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| Author | Topic: oscars |
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!fuzzypeach! Member  Posts: 25 |
posted 02-09-2004 11:34 AM
 
hi, i have an oscar tank with 1 6inch albino oscar and 1 2inch red/black oscar. whats an easier way to clean the tank? ive tried using a vacume in a resent tank a while back and most of the water got sucked out and too cloudy to be put back in. yesterday i put the fish, lobster and pleco into separate buckets and emptied out 3/4 of the water and dumped the remaining 1/4 down the sink. then cleaned out the rocks with the hose and put the water back in. its clean now but what should i od to keep it clean in the future? should i vacume it out monthly or weekly? IP: Logged |
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katanas_edge Member Posts: 266 |
posted 02-09-2004 12:18 PM
I'm not too sure what you mean by "putting the water back in". In a 20% water change you remove 1/5 of the water and replace it with new water. The other 4/5 stay in the tank. You should do 20% weekly. By the way, how large is the tank? 2 oscars will need about 75+ gallons when fully grown. IP: Logged |
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t_chelle16 Member Posts: 501 |
posted 02-09-2004 12:50 PM
Katana is correct, you will need at least a 75 gallon tank and his/her description of water changes is also good. The whole point of doing water changes is to remove fish waste from the substrate (hence vacuuming) and to reduce the amount of nitrAtes by taking out some of the water (with nitrAtes) and replacing it with fresh water (that doesn't contain nitrAtes). If your removing the water then putting it back in the tank, you are not accomplishing anything. You should also be using dechlorinator on any freshwater you add to the tank. Otherwise you can damage your fishs' gills and kill off all the beneficial bacteria. It's also less stressful to the fish to leave them in the tank while you're doing the water change. -Chelle IP: Logged |
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LeeTron Member Posts: 104 |
posted 02-09-2004 12:58 PM
When you do a water change, think of it as flushing your fish's toilet. What comes out of the tank is waste and should be discarded. How big is your tank? IP: Logged |
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!fuzzypeach! Member Posts: 25 |
posted 02-09-2004 01:39 PM
the tanks 100g IP: Logged |
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!fuzzypeach! Member Posts: 25 |
posted 02-09-2004 01:41 PM
oh and it wasnt a 20%water change, i put most of the clean looking water and fish into buckets and dumped out the dirty water, then took the tank outside and cleaned out the gravel and things with the hose. then put the water that was in buckets back in and then the fish. i then put some sink water in to replace the removed dirty water. IP: Logged |
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katanas_edge Member Posts: 266 |
posted 02-09-2004 02:40 PM
That process involves a lot of unnecessary work and stress to the fish. Simply sweep the vacuum over the top of the gravel until you've removed 20-25% of the water. Then replace it with sink water that's been allowed to sit for a day or two or had dechlorinator added. Do this every week. Generally, about once a month I like to remove any debris that's managed to work it's way into the gravel. Gently push the vacuum into the gravel to loosen anything caught in it. You may have to adjust the flow velocity a bit to avoid sucking up gravel but still suck up waste (pinch the hose to siphon slower). It's amazing how filthy the water will be. You'll probably get a little bit of cloudiness in the water, but it should settle/be filtered within an hour or two. This should save you from netting your fish everytime and removing 75 gallons of water then putting it back. IP: Logged |
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mags Member Posts: 20 |
posted 02-09-2004 06:07 PM
You may want to try a filter. IP: Logged |
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t_chelle16 Member Posts: 501 |
posted 02-09-2004 09:45 PM
"then took the tank outside and cleaned out the gravel and things with the hose" That is actually a very, very bad thing to do. The water from the hose has chlorine in it. By rinsing off everything, you are killing all of the beneficial bacteria. Without that bacteria, ammonia will build up to toxic levels and can kill your fish. -Chelle IP: Logged |
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