Major Tank Maintenance - Water/filter/tank.

[CHOMPERS]

I do whatever whenever. I don't wait for stuff to get out of hand, but then again, I am not always on top of things. I am always doing something with the tanks. I don't clean all of the filters (etc.) on a given day, I just clean some here and there. In the end, everything gets done. It takes the chore out of it.

 

[santoury]

Thanks Hawk... sometimes it's just good to spice things up, and honestly, I don't see leaving poo for 6 months in a tank.... We all know what one week can do to a tank lol

 

[Hawkfish3.0]

Well, I just took a dump on my kitchen table! Let's see how long my roommates go without noticing it!!

 

[chen]

Here's a cute little image for you...

Try placing a small piece of poo on your kitchen table (or under your dresser) and see how long you can bear with it.

Now, think about your fish living with that for... god knows how long. 6 months right?

....

Not sure if you mis understood...I clean my tanks often ie..25% waterchange which includes vacuuming the gravel so no **** gets left in the gravel. I don't clean my canister nor my sump on a regular basis or as often as my regular water change...it would kill all the BB's. a major maintenance to me is clean all the poo out of the canister's and other filtration and moving the Rockwork out for a good scrub but not the gravels...

 

[chen]

I don't think he's saying he cleans the tank every 6 months or so...I think he's saying that he does a complete overhaul of the tanks every six months. Chen says he does 25% once a week.

Chen, you don't take your substrate out, right? I'm assuming you're talking about moving large rocks and driftwood so you can get to detrius that has built up under and around them. I usually move big, hard to move stuff around every 2 weeks, with water changes of roughly 50% weekly. I have some VERY messy ]V[onsters in there,so a pretty hefty workload is cut out for me on a weekly basis.

Thanks Ken...exactly....nope...wouldn't take out the substrate unless I planned on not putting it back...Some of my rocks are 50lbs so moving around often is not easy especially on a 360gal tank 3ft off the floor with rays and other monster fish that either bites, stings or jumps...:d....

 

[chen]

I love your posts santoury! You can be so dramatic. That's an awesome analogy, not quite accurate imo, but awesome nonetheless.

LOL.....

 

[wgmc3]

I just did mine today on my 125. I did 1/3 water and pulled the filters (wet dry/eheim 2217) out and the overflow box. I found snails in the bottom of my 2217.

 

[vanilla__gorilla__]

I clean my filters every week wither they need it or not and vac. once a mounth I take every thing out of the tanks and do major clean but 80% of my tanks are BB so it's not that hard.

 

[aquanaut]

1/3 WC on every tank every week in the fall/winter... 2x 25% in the spring/summer. Each WC a portion of the gravel gets vaced... half on the small tanks and 1/3 on the 125. Rocks sit below the gravel so no need to remove them as debris doesn`t get underneath. Simply stick the tube in caves and it sucks out debris. Driftwood is easy to lift and replace. Each filter is cleaned every month. Not all at once but rotating so not to make it a chore.

 

[Nova 8]

I picked 1mth, but I do 3 gravel vacs a week of my 6ft in sections (2ft at a time; mon, wed and fri) this way I can move stuff around without disturbing the fish to much. I only take out about 10% of the water whilst doing the gravel vac. I also do a 50% waterchange and clean the internal filter pads on Saterdays, and clean my canister monthly.
On my 55 I just do two waterchanges 25% on wednesday and 50% on saterday witha 100% gravel vac. I clean the canister bi-monthly on this tank and have no internals.