Cleaning the tank

[jmz44]

I'd like to pick your brains if I could. I have some questions regarding cleaning my tank which have been nagging me for quite some time.

3 tanks:

55G 4 ft long: 6 clown loaches, 1 red tail shark, 3 albino catfish, 4 red swordfish. Please don't yell. I know I am overstocked with clown loaches. and will have to find new homes for some of them eventually.

45G 3 ft long: 2 clown loaches, 1 red tail shark, 3 blue gourami, 5 red swordfish, 3 juli catfish.

10G Qtank: 1 clown loach being treated with lemasol, 1 albino catfish,
2 mollies to keep the tank cycled.

I currently do biweekly 25% water changes.

My questions:

How often should you siphon the gravel (ie at each water change, which is what I do now)?

How much of the gravel should you siphon at one time (ie 50%, 75%, 100%)? I currently do 100%.

With artificial plants, do you pull them out so you can deep-siphon the gravel? Do you dismantle the wood caves so you can clean out the hidey-holes? I do both of these, and I'm thinking I shouldn't because of the added stress on the loaches.

How often do you completely clean the filter (ie rinse with hot water & remove scum? Right now I have 2 HOBs with bio-wheels on the 55G and I alternate them so they are rinsed completely once every two months.

What do you do with the bio-wheels when you rinse the filter? Can you leave them in the tank water (which is what I do) while rinsing the filter, and if so, for how long?

I am concerned that the way I am cleaning the tanks may not be the best way both for the fish and the biological filters.

Thanks for any info.

Judy

[Trapper_seven]

With cleaning I think everyone is a bit different, and depending what you read and where you read it you will get different info everywhere.

I have always done weekly water changes of 25%. When I change the water I vacumn as much of the gravel as I can. As your using HOB filters and not undergravel, most of the build-up of waste should be on top of the gravel, not under it, so if it was me I would not be removing the artificial plants each cleaning. Maybe clean-up under them once every month or so. Same goes with the hidey holes you have for your fish. Maybe do one each time, rotating them around.

As for the filters, from what I have read and been told less is better. When I was using a HOB filter on my last tank I would keep a bucket aside, and when cleaning my tank fill it with some water from the tank. As opposed to using hot water and cleaning out all of the scum, I would rinse them out once every two weeks, and give them a wipe clean with my hand to remove anything ugly. The sponge I would rinse out, and rub at the surface to remove as much material as I could, and then put back in the filter. I had carbon in the HOB filters, and this was changed once a month. By using the same sponge, and limiting "cleaning" of the inside of the HOB filter I was able to preserve as much of the bacteria colonies as I could (pls note I was also running a UGF on this tank which helped, although it required deeper cleaning of the gravel than you should need).

As for your bio-wheels, it depends how long they are not going to be running. They like oxygen, but should be kept wet. Keeping them in the tank is probably OK (the biological filtration in canister filers and UGF filters is all underwater), but you could probably also accomplish the same thing by placing them in a zip-lock bag while you clean the tank. This should keep them moist, and also keep them in an atmosphere of higher oxygenation.

[jmz44]

Trapper_seven,

Thank you so much for the information. I will be doing weekly water changes from now on at 25%. As far as cleaning the filter of scum is concerned, I will take your advice about wiping it using tank water rather than rinsing with hot water - thanks for that idea.

I will also limit removal of the artificial plants. The hidey holes presents a different problem. It's really a section of the tank that has several pieces of mopani wood piled to create a maze for them to hide in. Since they do spend a lot of time sleeping & hiding in there, I know there's a buildup of waste. I think I'll probably dismantle it & syphon every 3rd week. Do you think that will be sufficient?

I just put a maxijet in the tank to give the loaches a current & they went wild, lining up & just floating in the stream one behind the other. They finally got tired of it and went into their maze.

Anyway, thanks again for your response.

Judy