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“My fish keep dieing, I do exactly what I was told to do when I purchased the tank from the pet shop”.
“Can you sell me some really hardy fish that will live for more than a month”.
“If these fish die I’ll sell my tank, it’s to much work anyway”.
We get these comments on a daily basis the main problem that the people making these comments have is that they were misinformed on how to look after their fish and aquarium.
The typical response from these people when asked how they look after their tank is once a month they put all the fish into a bucket drain all the water from the tank wash the rocks, gravel, plants and filter then reassemble the aquarium fill it with water and put the fish back in, No wonder they are having trouble.
The worst thing you can do is exactly what they are, it can take up to 120 days for a tank to cycle this means for the beneficial bacteria that lives in the gravel, filters and rocks to reach its correct levels, every time the tank is striped and everything washed you have to start all over again as washing in tap water destroys the bacteria.
If you get yourself in to a regular maintenance routine fish keeping will be an enjoyable experience not a chore.
There are some things you should check on a daily basis, take a look at the fish are they all there are there any irregularities in their swimming or eating habits, do they have any signs of disease such as clamped fins or spots on their bodies, check the water, is the temperature correct is it clear and odorless and is the filter working this is a must after power cuts some filters will not restart and have to be manually primed.
Your weekly maintenance should include removing any decaying plant matter, trim of dieing and excessive plant growth use a pair of nail scissors to do this, next use a new sponge/scourer to clean the algae from the front glass, it is not necessary to clean the rest of the glass panels (unless it becomes unsightly), algae is a natural antibiotic for you fish and some fish such as live bearers, gouramis and African cichlids will graze on it. There is no need to do a water change if your fish stock is light but if your fish stock is heavy do a 25% change.
When changing water, make sure the water you are adding to the tank has had a chlorine neutralizer or water conditioner added and is no more than 3°C colder than your aquarium water if it is you can mix in a bucket some tap water and warm water that you have heated in a stainless steel saucepan never boil the water as this changes the ph and hardness values, never use hot water from your hot water system as these systems have copper coils that the water passes through causing excess copper levels which are very harmful to fish.
Fortnightly you should do all the above and a 30% water change, there are several reasons that water changes are so important firstly water contains trace elements which fish need once the fish use up these trace elements there is basically nothing left in the water for them so we must replace these elements and the best way is to change some of the water, avoid using rain water as it is pure and contains no trace elements what so ever and the same goes for filtered water, drinking water filters are so good they remove most of the trace elements needed by your fish. Secondly fish do their waste in the water they live in and even though you have the best filtration that money can buy it wouldn’t remove the thing that formed from the natural brake down of fish waste so the best way to remove these is to change water on a regular basis.
Every four to six weeks do the things you would on a fortnightly maintenance but include a gravel clean, there is no need to remove the gravel from the tank, gravel cleaning is done with a handy little gadget available from your local aquarium store, also if your fish stock is heavy the filter probably needs cleaning, siphon some of the aquarium water into a clean bucket (I have one just for the fish) wash all the filter media and filter in the bucket of aquarium water these will keep the beneficial bacteria alive if you use tap water all the good bacteria will be destroyed, if you are replacing the filter media never replace all of it, use a small part of the old media as this will help seed the new media with bacteria much faster.
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