Jon

How often do you change out water / scrape for algae / vacuum your gravel? I wont attach a poll because it seems that since this is a combo of questions it would be easier just to type a response.

EmpPleco

I do water changes twice a week(one of those times being a gravel vac, and havent had any algae to scrape Pleco gets to it before I can lol

Jon

i vacuum the gravel and change 15% water subsequently bidaily... i know i should cutback but for some reason i find it very fun.

Jason

I clean mine once a week. Change water 30%, vaccum. algae clean etc.

fish_r_friend

10% bidaily

newbie101

Me too I just don't like hauling heavy buckets from the laundry room...I change the water and siphon the gravel (at the same time) every saturday, 10-25%. I never have to scrape algae, it never grows

Marc

Typically I do about 10 gallons every other day. 11 gallon buckets are nice

Gunnie

I normally change out 50% in each tank every week except my turtle tank. The speedster gets a 100% water change every week.

Jon

is there any real danger of cleaning your tank too often with an established tank?

EmpPleco

IN my opinion, you can never do any water changes, but IMO gravel vaccing more than one time a week i s alittle too much.. I try not to mess with any good bacteria _but you have to do it once i week to get rid of any uneaten food, fish poopies, etc. LOL

Butterfly

Jon as long as your fish are happy don't worry about it, I doubt you can do too many water changes
i do 25 - 50% weekly and vacumm at that time. Plecos do the algae scraping
Carol

Fish Girl

I plan to change the water every week in my tank. The first time I tried one of my fish died but I think I know how to do it now.

dano569

i change 25-30% a week and vaccum half the gravel at the same time.

atmmachine816

i change about 5-6 gallons once a week thruough a gravel vac and scrape algae everyother month or so

these darn otos dont do the job i need a pleco

EmpPleco

My one pleco keeps my entire tank algae free. they are definately good housecleaners

dano569

my mbuna tank has brown algae.i don't have a pleco in that tank.

Jon

my tank has brown algae on just the back panel so i scrape it every once in a while... no biggie

EmpPleco

I heard that brown algae is a sign of having nitrites and ammonia present in your tank.

Do you guys think this is true?