A Guide to Fish Tank Maintenance

Proper fish tank maintenance requires equal portions of knowledge on the subject and commonsense. Combine this with an understanding of the duty of care to your animals that you have as a pet owner and fish tank maintenance is relatively easy.

Getting the basics right is the first step to easy tank maintenance. The size of the fish tank should be determined by the number of fish you will be keeping. If you plan to increase the number over time then get an oversized tank that can allow you to expand your stock. The rule of thumb in this regard is one medium sized fish per 4 litres of water. Apart from impacting on the lives of your fish, an overcrowded fish tank will get dirty quicker and will require more maintenance.A larger tank will need less regular cleaning over time but will be a bigger job when it does have to be cleaned.

Getting good advice on the type of filtration system to use in the tank is essential. A good filtration system will clean the water of any unwanted particles and bacteria. This will improve the state of the water and the cleanliness of the tank.

Another common cause of waste and dirt in the fish tank is overfeeding. Most fish require less food than you would expect. Get advice, when you buy the fish, on quantities and types of food that are suitable. Uneaten food will cause the tank to get dirty and unhealthy for the fish.

Finally, ensure that you have easy access to the fish tank. If you are keeping it in a bookcase or such like, where it is hard to get buckets and hosepipes to then it will be hard to clean the tank. If you have to rearrange the bookcase each time you want to clean the tank you will be less inclined to clean the tank.

Once you have your fish tank setup correctly, you need to get a schedule for cleaning that is followed strictly. Even if the fish tank does not look dirty on the scheduled cleaning date you should still clean it. You have a duty to your pets to keep them in an healthy environment.

The schedule should include distinct daily, weekly, monthly tasks.

Daily tasks are, essentially, monitoring the condition of the tank. This includes feeding the fish, checking their behaviour and condition, checking the equipment is working normally, a visual check of the condition of the water. Action should be taken to resolve any issues; staying on top of the daily monitoring can ensure that no issues are ever serious.

Weekly tasks are more to do with keeping the glass in good condition and any plants, rocks and other ornaments clean. Debris may float to the top which should be removed.

Every month the water should be changed even if it looks ok. Changing the water is not always an easy task. Ensure that you have worked through all the steps before you do it for real.

Probably the best thing one can do to keep up his or her duties of fish tank maintenance is to learn as much as one can about the subject. Skim the net, read magazines, purchase books on the subject…whatever one can do. If one has an expert level of knowledge in regards to fish tank maintenance, then one will be able to eliminate problems before they occur. And eliminating problems before they happen is almost always the best course of action to take.

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