# what do i clean my 10 gallon fish tank with?



## fishy 6.0 (Nov 3, 2005)

what do i clean my 10 gallon fish tank with? i have 10 fish in it and i know it is over packed! :help: how do i clean it?


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## Guest (Nov 3, 2005)

um...do u have a filter?
when doing regular water changes (usually weekly) you should use a gravel vacuum. empy out about 30% of the water and place back clean, conditioned water. what do you have in it? what are your water parameters? is it cycled?


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## Ethos (Sep 11, 2005)

Yeah, siphon it out once a week, change filter cartriges, and get an algy scraper to clean the indie of the glass. 
Most people only empty it out 15-20% weekly, as 30% might be too much of a bioload, causing a Nitrite/NitrateAmmonia Spike.


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## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

I usually do around 30 % in my tank, and nothing seems to happen, but I like to make my tanks crystal clear. 

What I do is I siphon the gravel until all the debris is up and then go ahead and scrape off the algae from the walls. Every two weeks I'll replace the filter cartrige, and every month, I will use pipe cleaners to scrub out the filter tubes.

But as Scuba Kid said, it does matter if your tank is cycled or not, because if it isn't then you will need to change less of the water (I think if I'm correct) but more often then you would have to if your tank is cycled.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

my filter pads last 6 months but that makes sense because the tank is a 10 with a 30 gallon filter


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## Doodles (Oct 2, 2005)

Just a tip, don't rinse your filter media in tap water, as this is all of your good bacteria and the chlorine in the tap water can kill all of your good bacteria and cause you tank to re-cycle. Just gently rinse your media out in aquarium water. To start you filter back up (when you pour water in it) use aquarium water as well.

You can get an aquarium vacuum that attaches to you faucet, with this method you can suck out and refill your tank with water instead of the bucket method. This is much easier but for a 10 gallon you really don't need to buy that but if you do upgrade to a bigger tank it is much easier on you.

On my 10 gallons I use the bucket method because the gravel vacuum is too strong. With my big tanks I need the vacuum, it would be extremely hard if not impossible for me to clean all of my big tanks with the bucket method.

I clean all my tanks once a week, doing a 35% to 50% water change (vacuuming the gravel), taking all the decorations out. I judge the amount I take out depending on how much waste is in the gravel. I dump the water in my HOB filters out and fill with aquarium water. I clean my canisters once a month. I scrape the algae off every week as well.
Here are a couple links:

Gravel Vaccume

http://shop.petsmart.com/product/2534374302023693/2534374302030123/845524441780039.htm

http://shop.petsmart.com/product/2534374302023693/2534374302030123/845524441780038.htm

Python that attached to faucet.
http://shop.petsmart.com/product/2534374302023693/2534374302030123/845524441776792.htm

Here are some different sizes you can get
http://www.epetpals.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?search=action&keywords="gravel_vacs"


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## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

fishboy said:


> my filter pads last 6 months but that makes sense because the tank is a 10 with a 30 gallon filter


Lucky you. I just have the one on there, and it says to change every 2 - 4 weeks, so I do. Havn't really noticed a difference if i leave it in there for longer though.


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## Guest (Nov 4, 2005)

Ethos said:


> Yeah, siphon it out once a week, change filter cartriges, and get an algy scraper to clean the indie of the glass.
> Most people only empty it out 15-20% weekly, as 30% might be too much of a bioload, causing a Nitrite/NitrateAmmonia Spike.


a 30% percent change of the water should be fine.


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## Pareeeee (Jan 22, 2005)

Ingredients needed to clean tank: Hands, something to scrape algae with, bucket.


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