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Hey guys, I have done about 40% water change every 2 weeks for my 10 gal tank for the past 4 months. I was wondering if I should clean out the whole tank or not?

If you mean strip the tank down and redo it. then no unless you have some serious infestations. If everything is good. then as long as you are vacuuming the gravel. and scraping off the algae you shouldnt do any thing more than water changes. You can also cut back on the amount of the wc. I only due about 3 gallon WC in a ten.


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Cleaning out the entire tank could easily force it into a recycle. But you can certainly scrub down decor, perhaps even remove all but say 20% of the gravel for thorough cleaning in a bucket if regular gravel cleaning doesnt seem to be up to the job.Its an every 6 months sort of rejuvenation thing. Its also less stress on the fish if you do small water changes often in the course of normal maintenance, say 20% a week instead of 40% every two weeks.

The idea with aquaria is to keep them clean , but not utterly spotless, a tiny amount of dirt, or mulm in the substrate is required to maintain the nitrogen cycle, and for a healthy level of balance between the filter bacteria and the nitrates produced my fish breathing and waste decomposition.

Only if you overstocked the tank, or did not do regular maintenance and sufferred disease issues would you have to worry about a total stripdown.Thats why gravel cleaners are so good, they get rid of the bulk of the dirt, and leave what is stuck to the gravel itself, thusly maintaining a culture of decompositional bacteria.

As for a total teardown and cleaning I'd say nopers,but I would do a few things differently. First, with even a moderate to light stocking in a ten the parameters can spike very easily, I do a 50% weekly, and sometimes 40%twice a week. second, when I do the w/c I gravel vac very thoroughly and so usually I do not pick up very much since there's not much to get. About half the gravel gets this every week, then the other half next week. Pulling out the gravel for a good cleaning is something I'd avoid if possible. even with a very strict and thorough gravel vaccuming regimin it will stir up a very big mess in the tank that may take a day or more to clear up.

To start of with I would do a 30% weekly.
What is in the tank as far as filtration. Can you do a good bottom vac if so I would do it as you change the water.

Yes a total pull down could easly cause you problems it can be done but certainly not recommended for a novice I have had to do it twice for my new Betta tank (tank problems leakages)

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What type of fish do you have in there? Depending on what kind you have, you may be able to add 1 otto to take care of algae.

29g - 5 Head and Tail Light Tetras, 1 Black Phantom Tetra, 1 melanistius cory, 1 Featherfin Synodontis, 1 otto
29g - 14 harlequin rasboras, 5 albino corys, 3 ottos
10g - 1 glowlight tetra, 2 Black phantom tetras, 1 red betta on entertainment center

I have a community school of 6 neon tetras and 6 black tetras.

With that many fish in there you might be better off doing a lot of smaller water changes. Something like 20% once or twice a week. I wouldn't add an algae eater because you're pretty full with the fish you already have.