Cleaning the tank...

Just wondering how everyone cleans their tanks and how often, and how often you change the water and how much? What do you use to clean the tank floor/substrate? This is my first time having an aquarium, besides beta sized 2.5 gallon ones that were easy to clean.

Personally, I have 3 aquariums up and running.

55g - South American Cichlid tank with 4 permanent residents (currently 6 extra babies I'm getting rid of) - When it's just the 2 fish, 1 pleco and 1 catfish I do a 25-30% water change every week, then a deep clean 50% water change once a month, cleaning out the gravel, moving the rocks to get underneath, etc. A deep clean.

35g - 4 Black Neon Tetras, 1 Male Guppy, 1 Angelfish, 1 Twig Catfish, about 15 Mystery Snails - They get a 30-50% water change every week, deep cleaning every other week.

20gL - 3 BABY Axolotls, which I have a substrate that is between sand and gravel... the grains are a little bigger than sand, but they are lighter than grave, so I don't know what kind it really is LOL - They get their poops cleaned out every night, which depletes about 1/2 gallon of water, which I replace. Then I do a 25-50% water change every 2-3 days, cleaning up any pieces and bits that I missed on the nightly clean up.



Whew, all that sounds like a lot of work! lol

I will do spot cleanings each day if Stellios has made a mess of his food. I use either a turkey baster or a siphon, depending on the amount of mess. I will replace water that's either evaporated or been taken out during spot cleanings too. I also use the baster to get his poops.

As for actual cleaning - once a week, I do a 50% water change, since they are pretty messy animals. I use a siphon to gently agitate the top of the sand and get any food or poops that were missed during spot cleanings. Since his tank is still new and cycled not long ago, I haven't cleaned the filter, but when I do, it will be only 1 media piece each time so all the bacteria doesn't get washed away, and it gets cleaned in the old water change water.