Cleaning Help!!

HI all, its been a while since I've logged on so here is a quick update:

A while back my tank (which I think was around 55G) smashed as I was moving furniture in the room I kept it in, luckily all the fish survived and I was able to move them all into my 17.5G tank.

The fish have been in there since, the stocking is:
- 2 BN Plecos
- 1 SAE
- 4 Zebra Danios
- 5 Neon Tetras

The BN's and the SAE were only a few cm long when I put them in the tank and have since out grown the tank, I'm unable to get a larger tank at the moment so I will be rehoming them aswell as the Zebra Danios. Ill be keeping the neons and increasing their numbers to 10.

Now the issue is, I need to clean the tank and the filter (I have an Aqua One Nautilus 800) and I was hoping to re-aquascape aswell. How should I go about cleaning? I don't want to remove the beneficial bacteria in the gravel and the filter, I've also heard that you should clean the tank and then the filter two weeks after. I have a gravel vacuum although I'm not sure if just that would do the trick. What should I do with the neons while I'm cleaning?

55G which smashed:


Current Tank:


(As you can see its pretty dirty)

I will test my water tomorrow, as its currently 4am in Australia enguin:

Thankyou in advance for all the replies, its good to be back!

 

Clean your filter out in a bucket of tank water you'll not loose your cycle or bacteria, keeping your filter well maintained is essential, once that's done go ahead and do your gravel vac, this is what I do and have always done with my fish tanks

 

Clean your filter out in a bucket of tank water you'll not loose your cycle or bacteria, keeping your filter well maintained is essential, once that's done go ahead and do your gravel vac, this is what I do and have always done with my fish tanks

I have a canister filter (Aqua One Nautilus 800) and the media is most likely needed to be replaced as it hasn't been cleaned in a while, should I purchase all new media parts or keep some of the old ones? Also before I vacuum the gravel I need to remove all my rocks and driftwood and clean them too, so what should I do with the fish (just the 5 neons) while I'm doing this, I think that they should be fine in a container, it shouldn't take too long?

 

I have a canister filter (Aqua One Nautilus 800) and the media is most likely needed to be replaced as it hasn't been cleaned in a while, should I purchase all new media parts or keep some of the old ones? Also before I vacuum the gravel I need to remove all my rocks and driftwood and clean them too, so what should I do with the fish (just the 5 neons) while I'm doing this, I think that they should be fine in a container, it shouldn't take too long?

You said your media "hasn't been cleaned in a while"

Can you elaborate on how long. Months? Years?

It's a very bad idea to change out all your media as that will ruin your cycle. If you need to replace media do it very slowly, replace a small amount once a month making sure your water parameters remain pristine.

 

You said your media "hasn't been cleaned in a while"

Can you elaborate on how long. Months? Years?

It's a very bad idea to change out all your media as that will ruin your cycle. If you need to replace media do it very slowly, replace a small amount once a month making sure your water parameters remain pristine.

I'm ashamed to say it but possibly 5+ months , my dad usually handles the filter and I focus more on maintaining the tank. Should I clean up the tank and then wait a few weeks before I start to do anything with the filter?

 

What you can do is disconnect the filter open and take the trays out the trays with what looks like rocks just clean in tank water and put back the sponges wash them all in tank water except what was the white one that one needs replacing any carbon needs throwing out and there's no need to put more in you can put more media in instead then fill with tank water put the lid on prime and switch on the power you will see some muck come out when first turned on but that will settle, then next week do a gravel vac you can leave the fish in they should be ok, before you vac turn off the filter and heater,

 

What you can do is disconnect the filter open and take the trays out the trays with what looks like rocks just clean in tank water and put back the sponges wash them all in tank water except what was the white one that one needs replacing any carbon needs throwing out and there's no need to put more in you can put more media in instead then fill with tank water put the lid on prime and switch on the power you will see some muck come out when first turned on but that will settle, then next week do a gravel vac you can leave the fish in they should be ok, before you vac turn off the filter and heater,

Thankyou for the help, I'll keep this thread updated if I need any more assistance.