Maintaining
your aquarium
Monitor and maintain your aquarium regularly to ensure the well-being of your aquarium fish and plants. We’ll help you gain an overview of the most important tasks.
Daily:
One of the aquarium owner’s most important tasks is to monitor the equipment daily. The filter, lighting and heating must all be working correctly. Pay particular attention to the intake tube and the vent. You should also have a quick look at all of the tubes once a day. Ideally you should identify any weak spots before they become blocked or start leaking. Feeding the fish is another important part of your daily routine. You should feed them at least two to three hours before you turn off the light. Only nocturnal fish can still be fed shortly before lights-out. Add just enough feed that the fish can gobble up within two minutes. If the fish need longer than that or the feed sinks to the bottom un-noticed you should reduce the amount you give them.
Take a closer look at your little ones: Are they all behaving and moving normally? Perhaps you’ve spotted a change in the appearance of the skin of one of your fish? Always remember: nobody knows your pets as well as you.
Every one to four weeks:
Monitor the condition of the plants and remove any leaves that are dying or that have algae growing on them. The plants should also be fertilised regularly.
Replace a third of the tank with freshly-prepared water every two weeks (or even once a week if necessary). This way, you don’t have to worry about a raised concentration of metabolic products in the water occurring in the first place. Make sure you don’t leave it any longer before changing the water.
Test the water values after each water change. Make sure the hardness and pH values are correct. You should also test the ammonia, nitrate and nitrite values every couple of weeks for safety’s sake. You can find suitable instant tests in specialty stores. Clean the sides of the tank from the inside roughly every two weeks with a magnetic cleaner or a scouring pad. If the water circulation is visibly reduced, you also need to clean the internal filter.
The base of the tank should also be cleaned of dirt and/or mulm once a month. The best thing to do is to remove the dead plant material and faeces with a special aquarium vacuum cleaner. But you shouldn’t go down too deep as the pre-existing nutrient-rich substrate should stay in the aquarium.
Every two to three months:
Providing the right amounts of light and nutrients will help not only the fish, but also the plants in your aquarium to flourish. To ensure that the greenery doesn’t take over, you must regularly thin and pare back your plants. Bear in mind that the plants don’t just grow upwards, but also outwards, meaning they also have to be pruned at the sides. Don’t trim them any more than a third of the way down.
Cleaning the filter is another extremely important task that must be carried out regularly. If you have an external filter, this should be done approx. every two months. However, this should only be taken as a guideline. If you have an internal filter, it should only be cleaned once the water circulation is reduced as the filter gradually becomes too heavily blocked. At this point, wash it out under a gentle lukewarm stream of water. It is not recommended to clean the filter more regularly than this as important bacteria, which are essential for the biological equilibrium of the aquarium, will be removed every time you clean it.
The neon lights should be replaced once a year. Even though it cannot be seen with the naked eye, their performance will begin to deteriorate after around twelve months.
As often as possible:
Sit down in front of your aquarium as often as possible to observe its inhabitants. While you’re enjoying watching the plants and animals in the tank, you will automatically get to know them better. Soon you’ll know them and their individual characteristics so well that you’ll be able to recognise the smallest changes in the system without too much effort and be able to react to them in plenty of time. If you complete these routine tasks regularly, you can enjoy an uninterrupted view of this beautiful underwater world for a long time to come.
Call into your local store today to discuss your fish’s personal needs with our Maxi Zoo Pet Experts