Fish Tank Cleaning,Dublin

MarkKelly316

Just Wondering If Any One Could Give Me Some Information,

I Am New To Fish Keeping And
I Have A Rather Large Fish Tank And Was Wondering What Methods I Should Use In Order To Keeping It Clean???
Its To Big For One Man To Take Off The Stand And Cleaning It Out,I Was Wondering If Anyone Knows What Type Of Fish I Could Get To Feed On The Dirt And So on,Or Where I Could Buy Some Tank Cleaning Equipment In Dublin??

Cheers,

Alkers

Do you have any fish in it yet? Have you got a filter? Heater? Lighting? How big is the tank? You don't really want to ever go "cleaning out" your tank, you only need to do partial water changes and maybe to scrape the glass clear of algae. Answer the above questions and I'll get back to you.

MarkKelly316

Yeah I Have Fish In,I Have A Filter,heating and Lighting,the Tank Is Four By One

Thanks

Alkers

What did you do since getting the tank before you added fish and what fish have you added?

MarkKelly316

I dont understand the first question sorry and ive added 7 guppys one male blue fighter fish,and three other tropical fish that im not sure of there names

dollydishmop

MarkKelly316 wrote: »

I dont understand the first question sorry

I'll rephrase it for you.
What did you do to the tank to prepare it for the introduction of fish?

Alkers

As in did you do anything to prepare the tank for the fish or did you just buy a tank fill it with water and put fish in? Whatever you do don't buy any more fish and if you can try bring the ones you have back untill you learn about fishkeeping. For starters the fish you have aren't compatible as the male fighter will be aggressive towards the guppys.
You need to do a lot of reading I'm afraid.
Do a google search for fishless cycling and buy a test kit. You will also need to buy a dechlorinator that you add to any water before it goes into your tank.

MarkKelly316

well actually i was told male fighter fish are only aggressive towards other fighter fish,and he hasnt done anything harmful to any other fish and of course ive used dechlorinator and also ammonia consumer too

Alkers

Read this:
http://www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/showthread.php?t=34257
Then this:
http://www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/showthread.php?t=60022
Then get back to me.
Any other questions ask away.

Rocketthorpe

Simona1986 wrote: »

Read this:
http://www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/showthread.php?t=34257
Then this:
http://www.tropicalfish.site5.com/tfc/showthread.php?t=60022
Then get back to me.
Any other questions ask away.

What's with some people on this,the chap only asked for advice and he's gettin an awful goin over.would it not be easier just to give him the information he is looking for....

I think the best thing to do regarding your fish tank and your fish, you'll be alot better off going to your local pet shop as they will give you all the information you will need and get it fist hand instead of the annoyance your going to get on this.

kylith

OP, some male Fighters will live with other fish, some will be happy together for ages and then one day the Fighter will snap and go on a killing spree. Other times the Fighter's fins will be shredded by other aquarium fish. It's not that they can't be kept in community tanks, it's just that it takes a lot of planning to make sure everything's compatible. Guppies are one of Fighter's triggers because their fancy tails make them look a bit like Fighters. If I were you I'd return one or the other.

If you decide not to return the fish then you'll be doing a fish-in cycle, and you should be prepared for some fish to die. Cycling means that the beneficial bacteria which break down the ammonia produced by the fishes' waste build up to a level where they can deal with the amount of waste produced by your fish. This can take several weeks and during this time you should be doing 25% water changes every second day. Buy a test kit online, one of the ones with test tubes and bottles of reactant chemicals. Keep a very close eye on your ammonia and change the water if it gets too high, ideally it should be at zero. Because the fluctuating levels of ammonia, nitrate and nitrite can be very stressful for fish it's generally recommended to do a fishless cycle.

I don't know quite what you mean by wanting to clean your tank. You certainly don't want to be emptying it and washing it; it's very stressful for the fish to be moved in and out, and any detergent left in would be fatal to them. Is it algae you have a problem with? There are fish such as otoclinus which will eat it, but I prefer nerite snails.

For general maintanance get a siphon and use it to transfer about 30% of the water to a bucket, or buckets, then throw this on your flowebeds - they'll love it. Replace the water with dechlorinated water at the same temperature as the tank. Do this on a weekly basis. If you have algae problems you can also take to opportunity with a scraper of some kind.

Remember the Golden Rule: most petshop employees know nothing about fishkeeping. They will sell you fish that are inappropriate because they don't know any better. Their job is to sell pets, they don't worry about what will happen afterward.

I use aqadvisor.com to work out compatibility and stocking levels for my tank.

Sorry about the text wall, feel free to ask anything else.