Turn off the heater and filter
Get a large bucket and aquarium gravel vacuum and vacuum the gravel and take out 20% of the water.
Rinse out the filter cartridges in the tank water I have just removed.
Use an algae scrubber to remove algae from the sides of the tank and from tank decorations.
Refill the tank with lukewarm tap water up to the fill line and add aqua plus to remove chlorine and chloramine.
Turn the heater and filtration system back on, and check back in an hour to make sure everything is running properly.First tank clean and water change instructions.?Do what you said but change/rinse filters after tank settles out, sounds like your on it. I never clean my tank decorations got a siamese algae eater if you have them watch out you dont suck them suckers up with your vacuumFirst tank clean and water change instructions.?Yup, that is fine. How long has this tank been running? If you just started it, you do not need to wash them. Also, I would only wash one of them at a time. Like this week do the one and the next week the other cartridge. You do not want to kill all of the bacteria and make your tank cycle again. Hope I helped!First tank clean and water change instructions.?Sounds like you've got pretty-much everything covered... I'd just suggest putting the %26quot;new%26quot; water in a clean bucket first, and adding your chemicals to remove chlorine, etc. in the bucket. You can also put the water in the bucket a day or two in advance, which helps the chlorine evaporate naturally. As long as the water is room temperature, you don't have to worry about it... just add it slowly (poor slowly).
Also, I might use the algae scrubber a day in advance as well, as much of the scraped algae will float to the bottom, which then you can vacuum up.First tank clean and water change instructions.?I would only do one thing a bit different. since this is a partial water change, I would pre treat the water. You don't say what size tank. if it's a huge tank, then just tank one bucket full of water and treat it and let sit for a little while. If its a small tank, I would have containers et aside for water changes ad age all the water i could. I did this for my smaller tanks. it's really better to treat some of the water outside the tank and let the water age a bit. With larger tanks that's a bit harder to do because of the amount of water. When i had to transport loads of water for shows, i purchased green containers sold for campers desigend just for water . They look like a large gas can but are green in color. That way i knew only water would ever be in there.
In fact, todays water changing day at my house! I have three 2.5 gallon tanks for my bettas and I use water jugs to hold their water..each jug has the fishes name on it. anal, isn't it? LOL
You've got a good start on this. Keep it up!
Good luck and enjoy your fish!First tank clean and water change instructions.?You're making it a little too complicated.
Here's how I maintain my 30 gallon rig.
Using a gravel vacuum siphon, I remove 25% of the water. While doing that, I take and vacuum about 25% of the gravel by hitting it in random spots (you don't want to get too aggressive in cleaning the gravel, as a goodly amount of the beneficial bacteria lives there.
Then in your case, I'd add the water treatment chemicals to the water BEFORE you put it back into the tank. And instead of lukewarm, I'd try to feel the water you're dumping and try to get the temp to match. You don't need a thermometer and super precision, but get it close.
Using the algae scrubber is fine, but I'd not rinse out the filter media too much, the filter is where the majority of the bacteria live and there is where you get the vast majority of your biological filtration. Killing this filter and you're starting from scratch.
Normally I leave the filter alone until it's time to replace it. You might want to invest in a filter system (like the Fluval or the Aquaclear series) that have the special beads that allow the bacteria to grow in. That way all you have to do is change the charcoal and rinse the filter. The beads keep the bacteria and you're not starting the filter from scratch every time you're changing the filters.
Hope this helps
