# how do i clean a fish tank



## Ice fish (Dec 18, 2012)

I'd like to know when I'm cleaning my fish tank do I keep some of the old water.


----------



## Sleeping_Lion (Mar 19, 2009)

Ice fish said:


> I'd like to know when I'm cleaning my fish tank do I keep some of the old water.


Yes you do, but you also need to test the water, and treat water to reduce/remove the chlorine and additives put in for us humans. It's years since I kept fish, but you seriously need to read up about this first otherwise you could harm your fish. For tropical fish you also need to bring it up to the same temperature as your tank, otherwise you could harm your fish with a rapid temperature change.

What sort of cleaning system do you have in your tank, do you have a filter in there that cleans the water and aerates the tank? If not I would strongly suggest getting one.


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

Sleeping_Lion said:


> Yes you do, but you also need to test the water, and treat water to reduce/remove the chlorine and additives put in for us humans. It's years since I kept fish, but you seriously need to read up about this first otherwise you could harm your fish. For tropical fish you also need to bring it up to the same temperature as your tank, otherwise you could harm your fish with a rapid temperature change.
> 
> What sort of cleaning system do you have in your tank, do you have a filter in there that cleans the water and aerates the tank? If not I would strongly suggest getting one.


You dont need to test your water,on the water changes,once your tank is matured.
Temperature change isnt too important,as long as its not too drastic a drop.Mine drops as low as 21 degrees.
But I have Malawi,and in the wild,this is normal for them.(have you swum in a lake,or the sea,and noticed the temperature change?)
Depends on what fish you keep.
You need to 'cycle' a new tank.You can do this 2 ways,IME
Tetra safe start,is bacteria in a bottle.It works,I use it when setting up fry tanks.Its pricey though.
Or you can do it by adding ammonia.But you need to know how to do it,how much,how often,ect. I could help there.
You do have to add conditioner to the water.
seachem prime is the most economical,as you need 1ml per 10 litres of water.
Filter is a must,what ever fish you keep.Unless you want them to die.
What I do,during a water change,is drain off 50% of the water,and add fresh,with a hose pipe,from out side.I top up with warm,using buckets.
But again,it depends what fish you keep,as to how much water you change.Malawi are messy.You must get fish,to match your ph tap water.Dont mess with ph too much.Its best that its stable,or it will do more harm than good.swings in ph could kill fish


----------



## Sleeping_Lion (Mar 19, 2009)

kathateria said:


> You dont need to test your water,on the water changes,once your tank is matured.
> Temperature change isnt too important,as long as its not too drastic a drop.Mine drops as low as 21 degrees.
> But I have Malawi,and in the wild,this is normal for them.(have you swum in a lake,or the sea,and noticed the temperature change?)
> Depends on what fish you keep.
> ...


Maybe you misunderstood, I mean test the water you're going to be putting into your tank, not the stuff you're taking out, so you don't poison your fish with chemicals from the tap. You can rely on putting in water treatments, but personally I'd always test what I was adding to the tank, otherwise the PH etc could be way out.


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

If you condition fresh water going in,you wont need to treat with chemicals


----------



## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

I would test new tap water for nitrates. The 50ppm target set by the EU is more than I would be prepared to put into a tank


----------



## Sleeping_Lion (Mar 19, 2009)

kathateria said:


> If you condition fresh water going in,you wont need to treat with chemicals


Yes I know, the best set up is to have a separate tank with no fish in, so that you can simply match the conditions and when you take out old water from the tank with fish in, you can wash the filter sponges etc in that, and then replace the water taken out straight away from the second tank. That's how I used to do some water changes, but having four tanks, one of which was 5' long, it was impossible for me to keep that much spare water sloshing around 

I used to keep and breed discus, as well as armoured catfish.


