How to Avoid Fish Tank Cleaning
What is the best way to avoid fish tank cleaning? Have you ever been to Seaworld, or any large aquarium for that matter, and spent some time watching the shark pool. You will notice that divers often go down to clean the floor of the pool and the windows with large aquatic vaccuum cleaners. I bet they wished that there were ways to avoid fish tank cleaning with all those sharks lurking about.
Thankfully, you don't have to worry about being attacked by a shark next time you clean your fish tank (at least I hope not). The truth is, you should never shirk your responsibility for keeping the tank clean and, consequently, your fish healthy. You should set a regular schedule whereby you clean the tank and stick to the schedule. However you can do things to the tank that keep it cleaner for longer and hence mean you have to clean it few times a year. Here are a few ideas to do this.
The best way to avoid fish tank cleaning is to construct your fish tank in such an optimal way that you actually don't need to clean it. Aquarium construction, the environments that you create and the tools you use to maintain the fish tanks have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years.
But what if my fish tank is already nasty? If that is your case, you should purchase a bottle of fish tank cleaner from your local pet store. Many fish tank cleaners can now be used in live tanks and often contain special bacteria that will break down organic materials, reduce odor, and reduce sludge.
Now how do I keep it clean? This brings us back to the improvements in fish tank construction and the materials and tools used to maintain the environment. If you want to avoid fish tank cleaning, you will need to recreate your fish's exact habitat inside of the tank. If your fish would normally live in neutral pH, tropical, saltwater ecosystems, you will want to create exactly that in your tank to avoid fish tank cleaning.
Additionally, you will want to artificially recreate all of the disposal mechanisms that are present in such an ecosystem. For instance, depending on your ecosystem, you might be able to purchase snails or suckerfish to reduce the sludge in your tank. If you're having problems with plant death in your aquarium, you may want consider getting a carbon dioxide pump for the plants.
This seems counter-intuitive, since fish tanks almost always have oxygen pumps; but if you have too many plants and they're dying and creating sludge, you might be better off without the oxygen pump. Of course this requires study of the natural habitat in order to implement such an environment. It is best to get advice and tips from other owners of the people that sold you the fish in the first place.
And there you have it: the best way to avoid fish tank cleaning or a least minimise the number of times that you need to do it a year.
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