Habitat - Indoor :: Cleaning out tank

[mzkitty23]

How often should I be cleaning out my tank? Should I remove all the water everytime? It's a 100 gallon and I have adequate filtration and it stays pretty clean, but I have read that even if it "looks" clean you should change water regularly, but I don't really know what "regularly" means.

[AnthonyGarcia]

correct me if i'm wrong, but i think a partial water change once a week and a full tank cleaning once a month would be great.

since i have a 55-gallon tank and my filter is good for only 40 gallons, i do partial water changes every sunday morning.

i do a full tank clean once a month.

..and when i feed them, i put my babies on a separate feeding tank to minimize waste on their big tank.

[octpusgirl8]

It's never a good idea to change more than half of the water in your tank at once, it can disrupt the balance in the tank and could lead to cloudy water for a while. A partial water change weekly should be fine as long as you have a good filter.

[mzkitty23]

OH MY! Well that explains a lot! I did a full change and the water is cloudier now! (Which made no sense to me). Anyone else have comments about how often they clean theirs??

[BullDog]

I now have two big tanks, 75 and 90, and I'm kind of just getting into the swing of things for cleaning both. I just did the first 100% water change in the 90 gal, after about 4 months, and a 100% water change in the 75 after about the same, maybe a bit longer. I do 25% water change every couple of weeks, sometimes longer. And then, every few partial water changes I do 50% instead of 25%.

Your biggest indication on when to change is the nitrate levels. When your nitrate starts getting high, it's time to change.

And as for the cloudy water when you do a full tank change(also called new tank syndrome), I have a way of avoiding that, although some say I've just been lucky. I put my biomedia in a bucket of tank water while I'm cleaning the filter + tank. You just have to make sure you run dechlorinated water through the filter, and not straight from the tap.

[mzkitty23]

what is biomedia and how do i know when my nitrite levels are high??????!!!! I also put some No More Algae in the tank this time and i think that made it even cloudier!

[BullDog]

Biomedia is where the beneficial bacteria grows. It's usually a type of ceramic that has a bunch of small holes in it. It can come in rings or stars.

You can get test kits for your nitrate levels at just about any pet store, or even sometimes walmart. There's strips and there's the liquid test types.

I don't know about the No More Algae stuff, but usually the cloudy water when you first start up a tank is usually caused by high ammonia levels. You can combat this by doing 15-20% water changes every couple of days until the cloudiness disappears.

[RESnTX]

I do the same thing as BullDog. I clean the filter first so I have the old tank water to rinse everything in. Since I've been doing this I never get cloudy water anymore. I do a 25% water change once a week and haven't had to do a full water change in months...thankfully...

[ILUV_Rocky]

Can anyone tell me where to get a good python. I think thats whats its called to clean the tank. I just got a 75 gallon tank. I have no idea how to clean it. Also how to fill it up

[xfueledbykatie]

i clean my tank once a month :]
i do partial changes every other week or so.
i've never had a problem with cloudy water.



pythons are amazing.

[Chrisbarnett]

Rocky,
You can get the python online.

[RESnTX]

you can also get a python at Walmart

[meltedspork]

I do a 100% water change about once a month (55g tank) and have never had a problem with cloudy water.