jfoust
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hello everyone! I'm a first time aquarium owner, thanks to my four year old. He wanted one for his b-day so we got him a Top Fin Aqua Scene 2 gallon tank for starters. If he helps take care of it and continues to show interest down the road, we'll end up with something bigger.
We've got 5 fish in the aquarium... A Fancy Guppy, a Neon, two Zebra Danios and two Rasboras. Everyone has been getting along since the beginning of August. We've been doing 20% water changes once a week and at that time we also clean the one decoration and two small fake plants.
The tank uses a UG filter and that's it. It appeared to be working well, but in the last week I started getting some pretty heavy algae buildup, so I decied it was time for a throrugh cleaning. I borrowed a gravel vac from a co-worker but it was too big for our little tank, and I didn't get that much gravel clean before I had sucked out 1/2 of the water! So I transferred the fish and some water to the bucket we use for cleaning, then took the aquarium to the sink, dumped it all and cleaned the gravel by hand.
Everything is nice and clean now, but I'm wondering if I should buy a small vac, or if it's kind of pointless with a tank this small... Should I just do the dump and clean from now on? Also, how often should we be cleaning the gravel on a tank this small with a UG filter? Would it be best to get a vac and basically use it to suck out my 20% of water for my weekly changes? Any other tips and hints???
Thanks in advance! We're having a blast with the fish!
-Jeff
We've got 5 fish in the aquarium... A Fancy Guppy, a Neon, two Zebra Danios and two Rasboras. Everyone has been getting along since the beginning of August. We've been doing 20% water changes once a week and at that time we also clean the one decoration and two small fake plants.
The tank uses a UG filter and that's it. It appeared to be working well, but in the last week I started getting some pretty heavy algae buildup, so I decied it was time for a throrugh cleaning. I borrowed a gravel vac from a co-worker but it was too big for our little tank, and I didn't get that much gravel clean before I had sucked out 1/2 of the water! So I transferred the fish and some water to the bucket we use for cleaning, then took the aquarium to the sink, dumped it all and cleaned the gravel by hand.
Everything is nice and clean now, but I'm wondering if I should buy a small vac, or if it's kind of pointless with a tank this small... Should I just do the dump and clean from now on? Also, how often should we be cleaning the gravel on a tank this small with a UG filter? Would it be best to get a vac and basically use it to suck out my 20% of water for my weekly changes? Any other tips and hints???
Thanks in advance! We're having a blast with the fish!
-Jeff
