This article explains how to safely clean any fresh water fish tank. The instructions will apply for any size of fish tank that you have.Make sure you have everything you need!
Run through your checklist, and make sure everything you need is available.
Decide how much water you are going to change
If you are on a regular schedule and if your fish are healthy, 10-20% should be enough.
Start the siphon and direct the water into a a large pail, particularly a five gallon.
You may need a larger bucket if you have a large aquarium.
Push your gravel vacuum through the gravel.
Fish waste, excess food, and other debris will be sucked into the the vacuum.
If you have a sand substrate, do not use the vacuum like a shovel.
Use just the hose part of the siphon, not the plastic tube, holding it under an inch from the surface to suck up waste without disturbing your sand.
If your decorations are covered in algae, you may want to feed your fish less or change the water more frequently.
Excess algae growth is caused by excess nutrients in the water. You can wipe the decorations off in the tank water you siphoned out, and use an algae scrubber to remove algae from the walls of the tank. You can also put in algae remover with your conditioner.
Change the filter cartridge about once a month.
Contrary to common belief, the carbon inside of the filter cartridge can become detrimental to your fishes health if left unchanged. Not much beneficial bacteria lives inside the filter, most is in the gravel, so changing it will not affect the biological filtration in any way. Cartridges can be rinsed off weekly when water changes are performed if it appears to be dirty. However rinsing the filter cartridge does not substitute changing it, so it still has to be changed montly.
Replace the water you took out with fresh, treated water at the temperature of the aquarium.
Any cloudiness that remains will normally dissipate in a few hours, leaving the water sparkling clear.
