How do you clean your tank?

[Drew_H2o]

I'm just wondering. Maybe we could get a best practices/dos & don't thing going on?

I searched and searched but couldn't really find what I'm looking for.

Here's what I do..

Tank:
Clean the glass with a wand or magnetic scrubber
Rub Algae off rocks and plants with my hand
25-30% water change
Turn over my sand with my fingers

Filter:
Use tank water to rinse foam and polishing media
Rub the sides of the canister with my hands to remove algae and other junk
Don't ever mess with the bio media

That's really it. Is there anything I'm doing wrong or could improve upon?

I'm curious as to what you do for your tanks. I saw the Craigslist guy using his dishwasher and stuff.

 

[Deaths Sting]

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294123



50% WCs/week, via $5 garden hose and $3 faucet adapter for filling. i add the water conditioner as it fills up.

filter maintenance for each one of my tanks:

120 gallon: (FX5 and Eheim 2028, rotation every 6 months).

every six months 1/3 of 1 filter is cleaned. i remove all media and rinse the empty canister as well (if needed). the FX5 never has..

56 gallon: (2 AC110s, rotation every 4-6 weeks).

every 4-6 weeks i rinse 1 sponge of one AC110 in tank water and i will siphon all gunck that has collected at the bottom of the filter as well.

15 gallon: (2 AC20s with prefilter sponges, rotation every 6 months)

prefilter sponge on intake is removed on 1 AC 20 and rinsed in tank water.

Note: aquarium/filter maintenance is a variable thing, it all depends on filters, stock, tank size, flow, Wcs.. etc etc.. basically, there is not specific set time to clean which everyone can follow.

 

[Drew_H2o]

Thank you for that!

 

[nes999]

all my tanks are in the basment and are loaded with plecos so ive never seen algea.

i do a 50% waterchange-gravel vac

i leave my canisterfilter to do it business

and my 2 hob i run the pads under the facet

that is for my 55 my other tanks get the same thing except my 500gallon

my 500gallon gets a 20% waterchange gravel vac

and all it has are canisterfilters and ive only had the tank up since july so i dont need to clean them yet idt

 

[turtlesrock]

100 GALLON (weekly)
-10% WC
my 2 HOBS
- all i have in them is foam so i rinse it every 5 days under sink water
my sump
- my first 4 inch layer of pads gets rinsed in sink water every 1.5 weeks
- the other 4 chambers are bio filtration so i dont touch that


20 GALLON (every 1.5 months)
- 20% WC
my 2 HOBS
- all i have in the first one is a bio bag and bio insert, so i replace the bio bag every 1.5 months and dont touch the bio insert
- the other HOB has scouring pads in it, i rinse those more often.


i do pretty much the same thing as the 20gallon on all my other tanks. i just dont want to type that all out