OCD Tank Cleaning

[Fiferjanis]

Ok, I started putting fish in my 75 gal. Tank back in March, and it's finally cycled. Ammonia, nitrites, etc. are 0. Nitrates, however, are now showing that yeah, there's poop and I over feed (5ppm).

Question 1:
Besides cutting back on food, should I only be doing a 20% tank water change once a week? Vacuuming in between? How frequently for thorough cleanings?

I did a thorough cleaning of half the tank this weekend, and it was disgusting. I figured I'd leave the other half for two weeks from now, and alternate the two sides. After cleaning, the fish seemed a lot more sociable, but that could be because I kicked Old Man Loach out of his swamp shack while cleaning, so in his awakened state, he finally noticed he has some loach buddies to play with now.

Question 2:
That's my other concern... Everything talks about keeping the sand really clean because of sensitive loach barbels and whatnot. What is the concern here? Infection? Eating poop? It would help to know the reasoning behind some of these "dos" and "do nots."

Question 3:
Also, besides messy tank, how bad is over feeding? I have some platties that are really pregnant and/or obese, but the males I've had in the tank even longer just don't eat as much and aren't as big. And my goulden gourami is a pig, but from what I understand, that's typical. I rotate their food around so they have lots of variety and lots of veggie "cleanses" so they don't get stopped up... It that sufficient?

After dealing with ammonia and stuff, though, I feel like I should be changing water and cleaning every day, even though it looks clear and levels are more or less normal.

Question 4:
What numbers should I watch for with nitrate readings?

Question 5:
If I put a power head to suck up the poop in the dead-spots and redirect them to filters, would that put too much crap in the "air", or should I just keep diligently vacuuming those sections?

Stats: 75 gallon, freshwater, fake plants, 1 balloon Molly, 4 platties, 1 golden gourami, 2 pearl gouramis, 3 Australian rainbowfish, 1 boesmani rainbowfish, 1 green tiger loach, 1 clown loach, 1 Yoyo loach. Some aquarium salt, pH ~ 7.4, kH 50-100, softened water, 77-82 temps, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5ppm, fluval 506 canister filter and aqueon HOB 55 filter, black aquarium sand substrate... Yadda yadda

 

[Cloudhp8]

I think the sand (or softer smoother) substrate is so they don't tear up their barbs...which in turn can lead to infection and what not...the barbs help them find foods.
Over feeding can cause algae growth, fish to get fat and later have possible other problems (medical) Feed just enough once to twice a day that they will eat with in a few minutes other wise the rest will just build up into waste....I always give them a balanced diet of nuked veggie,s flakes, bloodworms, sinking pellets/algae wafers for the bottom dwellers.
i would not clean too extreme as this can cause bacterial blooms and or bacterial lose depending on what you are doing....New tanks tend to get dirty in the first few weeks to months....My 29 gal i just put up about 2 months ago has got brown algae/diatoms all over...i have been cleaning it off the glass slowly looks bad but its part of the natural way a tank or pond will age. you will also get a clear film/slim all over the inside which is good thats bacterial and shows your tank is going very well.
Nitrates should be 0 but fish can tolerate a little bit....nitrates are actually good for live plants so with the stock you do have i may look into live plants if that interests you ....i was worried at first when i did live plants thinking i would kill them, but i love them....they help keep Oxygen in the tank and help maintain the Nitrate levels at around 10 ppm to 20 ppm in my tanks....i believe if nitrates go over something like 40ppm you should change water out even 20ppm is too high but like i said fish can live in it easier than ammo or nitrites.
Pointing the powerheads toward the ground could possibly stir sand up making it a bit cloudy, i generally just suck it up the once a week....if there is loads of waste at the bottom between PWC you can suck it all up with a vac. again live plants will help manage some of this waste.... a little bit not all.

Keep an eye on all of the water parameters do you test with a liquid test kit? or strips? the strips are not that good the liquid test kits are very accurate. if any of the ammonia or nitrites spike up i'd change some water out.
The 20% a week is about good i would think...again keeping an eye on the parameters will help you to know what you need to do each week.

 

[Fiferjanis]

I use the API liquid vial tests. I'm worried that I don't have the right lighting for plants, or they'll encourage algae. I get a little brown scum, but the magnet cleans that easily enough right now.

