Problems with Over-Cleaning Your Fish Tank

Not cleaning your fish tank can lead to a lot of problems but what most people do not know is that over-cleaning your fish tank can lead to just as many problems. If you clean the fish tank to the point where you've cleaned all your rock and your decorations you are eliminating your entire beneficial bacteria colony and you are left with nothing. When you clean your fish tank, you will want to only clean half of your rock at once. The next time you clean your fish tank, you can then switch to the other side and clean that rock instead.

A beneficial bacteria colony is very important. It's what keeps your fish from getting sick. With a beneficial bacteria colony, your fish would get sick all of the time. The beneficial bacteria works to eliminate all of the potential harmful bacteria that gets into the water. Nobody thinks about the problems that are associated with over-cleaning a fish tank but it's almost just as bad and not cleaning your fish tank. The only good thing about keeping your tank clean is the fact that you wont have high nitrate or ammonia levels.

When it comes to cleaning your fish tank, you want to clean the fish tank at least once every two or three weeks. You only want to clean your decorations once every month. You will want to fill up the sink with water from your tank to clean off the decorations. When you rinse off the decorations with tap water, you will kill all of your beneficial bacteria that is on your decorations. Cleaning the decorations in the water from your main tank will preserve the beneficial bacteria colony.

Your filtration system will also house beneficial bacteria. You will want to clean out your filter at least once per month to avoid it from seizing up. Sometimes, all of the fish waste will clog up the filter and keep it from running properly. As long as you have a beneficial bacteria in your rock or on your decorations, you will be okay to clean out your filter system. The filter does house a lot of beneficial bacteria so you want to wait at least 3 weeks before you clean it and switch out the old filter cartridges.