I am getting a 10 gallon fish tank for one male betta, 6 neon tetras, one or two african dwarf frogs, and a snail to help keep it clean. How often should I change the water, and how should I go about doing this? I have heard that doing 100% water changes is bad, so how do I change less water?How often should I change my fish tank water, and how should I do it?First off, either don't get the frogs or don't get the betta, your tank will be horribly overpopulated. Second, please make sure you cycle you tank before adding anything, leaving a dead fish or just putting a raw shrimp into the tank and then having it totally decompose will ensure you have proper populations of beneficial bacteria in your tank. If you don't want to wait for it to cycle, then you MUST purchase a solution of beneficial bacteria and add that right before you add your fish.
As for maintenance, you will need a gravel siphon which can be purchased at any pet store, a 3 gallon bucket, and a scrubber pad made for either glass or acrylic tanks. You will need to siphon the gravel once a week, to start the siphon completely submerge it in the water so there are no air bubbles in the hose, then hold your thumb over the end and put it into the bucket(the bucket should be lower then the tank!) release your thumb and the siphon will draw water out of the tank including fish waste, without taking up the gravel. This is how you will do the weekly 20% water changes.
This is also when you should scrub the glass with your pad and trim any live-plants if you have them.
If you can buy a filter where the mechanical, biological, and chemical filtration parts are separate. Your beneficial bacteria live on your filter media and changing the filter media all at once will greatly damage your fish. Instead rinse the filter media in TANK WATER(I rinse mine in the bucket of water I just siphoned out) once a week, activated carbon should be changed once a month, the foam filter pad can be reused over and over again till it falls apart and if you have it, any biological filter media should never be changed.
e-mail me if you have any more questions at NcKurth@yahoo.comHow often should I change my fish tank water, and how should I do it?Cris, for starters: It's a really good idea to get 10 gallon fish tank for one male bette. OR for 6 neon tetras, OR one african dwarf frog. If you put all critters together in 10 gallons you asking for disaster.
How to change water - Get a python hose. Connect it to faucet. With hose vacuum tank bottom until 10 - 15 % out. After this reverse water flow, rinse hose and then SLOWLY fill tank to top. That's all.How often should I change my fish tank water, and how should I do it?Once in a Month, Full water to be changed, all assecessory to be cleaned, Don't give excess food to fish, it will make water of tank in bad shape before time.How often should I change my fish tank water, and how should I do it?after the tank is cycled, you should do a 25% water change each week. you can do this by simply siphoning off 2 1/2 gallons of water, dumping it, then adding 2 1/2 gallons of fresh dechlorinated water back to the tankHow often should I change my fish tank water, and how should I do it?I think you should get a male and a female Betta, that would be sufficient,
but make sure they are not attacking each other. About the water, I think that after it is cycled, weekly 10-20% water changes should sufficeHow often should I change my fish tank water, and how should I do it?Well for starter's I'd get either the frog's or the fish not both.
In the 10 you could go 7 neon's and the betta.
Watch out for the snail though, if she lays eggs on you you'll soon have an explosive number of them.
You should change the water every 2 weeks.
No never change all the water at once, that removes all of the beneficial bacteria the fish need to live. If you do about 25 - 50% your still keeping some of the bacteria in the tank, and it will continue to survive. I usually do about a 50% every 2 - 3 weeks in my 15 gallon.
To clean the tank your going to need to get a vacuum for the tank. It's basically used to siphon out the water, and you put it in the gravel to suck up any decaying food and poop..that's why it's called a vacuum. :]
I use the siphon (Vacuum..can be found at any pet store) and a bucket. I fill the bucket with the old water and dump it outside. Just keep siphoning until your satisfied with the amount of water you've taken out.
When I vacuum the tank I also clean off any decoration's in the tank, by taking them outside and spraying them with the hose. And I replace the filter cartridge at this time also.
When your adding the new water to the tank, I use tap (No need to buy any special water) Just fill the bucket with the new water (I use the same bucket I previously had taken the old water out with) and make sure the water is cool feeling to you, you don't want it hot or cold or even very warm feeling to you, it'll be too warm for the fish and make them go into shock. Just cool is good, you also need Dechloninator (Found at any petstore) to add into the tap water. If you don't add the dechloninator the chlorine naturally found in the water will kill the fish, it's very toxic to them.
Powder or liquid dechlorinator is fine. I've used both kinds and either works.
Just make sure you add the correct amount to the water, read the back directions and it should tell you.
Good Luck :]How often should I change my fish tank water, and how should I do it?I honestly would revise your fish list. 1 male betta, and maybe 4-5 cory cats instead of the neon tetras. Neons can pick on bettas, and bettas can very easily kill the little neons.
The frogs are messy eaters and let out alot of waste.
And snails poop alot. They clean the algae, but they don't keep the tank CLEAN.
Look up cycling your tank, and also do some research on the types of fish you're looking at before you buy. Don't forget you need a heater.
