SO WRONG..!!! ....?

[EdgarMedina1010]

every 2 to 3 months my friend does a complete aquarium clean .....he cleans the tank, gravel and ornaments with tank water ....... but when he puts it all back he uses half of dechorinated water and the other half with his old aquarium water.........what do you think???

 

[JustOneMore20]

He shouldn't be cleaning the gravel and ornaments at all, except for gravel vac'ing the gravel. He is getting rid of the good bacteria. Let him know that.

 

[IceH2O]

Does he do water changes in between or is the 2-3 month cleaning it?

If he is doing water changes of the proper quanity and quality I see no problem with what he is doing.

If the 2-3 month cleaning is all he is doing then its not enough and the only thing saving his fish is that he uses half of the old water.

I disagree that he is removing all his beneficial bacteria. Most of it lives in the filters. Besides he is cleaning it in tank water, theres nothing that would kill what little bacteria lives in the gravel and on the ornaments.

 

[Jchillin]

Your friend is doing a lot, probably too much if he is doing the maintenance on top of regular water changes and gravel vac's.

If he is doing regular PWC's, you can let him know that he never needs to empty the tank to do a cleaning. He can clean the ornaments once a month if desired. Does he also clean the filter at the same time as well? This can also be limited to once a month, but not concurrently with the other tank maintenance.

The method he is employing is very familiar to me. We used to do this with our 20 gal goldfish tank when I was a kid. No need to do this anymore.

 

[tropicfishman]

I di the same thing for years before I ever learned about bacteria and all that, I tried to clean the gravel with the siphon and it didn't work at all, the water would go completely green in 2 weeks, I dumped all the water out, scrubbed everything, and used tap water for it all lol as long as the fish and water levels are doing fine then theres really no problem with what hje's doing, everyone is stuck in this " pattern " type thing where they think everything has to be done a certain way and blah blah blah, as long as the fish are healthy and the water parameters check out good, then its all good

 

[Jchillin]

everyone is stuck in this " pattern " type thing where they think everything has to be done a certain way and blah blah blah, as long as the fish are healthy and the water parameters check out good, then its all good.

The question was: "Is it necessary or good to completely tear down a tank, clean all of the gravel and decorations every 2-3 months?" I happen to disagree with "cookie-cutter" advice but this is no longer necessary.