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His fish look very health, I think he puts some kind of vatamin thing for the fish like once in a while so the fish keep there color

Okay, here's a bit of a curly one for you.

After reading up on Panda cories, it seems they like a clean substrate.

Now considering they poo a lot, and the ground cover hasn't taken hold in the tank (i.e. you can see the poo) should I be vaccuming up this waste?

I'd hate to swim around in my own poo.

SHould I leave it or should it go?

BTW the tank is a 10 gal, fairly heavily planted, with CO2 and a cartridge filter.

For large tanks(like the 90 gallon) you need to perform water changes on them weekly just like any other tank. About 30-40% should be enough. How does one accomplish such a task? Well you couldn't(unless you have ALOT of free time on your hands)without the Python No spill Clean and fill. I personally don't use one(since I don't have such a large tank). But most everyone does for their larger tanks and it makes water changes a breeze. I heard that one person completed water changes on her three tanks in 15 minutes!

Well i'm just a kid (13) and its my summer so NOW i have time but pretty soon school is going to start and I'm not going to have much time to work on my tank (not like I do my homework anyway) I'm also considering in the almost distant future to convert my tank into a saltwater tank. I want to do it after I get the hang of the freshwater one first. I'm probably just going to start with something like 3 clown fish which are very inexpensive and see how that goes. And if I can maintane the tank, if becomes to much I'll switch back to freshwater.

Yes, but this rule only applied to very small fish. The bigger the fish, the bigger they get all around, not just length (for example a two inch fish is equal to eight one inch fish) so if you have bigger fish, you shouldn't have 90 of them. Then again, I know people who break this rule... Of course, they are usually VERY experienced and have LOTS of time...

I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!

Fully stocked is 1 inch per gallon?

With just 3 zebra danios in it water changes aren't as vital. When it's closer to fully stocked, they're necessary.

<Vet in Training>
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from what i've heard i think you should change at least 10% of the water about once every week. But I can't tell u from any personal experiance

Yes but my tank IS large (90 gallons)! I have a fluval 304 and a whisper 40 for filters. Thats good for 110 gallons.

its acutally more necessary to do it with a small tank than it is to do with a larger one. Also what kind of filter do you have. It will probably also depen on what kind of filter you have. But I would suggest you DO a water change every other week.

I have a 90 gallon tank without plants. Is it really necessary to do a water change every other week with a tank this size?

Is there any freshwater bottom feeders that will eat the fish poop? (Nitrate or Nitrite I think its called) because I'm trying to get a ballanced tank so I don't have perform maintance as much.

And remember - just because the water looks nice doesn't mean it's healthy. I'd like to see the ammonia and nitrate tests on those tanks ... actually, I wouldn't.

-Molly
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I know somebody just like that, they have a 55 gallon tank and replace the filter cartridge whenever they remember. The dont even own a gravel vac. THe only other thing they do is add water when it evaporates. But you should see the fish---just like superlion and mkube said, they don't look healthy and don't have great coloration either. They look very bland, and don't swim nearly as much as they lurk. But the waters crystal clear. I mean, at first glance, the tank looks ok, but if you compare it to one with weekly gravel vacs and water changes, you will think otherwise.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

It is not good for the fish however. And eventually(Maybe tomorrow or 10 years later) his fish will reflect the poor tank maintenence by discoloring and eventually dying. Fish are much more happy with low nitrates and fresh water(as in new water added every week while old water is removed). Besides well-maintained tanks always have exemplary fish in the brightest colors and largest sizes. Compare your neighbor's fish to the pics of fish in the Photo Booth forums of this site and see the difference between healthy fish and less than prime ones.

If he has plants it make sense, or if he's got anaerobic bacteria turning the nitrogenous wastes into nitrogen gas. But still if he does a gravel vac he's probably going to find tons of stuff the fish (even whatever catfish he has) couldn't digest. And there are probably high concentrations of other chemicals the fish produce, but they've acclimated to it now.

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I have a friend who clames his brother has never changed the water and has never performed more than 2 minutes of maintance every 2 months. (He replaces the filter cartridge) I asked him how it was possibble and he said that he has a perfect ballance of fish. I've seen that tank before its crystal clear and the fish look healthy.


HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

Should I change the water AND vac or do one or the other?

The cartridge in my pengiun gets rinsed whenever i do a water change and replaced about once a month - 6 weeks. reasons being:
Rinsing: removes all the gunk from the pad making the whoile thing more effective.
Replacing: 2 reasons, 1)they contain active carbon, after a while it looses effectivness. 2) they can really only take so much before they need replacing

At the longest I'd leave replacing the cartridge to 2 months max.

That in conjunction with regular water changes/gravel vacs should heep it under control.

hth

If you have fake plants the only way to get rid of the feces is to manually do a gravel vac every (or at least every other) week. Heavily planted tanks rarely, if ever, need to be gravel vac. The feces in this essentially complete ecosystem are broken down by plants, fungi, and bacteria, forming mulm in the gravel. Mulm is basically just naturally forming soil in aquatic ecosytems, and it smells just like potting soil (not feces).

Most likely your tank has only fake plants though, so you will have to manually remove the fish wastes. Also, power filters are not meant to replace water changes. Even with a filter, you should still change about 25% of the water preferably weekly or every other week.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.