Water Change/ Cleaning help

EJgraydon

EJgraydon

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EJ
Alright, so I need some help on cleaning my tank. I do every other day 20% changes as of now and clean as much of everything as I can. Well I'm noticing some food getting caught in the substrate (fine silicone sand) and one of the hides that I just cant get to with net or gravel vac, so I want to do an 80% change And clean the tank, rinse the sand, and clean the hides. How do I go about this with the substrate? Gravel vac all of the water out? Thanks in advance!
 
How long has your tank been set up? Cleaning decorations and especially the subsrate will destroy beneficial bacteria colonies that keep your tank healthy by removing ammonia and nitrite. Do some research on cycling an aquarium. It sounds like you are over cleaning. If you are finding left over food you are also likely overfeeding.
 
A little over a month. So don't clean deco. Got it. Do I just keep doing 20% every other day? And feed less, of course.
 
You will need to test your water to see if your aquarium has cycled. If it has cycled you will get ammonia readings of 0, nitrite readings of 0, and nitrate readings >0 . If your aquarium is cycled, you will only need to do a 10-20% water change every week. Use the search function to read up more on cycling.

DON'T WASH THE SAND.
 
Depending on how dirty the sand is/how far the food is in the sand, you can always 'ruffle' the sand up so the food floats up - wait a bit for it to settle on the bottom, and then vac it up - it should be a lot easier because it's now loose on top.

Just make sure if you decide to do that - turn off filters!
 
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