tank cleaning

[Fishk14]

hello, i have a 29gallon freshwater aquarium. i have about 25 fish, tetras, platys and rasboras. 2 african dwarf frogs and three amano shrimp. my question is how often should i be cleaning the tank. right now i do a 20%
water change every two weeks. i test every week with the API master test kit. all of my levels are good.

 

[Aiken Drum]

What are your water parameters?

With such a heavily stocked tank i would expect to be changing 50% of the water weekly. But, if your fortnightly 20% water change is keeping nitrate no higher than 40ppm and there are no other issues you are good.

 

[Joe_D]

FWIW......

If your water parameters might be good with what you are already doing, why change?
No two tanks are exactly the same, so...... .

 

[Fishk14]

fish cleaning

thank you Aiken and Joe_D i appreciate your feed back

 

[Autumnsky]

One thing which you might want to incorporate, is a rotating cleaning habit,
pwc - glass inside one time,
pwc - filter pad rinse (with treated water), water polishing pad change,
pwc - Substrate vacuuming. You can divide half one time then half another time if you are concerned for reducing BB in the tank or for time saving.

Once in awhile is good to clean the whole filter unit / compartment (unplug unit and clean the parts), impeller and intake tube as well. I just put the filter media in pwc water / bucket and rinse. Then put it all back. Kind of as needed.