How to

How to Clean the Dirty Aquarium… Practical Tips

How to Clean the Dirty Aquarium… Practical Tips

The best way to clean properly your aquarium is to follow the next steps:

  • Clean the glass from the inside
  • Cleaning the decorations, toys and artificial plants
  • Siphoning the primer
  • Cleaning the glass and the whole aquarium from the outside
  • Washing the filters and change the filter fillings

The scraper is a device which you can use for cleaning the aquarium glass from deposits. The best way to start the procedure is from the inside. In the shops there is a wide variety of scrapers – with long handles and with short handles etc. – each of them would work for you. For persistent lodgments you need to choose a scraper with a razor blade in the rear. This kind is not suitable if your fish-globe is made of acrylic glass because this type of blade will scratch the glass. In this case you better use a scraper with a plastic razor. The magnet scrapers are very convenient because you can clean the inside and outside of the glass without touching it.

Bleach: After you have purified the glass well remove all decorations, toys and artificial plants that are noticeably dirty, wash them but without using soap or any other detergents. The soap is difficult to remove and even a trace of it is toxic to the fishes. For better effect you can use a rough sponge. For particularly intense stains try a 10% solution of bleach and soak it for 15-minutes. After that rinse them under running water and dry them to remove the remnants of the bleach.

Siphon: Wipe the gravel using a special siphon for the cleaning. There are new models self-drawing siphons which have built in slug through which suck water by on it’s one. They are equipped with a tap to regulate the suction power. The tube shrinks and extended depending on the size of the aquarium. Very carefully pass the entire surface of gravel and clean all the dirt.

Detergents for glass: After you clean the inside of the aquarium you need to continue with the outside of the glass. Use the preparations for glass very carefully because most of them contain ammonia, which is highly toxic to fish. You better use detergents with vinegar or those designated particularly for aquariums. After the wiping, rinse everything very well.

Cleaning the filter: after you’ve cleaned everything it is time to get it back into the aquarium. Then wait two weeks to clean the filter. You might be wondering why the waiting is and you will find your answer below. The main cleaning will ruin many of the colonies of bacteria living in the gravel and on the surfaces of the plants and the decorations. Fortunately many colonies of bacteria are found in the filter and thanks to them, the eco-system won’t be completely destroyed. If you wash the filter at the same time you will exterminate the bacteria which eliminate the toxins and their contents into the aquarium will increase, which will lead to unpleasant consequences.

What to do after the expiration of two weeks – to wash the filter or completely replace the filter fillings. Some experts warn that the replacement of fillings will remove a large amount of bacteria, which will break off the nitrogen cycle. Others are of the opinion that there is sufficient amount of bacteria living in the gravel, rock and plants. What to do depends on the type of filter materials that you use.

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