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

hawksport said:


> I would test new tap water for nitrates. The 50ppm target set by the EU is more than I would be prepared to put into a tank


But you couldnt do anything about it,once youve drained the water.
2 products said to reduce the nitrates
Seachem matrix in your filter,said to reduce them
seachem Denitrate is a filter media which provides an ideal home for the type of bacteria which eat Nitrates and convert them to nitrogen and oxygen. These bacteria are Anerobic, they work best in very low oxygen levels and very low flow rates.
Also,you could buy a nitrate filter,that removes some nitrates,before it enters the tank.
There isnt much you can do about tap nitrate,unless you buy an RO unit


----------



## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

kathateria said:


> But you couldnt do anything about it,once youve drained the water.
> 2 products said to reduce the nitrates
> Seachem matrix in your filter,said to reduce them
> seachem Denitrate is a filter media which provides an ideal home for the type of bacteria which eat Nitrates and convert them to nitrogen and oxygen. These bacteria are Anerobic, they work best in very low oxygen levels and very low flow rates.
> ...


I know all about anaerobic dentrification
I was removing nitrate from tap water long before RO units were available for home use


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

hawksport said:


> I know all about anaerobic dentrification
> I was removing nitrate from tap water long before RO units were available for home use


Please tell me how you did it.I would love to use the method.My tap nitrates are 20


----------



## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

Arcadia poly filter. Originally Underworld poly filter. I used to be friends with Dave Keely who owned Underworld in Loughborough many years ago

Arcadia Aquarium Poly-Filter 30 x 30cm (ex underworld Polyfilter)


----------



## Ice fish (Dec 18, 2012)

Could you tell me too


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

Ice fish said:


> Could you tell me too


Test your tap nitrates first,you might not need it


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

hawksport said:


> Arcadia poly filter. Originally Underworld poly filter. I used to be friends with Dave Keely who owned Underworld in Loughborough many years ago
> 
> Arcadia Aquarium Poly-Filter 30 x 30cm (ex underworld Polyfilter)


I will ask my mate about this,its his job to test water,as he works for environmental health,and tests his water at the lab.


----------



## Quinzell (Mar 14, 2011)

In answer to your original question, you can keep the old water to rinse off the sponges, etc from your filter, that way you are getting rid of a lot of the gunk but not killing off the bacteria but after that its best to dispose of it


----------



## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

LouiseH said:


> In answer to your original question, you can keep the old water to rinse off the sponges, etc from your filter, that way you are getting rid of a lot of the gunk but not killing off the bacteria but after that its best to dispose of it


I think the op meant keep some of the old water as in not change all of it rather than save what they take out to use for something
I used to use my old water for the plants


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

hawksport said:


> Arcadia poly filter. Originally Underworld poly filter. I used to be friends with Dave Keely who owned Underworld in Loughborough many years ago
> 
> Arcadia Aquarium Poly-Filter 30 x 30cm (ex underworld Polyfilter)


How long did this take,before you needed to replace it?
£74 is alot to replace it,each filter clean.
It would be a pest to also open your filter every water change,(or more often)to see if its turned black,like it says in the description


----------



## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

kathateria said:


> How long did this take,before you needed to replace it?
> £74 is alot to replace it,each filter clean.
> It would be a pest to also open your filter every water change,(or more often)to see if its turned black,like it says in the description


That would probably last about a year. The good thing about it is unlike carbon it wont release anything it has absorbed once it is saturated or if water chemistry changes


----------



## Quinzell (Mar 14, 2011)

hawksport said:


> I think the op meant keep some of the old water as in not change all of it rather than save what they take out to use for something
> I used to use my old water for the plants


Ah OK.....I really find it hard to answer a lot of questions here because of the marine side. I forget that people are using fresh water. I want to help but a lot of my experiences aren't valid


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

hawksport said:


> That would probably last about a year. The good thing about it is unlike carbon it wont release anything it has absorbed once it is saturated or if water chemistry changes


Carbon doesnt.Thats fish folklaw.

This is copied off my forum,by a fishy scientist.If its about fish,Graham will know how to help you! (The other guy,environmental health officer,is a water specialist,and knows all about filtration,and how it all works)

Graham wrote,re carbon

'You need to replace it when it has become saturated with all the nasties its absorbed. After that it just sits there uselessly.

