frequently used in tap water, and it does not evaporate over time. Instead, yous demand to dose water conditioner to make the water safe for fish, and so you tin immediately use the dechlorinated water for your aquarium with no wait fourth dimension.

What cleaning supplies practise you demand to get?

If this is your first aquarium, you may demand to collect some tank maintenance materials, such as:

Aquarium h2o test kit
Bucket for holding dirty tank h2o
Algae scraper (for glass or acrylic)
Algae scraper blade attachment (for drinking glass or acrylic)
Toothbrush for cleaning algae off decor or plants
Scissors for pruning plants
Dechlorinator (also known as water conditioner)
Glass cleaner
Towel for wiping upwards h2o spills
Glass-cleaning cloth or newspaper towel
Aquarium siphon (also known as a gravel vacuum)

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How to Make clean Your Aquarium

Now that we've cleared up some confusion about tank maintenance, here is a footstep-by-footstep guide for you lot to follow on a regular basis:

Step 1: Test the Water Quality

If your aquarium is newly established and has non been cycled yet, you demand to test the h2o to determine if information technology has 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrites, and less than forty ppm nitrates. (For more info, find out how to wheel your aquarium.) Higher levels of these waste matter compounds can be dangerous for fish.

If your aquarium is already cycled, so the goal is to keep nitrate levels below twoscore ppm. Mensurate the nitrates using a water examination kit to determine how much water should be removed and if other steps need to be taken (based on our free guide to water changes).

aquarium water test kit

A water test kit helps you make up one's mind if there are toxic levels of nitrogen waste compounds in the aquarium.

Footstep ii: Remove Algae

In order to maintain a articulate view of our fish, scrub the tank walls with an algae scraper. If you have the blade attachment, information technology should be very easy to slice through any tough algae spots. Just make sure not to take hold of any substrate underneath the algae scraper, or y'all may cease upwards scratching the drinking glass or acrylic.

If algae has grown on the lid, y'all tin hands rinse information technology off in the sink. (Don't use soap or information technology may impairment your fish.) Finally, if algae covers your aquarium decor, rocks, or plants, endeavor using a clean toothbrush to gently castor information technology off, either over the sink or in the aquarium. Read our commodity on how to go rid of algae for more tips and tricks.

scrubbing off algae

Go on algae under control past regularly removing information technology and balancing the lighting and food levels in your aquarium.

Footstep 3: Clip the Plants

If y'all go along live aquarium plants, have this time to remove any dead leaves and trim down overgrown foliage. If you take tall stalk plants, yous tin can easily propagate them by cutting a few inches off the tops and replanting them into the substrate. If your vallisneria or dwarf sagittaria are spreading into unwanted areas, pull out the little runners and move them elsewhere. Lastly, if floating plants have completely covered the entire water surface, remove about 30% to 50% of them so that the plants below become plenty low-cal and the fish get enough oxygen.

pruning aquarium

Pruning helps plants to focus on delivering nutrients to the healthiest leaves, and it also allows low-cal to attain leaves at the bottom of the stems.

Stride 4: Turn off Equipment

Earlier removing whatever water, make sure to turn off or unplug all equipment. Aquarium heaters and filters are non meant to operate without h2o and therefore can become damaged when running in dry air.

Step 5: Vacuum the Substrate

Take out your bully aquarium siphon and vacuum approximately one-third of the substrate. Move any decorations or hardscape every bit needed, since droppings tends to collect underneath them. The siphon serves the dual purpose of not merely removing fish waste material, uneaten nutrient, and dead leaves from the gravel or sand, but likewise removing old tank water and the backlog nitrates in them. Check out our gravel vacuum article for detailed instructions on how to first a siphon (and how to stop it if you accidentally suck upwards a small fish).

gravel vacuum

Siphons are one of the most useful tools for easily changing h2o without having to use a loving cup or pitcher.

Pace six: Clean the Filter

At least once a month, you should clean the filter. Many beginners think of filters similar a black hole where fish poop and detritus magically disappear from the h2o. In reality, filters are more like trash cans that collect waste matter, simply at the end of the 24-hour interval, someone is still responsible for taking out the trash can. In the same way, filters collect fish waste material, but y'all must still regularly clean it to remove all the gunk before the filter gets clogged upward or overflows.

If you accept a hang-on-dorsum, canister, or corner box filter, the easiest manner to maintenance it is to swish around and wash the filter media in your bucket of recently removed tank water. (Again, practise not use soap, just water.) If y'all have a sponge filter, remove the cream portion and wring it multiple times in the bucket of old tank h2o. For more than details, read the last section of our sponge filter article.

Step 7: Refill the Water

At this point, you tin can finally refill the tank with fresh, clean water that matches the temperature of the existing aquarium h2o. Man easily are able to detect temperatures within 1 or 2 degrees, so just adjust the faucet until the tap water feels similar information technology has the same corporeality of warmth. Empty out the saucepan of sometime tank water (which tin exist used to feed indoor and outdoor plants), and refill it with tap water. You can either add dechlorinator into the bucket (dosed based on the bucket's volume) or directly into the tank (dosed based on the aquarium's volume). This is also your chance to add liquid fertilizer and/or root tabs for the substrate.

refill aquarium water onto hand

If you're worried most messing upward your aquascape or substrate, pour the new h2o into the aquarium through a colander or onto another solid surface (similar your hand or a plastic bag) to lessen any disturbances.

Step 8: Turn on Equipment

Although yous just spent all this time cleaning the tank, it probably looks dirtier than ever with all that particulate clouding up the water. Not to worry – turn on the heater and filter again, and within an hour or so, the droppings will settle downwardly or become sucked up past the filter.

Stride 9: Wipe the Glass

For that actress, crystal-articulate finish, wipe down the outside walls of the tank with aquarium-safe glass and acrylic cleaner to remove any water spots and smudges. Likewise, clean off the dust that has collected on the lid, light, and aquarium stand up. Now you take a truly Instagram-worthy aquarium gear up to wow your friends and family!

boy enjoying cichlid tank