How often should I clean?

[Infiniplex Syst]

I currently own a nice 46 gallon bowed front FW tank. It has 50lbs gravel, 2 filter systems (both side hanging - 1 is a 30/60 that goes all the way to the bottom of the tank, has 2 filters in it, the other is a 10/15 with one filter that has no extension, pretty much sucks the water from the top of the tank. It has 3 medium size decorations, 2 plants, 1 heater, 1 thermostat.

My fish are 8 African Cichlids, and 1 plecostomus. All the fish are about 2-3"'s in length, just got them a week ago. I feed them once a day, everyday.

My question is this, how often should I use my gravel vac, tank 30% water out? Once a week, 2 weeks, month?

Also, I am guessing I will need a second tank that I can put the fish in while I do the water change. If so, I will need to go and buy a new setup, which I dont mind doing, I guess its all part of the hobby. Please let me know as soon as possible.

 

[rebecca2]

I have no idea why anyone would take the fish out of the tank for a water change unless they were taking all the water out. Am I misunderstanding you?

 

[Infiniplex Syst]

Well, let me explain. I have had this tank for 2 months. I did a water change with 8 Tiger barbs, the water temp was exactly the same, put the new water in straight from tap, and apparently my city had just put a dose of chlorine in the water, killing my fish. So, I want to take them out while doing a water change so the chlorine can evaporate, and not kill my new fishies. Also, you missed my original question

 

[Hannys_Papa]

I use the gravel vac everytime i change water. Why not - i might aswell. But i dont really "poke" into the gravel everytime - sometimes just try to get the waste off the top.

I suggest getting a declorinator product like prime - very cheap (5$ for 1000 gallons water change) - they are safe and you never have to worry about dying fish because of chlorine/ chloramine.

It would probably be too stressful for the fish to move them for every waterchange.

EDIT: Now i dont own one myself but i read all the time what poop machines plecos are - so some gravel vac with a 30-50% weekly waterchange would probably be a good thing for your tank size.

 

[OrionGirl]

Frequency will be based on test results. Without many plants, you'll be able to use nitrates as a decent guide. Test weekly, and do water changes to keep nitrates from exceeding 20 ppm. The volume of water removed should be based on this maintenance--if you need to change 50% every 2 weeks, try changing 30% every week. Really, more water changes are good, so don't worry about doing too many. I prefer to clean the substrate with each change--just removes solid wastes before they can break down and cause problems. Keep in mind that you won't want to clean too deeply right around the plants (assuming they are planted in the substrate--ignore this if you having something like java ferns or anubias that are attached to a decoration rather than being in the substrate).

You will be better off either getting a bucket (for fish use only) and treating the water for chlorine in the bucket, although you should be able to treat the water as it's added to the tank without any problems as well. Catching and removing the fish each time will be very stressful to them, as well as exposing the bacteria--ie, the critters that are keeping the tank from becoming a toxic box--to the chlorine in the water. Not good.

 

[fishfreaks]

There is no need to remove the fish from the tank if you are doing a water change. Be sure that you add a dechlorinator when you add new water or replace any water. No matter what size tank we have we always do a waterchange once a week.

 

[RockabillyChick]

well, its different for every tank and every setup. the best way to find out is to test. get yourself a test kit and keep an eye on the water. if the tank is still cycling, then keep an eye on ammonia and nitrites, do a water change when one or the other reaches about .5ppm

once the tank is cycled, then you SHOULD only have to do a water change to keep your nitrates down. keep an eye on them and keep them below about 30ppm. when they get to 30, do like a 20-30% water change, see how low that drops them. after a while, you'll be able to get into a rythem of how often, and how much water you need to change.

and you shouldn't need a second setup just for water changes, thats just completely redundant. get some water conditioner and add it to the new water. it removes chlorine and chloramines immediately.

 

[Infiniplex Syst]

ok, so say I use a 1 gallon jug, fill it with water, put some water conditioner in every jug I fill up, put the water in the tank, and it wont kill my fish?

 

[Mr Fish]

Yes.

 

[Hannys_Papa]

It'd probably be easier to fill a bigger bucket (5 gallons) and dose in that - or add the declor to the tank and then add the water.

Look at this - products like this are used around the world. They are really safe.