Cleaning Franks Tank

[cms_star84]

Ok guys, I've been trying to find out the best way to clean his tank but I don't seem to trust any other site. One site just told me to bleach all of his decorations and I ran as fast as I could to come here. We have the vaccuum and the scrubber and all that jazz. I wanted to know what happens to the algae when I scrub it off, doesn't it just break off into the water? Isn't that counterproductive? Any tips would be great. Here's a list of what I want to know before I disturb my happy little Frank.

Do I leave Frank in or take him out?
Do I take out and rinse the decorations? (I know to not use cleaning solutions)
What order do I use the cleaning stuff, scrubber, vaccuum, etc?
How much water change if at all (I know not 100%)

Anything else ya'll can think of would be great. His tanks in a healthy spot right now with good parameters and he's very active and healthy, we just want to maintain it! Thanks in advance!!!

[nav2008]

when you clean the tank you should be changing the water also (i do 50% changes)

[Flashygrrl]

1. Vacuum tank...do about half the gravel each time
2. Scrub decor in used tank water but only if it's really dirty (decor houses some of the beneficial bacteria)
3. Put new water in..make sure it's the same temp as the old and dechlorinated and all that good stuff

Of course, all this depends on the tank size. If you're using a 1 gallon, you should be taking him out and doing 100% two-three times a week (and considering getting a bigger tank if you can ). If you use a 2.5 gallon you can leave him in and do 50% twice a week. If you have a 5 gallon it's 50% once a week and pretty much everything above that you just do 25% once a week.

[cms_star84]

He's in a 10 gallon by himself

[Meatpuppet]

all i do is vacume the gravel once a week and while doing that 25% of the water comes out to change.
if i ever need to to clean the decorations, i take it out and scrub it. that seems to work out just fine

[okiemavis]

Do you have a filter? Either way, 10G will take a while to get dirty with one betta in it, so you're doing good.

The most important thing is to remove 25% of the water every week and replace it with clean water. Probably the most effective way of doing this is by vacuuming the gravel, as you can remove the gunk that's built up in there. I don't do gravel vacs as much as I should, but some people do them with every water change.

Other than that, the rest is up to you. If there's algae on the glass you can scrub it off- but that's more for you looking at the tank than for your fish. The algae won't hurt him.

[nav2008]

if its kept that clean and you have algea problems... get algea eater or something.. thats what we did. and if its in sunlight that also increases algea growth.

[cms_star84]

There's not a ton of algae really, it'd definitely just be for our benefit then. There is a filter. We do 25% water changes every week so the tanks in pretty good condition. We just wanted to have good upkeep, thanks for the advice!

[Flashygrrl]

Originally Posted by nav2008

if its kept that clean and you have algea problems... get algea eater or something.. thats what we did. and if its in sunlight that also increases algea growth.

You should be a bit more specific about that. When people think algae eaters that automatically think of plecos and go out and buy one of those common plecos that become a foot long. Or they get a Chinese algae eater and those get violent on top of getting huge.

[okiemavis]

Originally Posted by cms_star84

There's not a ton of algae really, it'd definitely just be for our benefit then. There is a filter. We do 25% water changes every week so the tanks in pretty good condition. We just wanted to have good upkeep, thanks for the advice!

Perfect! You'll have a very healthy tank & betta. You can even look into getting some more fish to go with him if you want...