Don't worry about carbon dumping stuff back into the water. You'll often read that it can do this. Actually its not wrong but in the context of our tanks, for it to happen the parameters in your tank would have had to have changed to such an extent that the release of anything from the carbon would be the least of your worries and your fish would probably be long gone.'


----------



## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

kathateria said:


> Graham wrote,re carbon
> 
> 'You need to replace it when it has become saturated with all the nasties its absorbed. After that it just sits there uselessly.
> 
> '


How do you know when it's saturated?


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

Doesnt really matter,does it? It wont do harm,is the point.
I dont use it,unless its to remove medication.
I ask Ian,if I am stuck.He uses it,only because he obsesses over water, and knows what the water companies add to the water.
For example,you see them digging up the roads,the water companies run lots of chemicals through,so its safe for us to drink,if it gets contaminated.


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

http://www.seachem.com/Library/Articles/A_Primer_Aquarium_Filtration.pdf

Thats quite reliable,for the science side of things


----------



## Ice fish (Dec 18, 2012)

So what you all are saying is that i dont keep old water for the fish


----------



## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

kathateria said:


> Doesnt really matter,does it? It wont do harm,is the point.


It may not do any harm but if I was to use a filter again (very unlikely) I wouldnt want to waste it using a media I didn't know was working


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

Ice fish said:


> So what you all are saying is that i dont keep old water for the fish


Do you mean on a water change? If so,you remove a percentage of the water,say 20% of tank water,and replace with tap water.Just throw it down the drain!
If you clean the filter,then use the tank water,in a bucket,to swill the filter media (sponges/other items in the filter) Then throw it away


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

hawksport said:


> It may not do any harm but if I was to use a filter again (very unlikely) I wouldnt want to waste it using a media I didn't know was working


Then dont use carbon Use purigen,and recharge in a thin bleach solution,as directed by seachem.
Or change every month,to put your mind at ease.
You dont need to buy a big brand name,like seachem
Alfragrog is another media for lowering nitrates,as it has a bigger surface area.You can get big pieces of that,and smash with a hammer,to keep the cost down


----------



## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

kathateria said:


> Then dont use carbon Use purigen,and recharge in a thin bleach solution,as directed by seachem.


I thought we were talking about aquarium use


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

hawksport said:


> I thought we were talking about aquarium use


Yes,you recharge it in bleach.Shocking,I know.But after you rinse well,and soak in conditioner,before you add it back to the filter. Seachem recommends this.I emailed them,and they told me how to do it


----------



## Ice fish (Dec 18, 2012)

People i just want a simple yes or no answer


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

kathateria said:


> Do you mean on a water change? If so,you remove a percentage of the water,say 20% of tank water,and replace with tap water.Just throw it down the drain!
> If you clean the filter,then use the tank water,in a bucket,to swill the filter media (sponges/other items in the filter) Then throw it away


Simple answer


----------



## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

Ice fish said:


> People i just want a simple yes or no answer


You leave some of the old water in and change around 20% of it. Once you have a filter you save the water you take out to rinse your filter media in


----------



## Ice fish (Dec 18, 2012)

Ok so you dont keep the old water for the fish. Yes/No.


----------



## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

You don't take out all the water from the tank, just some of it, and throw that away. Then replace it with tap water that you have added dechlorinator to.


----------



## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

@katheteria - my tap nitrates are 40+, so I use this: Aquaworld AQUAWORLD NITRATE REMOVER It does a great job, and can be recharged using a salt solution


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

NaomiM said:


> @katheteria - my tap nitrates are 40+, so I use this: Aquaworld AQUAWORLD NITRATE REMOVER It does a great job, and can be recharged using a salt solution


What does it reduce them to?


----------



## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

It depends how quickly or slowly you run the water through. I run it through quite quickly, and it reduces them to under 5ppm. If I ran it through slower, it would probably reduce to 0ppm


----------



## kathateria (Nov 11, 2012)

gotta get one


----------

