Responsible Aquarists

[JamesMJ2]

Forgive me if this has been asked before, I browsed the forums and couldn't find this topic. What I would like to know is, as a responsible aquarist, what tank maintanance should I be preforming on a regular basis. There are considerable gaps in my knowledge that I would like to fill in. I can't do much of anything at the moment BTW, as I treating one of my C. Loach for Ich . I am going to put these maintainance steps in excel(I love excel) so I can keep track, and stay current. All my tank stats are in my sig, thanks for you patience and wisdom.
James.

 

[Somethingfishy]

Hi James,

What maintenance steps are you taking at the moment. It would be easier to fill in the gaps where we know there are gaps, rather than khaving to re-invent the wheel. Everyone here has a different schedule of task and maintenance steps that they follow.

Let us know.

 

[shawmutt]

I daily check the water temperature, make sure there's bubbles coming out of my Co2 (I just started with Co2), and my fishes appearance.

I love Excel too, I use it to keep track of my weekly water testing routine. Because I have a specialty tank, I need to pay more attention to my tests, especially pH and GH. I test for pH, GH, KH, Ammonia, Nitrates, and Nitrites. Whether or not I need all these tests remains to be seen, but it takes all of ten minutes, so I do them all. I also weekly scrape the algae in my tank, prune the plants, and clean the intake of my power filter. One of the new chores I have is making a new Co2 mixture. I have two 2 litre coke bottles, one gets redone each week.

I change 20% of my tank water one week and change my filter medium the next week, so my water and filter get changed every two weeks without hurting the bacteria too much. When I change the water, I use a gravel vaccum to clean up the bottom of the tank.

That's about all I can think of right now, hope I was helpful!

 

[Somethingfishy]

I only test the water in my Discus tank. My other tanks I don't test unless there is a problem with the fish or something else is amiss. I do a weekly water change on the discus tank and a 2 weekly on the others.

 

[JamesMJ2]

I am familiar with replacing the filter media, but it doesn't tell me the intervals for replacement. I know not to replace both media at once. Before I had to treat for Ich I would gravel vac once a week and take about 10% of the water out. I have been replacing my water with R/O water(tap water sucks) I try to keep the ph@ 7.0 It's the middle ground for all my fish, and the fish I want to add. I am not sure what things in the water I should be monitoring.(thanks for that info Shawmutt)

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

I noticed you have an Aqua-Clear Filter. I have one myself, and it is important to come up with a good plan for replacing the filter media. Most Aqua-Clear has a foam cartrage for debris, a carbon filter, and an ammonia filter. I replace each of these individually every 2 weeks and rinse the ones I don't replace at the time of replacing the new cartrage. I go from bottom to top, heres how I do it:
Replace foam cartrage
(rinse carbon and ammonia)
2 week interval
replace carbon cartrage
(rinse foam and ammonia)
2 week interval
replace ammonia cartrage
(rinse carbon and foam)
repeat

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

Oh right and I try to siphon the gravel with a water change every week, although I was a water changing machine when I had algae problems this past week.