Cleaning the tank. Conditioner?

[SharonDuquette]

Hello there. Okay so I tested my tank for the pH, Alkalinity, Hardness, Nitrite, Nitrate and Ammonia. pH, alkalinity, and hardness were high. Nitrite and Nitrate seemed fine and the Ammonia was on 0.2. Seeing this, I felt I should clean the tank and so I've been looking for the best water conditioner.

The one i currently use is SpendidBetta Complete Water Conditioner. Is this good? I was looking at the Kordon Amquel and it removes, or lessens, almost everything and in the reviews, they agreed and said it worked. What is the best thing to use when cleaning the tank and using the conditioner? I'm planning on cleaning it on Wednesday.

Also, whats the best way to clean it? Should I use a siphon and suck out the water? Please let me know soon! Thanks!!

[fishyinpa]

Yup get a gravel vac,and itll take care of it for you. Sometimes you have to suck on the one end to get it going,but once you do it enough times,you wont get a mouthful of fishy water lol. As for water conditioner,I use amquel and novaqua together. Good stuff from my experience and my fish are all fine.

[dramaqueen]

If your tank is small, like 1 to 2 gallons, I would do a full change twice a week. A bigger, uncycled tank, I would do partial changes once a week and a full change once a month. Aquasafe and Prime are 2 good conditioners that some of the members here use.

[SharonDuquette]

My tank is 2 gallon. It's this one: http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=3107806

I have one fish in that gallon and I'm not sure if I should clean it fully or partially. And I'm still deciding on the conditioners.

Would Amquel and Novaqua work for a 2 gallon? Because on NovAqua, it starts at 10 gallons..

[fishyinpa]

For a 2 gallon tank,I would do a full water change like DQ said. Hmm i never read that..im sure it says it on the bottle but mustve missed it lol. Ived used it on tanks from 2.5gallons to 10 gallons. No problems.

[dramaqueen]

You could do a full change once a week.I think amquel and novaqua will be fine if you can figure out how much tio use.

[SharonDuquette]

Alrighty! Thanks so much! Other places say that full water changes aren't as good. They say that doing 50% water changes, 20%-60%, is good and using a siphon is the best way.

[fishyinpa]

Well thats usually if you are cycling. But in a tank that small,forget about it lol. 100% is the way to go. It is stressful on the fish,but they will get used to the routine.

[dramaqueen]

+1 what fishyinpa said.

[SharonDuquette]

Oh okay. With my old fish, I had him in those small tanks, the rectangular-ish ones and I changed it 100% and almost a year after I had him he died. We think it might've been the temp so I also got the Hydor Mini Heater for my tank, but to keep it safe, i only use it for a few hours and when i unplug it for a while, it the temp goes back down, ill plug it in again.

I'm doing everything I can to make sure my betta is healthy.