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of when maintanence should be done to a tank....I want something laid out right in front of me, from medium changes in the filter (sponge and carbon) to gravel vac and water changes. I have a 30 gallon tank stocked with an array of tetras. Two heaters two filters. Tank is planted.

Thank you.

I would clean the filters every month on a roster basis. I would clean one every 2 weeks.
I would do a Gravel vac. & a 25% water change every 2 weeks.


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Opinions, everyone has one! I like Jason's suggestion for the filters but not the water changes. I prefer to schedule everything on one day each week. That way, I reserve time to maintain the tank.

Choose a day for your maintenance. On that day:
- Dust and scrub the glass cover (if you have one),
- wipe down the inside tank glass,
- trim any plants,
- lightly vacuum the substrate and perform a water change,
- clean or inspect one of the filters.

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Bob has a good schedule there....
My problem is if I do the outside of the tank before I've done the inside I just end up needing to do the outside again :%)!

Here's my process....you'll of course have to consider all our suggestions and see what fits your schedule.

Siphon off small ammount of water, then squeeze lower of two sponges in an AC filter into the water change bucket giving it a bit of a swish as well. Then place lower sponge as upper sponge.

Filter intake covers (if present) get similar treatment.

Water change of 20% (ish) it varies from tank to tank.

Replace water attempting to splash as little as possible on the front of the tank (I'm vertically challanged the tanks are tall the bucket is akward need I spell it out ).

Wipe up any splashed water with a clean cloth that doest have any added detergents or perfumes on it. Carefully remove water spots with vinegar and water sprayed onto a paper towel or newspaper (cheap and leaves no lint ).

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phoenix5724,

I am with the others, basically.

I would shy away from giving you specifics though of how much water you have to change when. You mention that you have an array of tetras, but you don’t mention how many and what kind. The larger the fish mass is the larger (or more frequent) your water change has to be. Also, you mention that you have plants, but not how many and what kind (neither if you fertilize in any way). The larger the plant mass the smaller (or less frequent) your water change could be (but this is a little more complicated, as fert addition etc. play a role as well).

Ingo

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