![]() ![]() I have a 12 foot (4 meter) hose that I run out into my garden. I like to use a vac with a very long lift tube and hose. The gravel vac will just suck the sand right out of the tank and into the bucket if you’re not careful. Sand – Sand is a bit trickier because it’s so much lighter than gravel.Repeat this until you vacuum as much of the area at the bottom of the tank as possible. You can push the tube of the gravel vacuum down until it hits the bottom glass, wait for the plume of fish poop/uneaten food to rise, pull the lift tube up and go to the next little area. Gravel – This is the easiest kind of substrate to clean.How you clean the substrate depends on what kind of substrate you have: Start by siphoning your tank’s water into your bucket. Step 5: Siphon the Water and Clean the Substrate Dump the soak water and the decor is now safe to put back in the aquarium.Submerge the decor in water again and add a 5 times normal dose of dechlorinator.Rinse the decor with plain water until you can no longer smell bleach.Soak the decor for 10-15 minutes in the bleach solution.I suggest taking out the rocks or decor and placing them in buckets in the bathtub. Never ever use bleach in the aquarium.It’s completely non-toxic and won’t stain clothes.īut, if it’s really tough algae, I will use bleach: ![]() My chosen aquarium cleaner is a 50/50 mix of water and vinegar. You don’t have to clean your aquarium decor every time you do a water change, only when it builds up algae and looks bad. ![]() If everything in your tank looks good, you can just skip this step. You don’t have to unplug any air pumps you’re using, but I usually end up doing this anyway because everything is usually plugged into the same strip plug. The motors in hang-on-the-back and canister filters can burn up if they’re allowed to run dry. It’s best to unplug the heater 15 minutes before you drain the tank to make sure that it can cool down before it’s taken out of the water.Īlso, make sure to unplug your filter. They can even deliver a nasty burn if you accidentally touch them while they’re hot. They can overheat, crack, shatter and/or melt. Aquarium heaters are not meant to run outside the water. I’ve had two tank lids and a really nice set of lights get destroyed when people stepped on them.Įspecially make sure to unplug your heater. Trust me on this, get these items well out of the way while you work. Step 3: Unplug EquipmentĪt this point, go ahead and remove your lid and lights. There’s no reason to half kill your back trying to get to a small patch in the back corner of the tank if no one can see it anyway. If you can’t see it from the front of the tank, and it’s not bothering you, just leave it. There is no aquarium police that will inspect your tank for any missed algae. This will get sucked up with the gravel vacuum when you’re draining the tank, removing it from the tank entirely.Īnd you don’t HAVE to clean off every inch of the glass. Get as much of the algae as you can while you’ve still got the lids and light on.Īs soon as you have to turn the tank light off, it suddenly gets a whole lot harder to see what you’re doing.Īnother reason to clean the inside glass first is the scraped off algae will float around in the water column. It’s way easier to see the algae when the tank is full of water and the light is still on. OK hear me out on this one, I’ll admit, it might sound a bit counterintuitive at first glance. Residues from soaps and cleansers can be lethal to fish and invertebrates. Make sure to NOT use your aquarium cleaning equipment for household cleaning.
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