Questions on upkeep...

[e burna]

I copied the following on upkeep from a fish website:

Unplug heater & filter system.
Wipe inside walls of aquarium with algae pad.
Change 20% of the water every 2-4 weeks with a gravel cleaner.
Clean under rocks/driftwood.
Refill aquarium with water the same temperature as original water.
Add aquarium salt and a dechlorinator for amount of new water.
Change carbon every 30 days.
•Clean filter media or replace, depending on filter system.
Restart filter system.
Plug in heater.
Wipe/shine outside glass

I have a few questions concerning some of this. Adding salt? I've never added salt for a freshwater aquarium. Am I reading this correctly. Do you add salt? Changing carbon? I didn't think carbon was necessary. Help please.

[rubysoho]

I never use salt and my fish are perfectly happy. The only think I don't like about the directions is changing water and gravel vacuming every 2-4 weeks. In my opinion, you need to keep ammonia and other toxins down as much as possible. Your tank will be much more stable and healthy if you do a 10-15% water change and gravel vacume once a week. Your fish will live longer because toxins will not be allowed to build up. You wouldn't want to swim in a huge and dirty toilet, right? I also don't wip down my glass, you wont have algae problems if you cdo weekly water changes/gravel vacumes. This is because algae feeds from the excess nutrients (poop) that accumulates if you don't change water and gravel vac. Carbon really doesn't need to be used unless you are trying to take out medications. It is good to add the amount of dechlorinator to the water BEFORE you add it back to the tank, but if you do add the dechlorinator directly in the tank, do it for the entire amount of water in the tank and not just what was added.

Hope that was helpful!

(oh, I do clean the front of my tank every couple of months, but I leave the back with a little bit of algae as a natural food source. The reason why I have a little bit of algae is because I have fertilizers I add for my plants)

[TommyR]

I copied the following on upkeep from a fish website:

Unplug heater & filter system.
Wipe inside walls of aquarium with algae pad.
Change 20% of the water every 2-4 weeks with a gravel cleaner.
Clean under rocks/driftwood.
Refill aquarium with water the same temperature as original water.
Add aquarium salt and a dechlorinator for amount of new water.
Change carbon every 30 days.
•Clean filter media or replace, depending on filter system.
Restart filter system.
Plug in heater.
Wipe/shine outside glass

I have a few questions concerning some of this. Adding salt? I've never added salt for a freshwater aquarium. Am I reading this correctly. Do you add salt? Changing carbon? I didn't think carbon was necessary. Help please.


Wipe FRONT wall with scrub pad, leave some algae on side,back walls unless it's really thick.

Carbon is NOT needed unless you want to remove medication or get rid of a bad stink. If your tank stinks you've got bigger problems!

Some fish like some salt, some DON'T. You didn't mention what fish you had...

Always add declorinator to replacement water and make sure it's the SAME temp as the tank water so as to not shock the fish.

[Pippin]

Change 20% of water every 2 to 4 weeks? Lol, try it at least every week. Twice a week would be even better. Fish get shocked when fresh water is added after living in filth for a couple of weeks.

I don't ever use salt. And I have pretty much stopped using carbon.