Cleanliness of water

Hi there, was just wondering how clean other people's axie tanks are? is it expected that they should be crystal clear with no bits floating around. ok so i still haven't got a filter yet and am "vacuuming" several times a day with the trusty turkey baster. I was just trying to make myself feel not such a bad mummy by wondering how much stuff would be in their habitat in the wilds?

I don't have bits floating around but do get a lot of algae on the tank glass I got some apple snails to help with this.

One of my tanks is crystal clear and my other is murky. I do the same to both tank so its a little odd that one is worse than the other. Do u have substrate of some kind on the bottom? I found that when I took all of my river rocks out that there was more stuff floating around than usual. I would think that their habitats would be murky, rivers and stuff are never crystal clear.

i am for ever battling tiny little particles that float around my tank and mist if the time end up on the surface... They are like dust particles or something and are just really annoying.

a filter and regular water changes should help reduce floating particles.

I have just started using a cannister filter and i am, at the moment, still cycling the tank so i do not want to do too many water changes

The filter serves as an air pump too doesn't it?
How do you know when to change the stuff inside the filter?

Yes the filter can act as an air pump. I think (not 100% sure) that you clean your filter media every 6 months or so if it is a canister filter. You have to clean it in a bucket of tank water to make sure you dont kill the good bacteria. As for an internal filter, i think it is a little more often?? I think, best to wait for another opinion on that one. When it needs replacing, (say a year, maybe a yr and a half? does this sound right?) is when the filter media starts to look old and isnt the same colour when you wash it. For example, i have white filter media and when you wash it and it stays brown, i think thats when you change it. But you dont change it all at one time, do half one week, then two or so weeks later do the other half, this minimises the chance of mini cycles happening in the tank.

I have an air pump with an airstone and a cannister filter. I only got it a few days ago so I havent cleaned the filter media other than before i installed it.

hi, you have an airpump and filter- are they combined? i want to replace my air pump with a filter so i don't have lots of plugs and stuff going into the tank.

A filter provides a different service than an airpump. You can't really replace one with another. If you have a good filter, you may not NEED an air pump, but I usually keep both in all my aquatic tanks, one on either side of the tank. This aids in water circulation.

I clean my media in my canister filter once every 2 months or so. A good canister filter will have a place for biological filtration, as well as mechanical filtration. You should only clean the mechanical filtration parts (usually pads that 'scrub' the water).

no. they are not combined. they are separate and i do have tubes and cords and stuff going into the tank which isn't all that appealing, but it keeps the tank good.