Do plants need looser substrate? For some reason it doesn't strike me as sand-friendly. Also, I have loaches that love to dig, so planting anything permanently may be difficult.

 

[Cloudhp8]

Plants will grow in gravel as well....if you do a smaller smooth gravel it would be fine on the loaches i think...im not an expert on them however.
you could do driftwood and tie certain plants to it that will attach themselves on eventually.
Lighting it all depends on the type of plants you would want to have.
What kind of lighting do you have?
If you don't want the algae leave the lights on less time 8 hours a day...a timer works great for that!! if you do get algae you could get ottos to help with that i got a few and they cleaned my tank out pretty good it was full of algae

 

[shellieca]

Actually you should have some nitrAtes. So long as they are <20 you are good. If you have live plants they will use your nitrates depending how planted your tank is.

 

[shellieca]

As for cleaning. If your tank is cycled like it appears to be, a once a week water change of ~50% with a good vacuuming on half the tank, then do the other 1/2 the next week if you can't get it all in one cleaning. If you get some snails or other bottom cleaners you won't have much detris. I've actually quit vacuuming my substrate because there's usually very little to vac up anymore between my plants being well established & my Mystery, nerite & Malaysian trumpet snails keeping the bottom cleaned up.

 

[Pearly]

Ditto to what Shellica just said! Snails are great! Or ghost shrimp! They add very little to your bio load from what I have heard and they do a great job cleaning up you tank. I too, have not had vacuum the gravel/sand in my tanks for few weeks to think about it.... There isn't much to be vacuumed! I do supplement my cleaning crew with algae wafers and sinking pellets tho, they seem to be doing great. Sadly I've lost most if not all of my ghost shrimp in my community tank during battle with velvet and round of treatment. Got my snails out and relocated but trying to catch those ghosts.... Now the tanks are finishing up the mini cycle that started couple of days after completion of treatment for velvet, as soon as that's over and tanks are healthy again I'm putting my snails back in and going to get more ghost shrimp. Love those little guys! Can't wait. Btw, does anyone know how long of a wait once tanks stabilize (0 ammonia and nitrites and healthy nitrate readings) before it's safe to put the snail back in?

 

[Fiferjanis]

I thought snails were problematic and/or the loaches would eat them?

I have sand because I didn't like gravel, and wanted loaches. Unfortunately my water is too soft/alkaline to support catfish. I've killed a pleco, emerald catfish and leopard Cory...

 

[Pearly]

No experience with loaches here, sorry, but I do love my snails (may change my mind one day.., but for now they've been great and not messing my my live plants) and those ghost shrimp are great! There are some great experts on this site who know a lot more about inverts. Tap into that resource if you are interested in going that route. Good luck

 

[Mcor]

I had loads of snails, but I bought yoyo loaches and now I have no snails and three fat loaches. I had to move my nerite out of the tank, I didn't want a snail I'd PAID for being eaten, but the rest they were welcome to.

 

[Fiferjanis]

I had loads of snails, but I bought yoyo loaches and now I have no snails and three fat loaches. I had to move my nerite out of the tank, I didn't want a snail I'd PAID for being eaten, but the rest they were welcome to.

Hmm... See this is what I'm worried about. My Yoyo is small NOW... But I also have a green tiger Botia and a clown loach. (All under 5" at the moment). How big do they need to be to not get eaten? Sea-slug sized?

 

[Mcor]

My yoyos are still juveniles so have eaten snails whose shells were 1- 1 and a half cm long. My nerite wasn't bothered by them at all but I figured it's only a matter of time. I don't know what to suggest or advise, I've only had my loaches for a month! That's been my experience though.

 

[Fiferjanis]

Well, I got three green lace shrimp, all about an inch or bigger. Counted at least two this morning before I went to work. Also got some bamboo, but have to modify those a bit so the leaves are out of the water...

 

[Fiferjanis]

Well... Shrimp have failed role-call twice now. I'm thinking the loaches got them. I was hoping since the loaches are all still fairly small and the shrimp were fairly big, they'd be ok for a while. Either that or my fat-*** gourami got them. (Or could they just be hiding somewhere? They seemed fairly active the first couple of days, but now I don't see any sign if them.)