There are all kinds of reasons why owning a fish tank is definitely a beautiful thing. Firstly, you get to marvel at something that is basically a living, breathing work of art. And not just that, but you get the thrill of caring for and developing a small aquatic ecosystem. However, that entails more than just feeding your fish and marveling at the sight of their underwater movements. You also need to know all of the myriad facts about cleaning your fish tank. Otherwise, you won’t be able to maintain a healthy environment for your fish — which is definitely a problem if you want them to live long and happy lives.
Thus, we’re going to provide you with some of the basic facts about aquarium cleaning; the basic stuff that you need to be familiar with if you want to be a responsible fish owner.
Cleanliness is important for a variety of reasons
Many people don’t realize just why keeping your aquarium clean is such an important chore. And sure, just like any other grimy cleaning — it’s never your favorite activity in the world. But that still doesn’t matter that you should refrain from doing it!
The first reason for aquarium cleaning will be familiar to you; after all, it’s the same reason that we clean any sort of home. And that’s health — just like an extremely unkempt home is bad for living in, the same is true for a fish aquarium. If you don’t make sure that this fish tank is as clean as possible, you risk potentially harboring all kinds of viruses, fungi, and dangerous bacteria.
Plus, dirty fish tanks usually have a badly balanced pH level; meaning that the nutrients and gasses found in the water won’t make for an optimal living environment for your fish. Plus, the functioning of your tank may also be at risk. If you don’t clean it regularly enough, there’s a good chance that you’ll end up gathering excess waste and floating debris. In turn, this will probably clog up all of those extremely important mechanisms that keep your aquatic ecosystem going — such as the pump and the filter. In the end, that can prove quite disastrous for the fish inside.
And last but not least — you simply can’t enjoy a dirty aquarium as much as you could if it was clean. Imagine looking through the glass and only seeing dirty, murky water. You would definitely find all of that algae and slime more disgusting than beautiful. And that’s a problem, considering that fish tanks are also big aesthetic setpieces in anyone’s home.
Picking the right size matters
There are plenty of different things you need to keep in mind if you want to make keeping your fish tank clean as easy as possible. And some of these considerations are stuff that you need to keep in mind even as you purchase the tank, in the very beginning. For instance, you want to be certain that the tank is just the proper size for your fish. If it turns out to be too tiny, you will notice your fish being cooped up and stressed out; resulting in them dirtying the water and the tank far more quickly.
On the other hand, a huge tank means that you have a lot more space to constantly clean, and the fish may even grow uncomfortable if there are not enough of them. As you can see, it’s a careful balance to maintain!
Pick the right filter
As you can imagine, the water filter in your fish tank is your biggest ally in the battle to keep the entire system as clean as you can. It will allow you to screen out any potential waste or debris quite easily. And considering that, choosing the right filter for your tank is a task of immense importance. These aren’t necessarily complicated parts of the tank, but there are still some factors to think about, such as the strength of the filter, and its size.
Seeing as maintaining a fish tank can be quite expensive, you should still keep your initial budget in mind, but get the best possible filter within your accepted financial range. If the filter has biological, mechanical, and chemical elements for filtration — you’re likely going to have a much easier time cleaning the tank later on!
Be careful while feeding the fish
Naturally, the main thing that dirties the tank is the fish themselves. And the level at which they’ll make it harder for you to clean their home depends on how well you feed them. This may seem like getting into too much detail but actually, it will help your fish tank cleaning process very much.
Think about the food that you’re giving to your fish. If they get the best possible food, they’ll definitely have a better digestive process on average. Also, you don’t want to feed them too little, or you risk starving them; but overeating is a genuine danger as well. If you feed them just the right amount and in accordance with a proper schedule, you’ll have absolutely nothing to worry about. Just make sure that you clean out any food that they don’t eat — not caring about leftovers is one of the quickest ways to foul your fish tank.
Other tips
While everything that we’ve mentioned above matters, we’ll also provide you with a couple of other tips that are worth keeping in mind.
Firstly, it’s quite important to change the water in your fish tank on a regular basis just like we revive lawn regularly . Water will get spent and dirty after a while, so making a clear schedule for replacing it will go a long way towards helping you maintain a habitable and clean tank. For example, you could change a fifth of the water every three weeks.
Also, you don’t need to do everything yourself when it comes to cleaning the tank! There are natural inhabitants of the tank that could help you with that task, so adding some is always a useful idea. Some types of shrimp and snail tend to clean up, and certain fish species constantly eat the algae that would otherwise dirty your tank.
Finally, keeping live plants in the tank can be an interesting and beautiful natural prop and you can take out some ideas from terrarium ideas; but you don’t want them to get out of hand and become a source of decay and dead matter. If you spot any grass or leaves becoming brown, immediately trim them away and remove them to ensure the pureness of your water!
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