10 Gallon Tank How do I do my water changes?

This is my tank, and it has:
1 [Male] Twin-tail Half-moon Betta
7 Ember Tetras
2 Mystery Snails
And a Nerite Snail

My question is, how am I supposed to clean my tank? Should I take my betta out, or leave him in with the other fish?

How am I supposed to gravel vacuum tight spaces where plants are? I just planted a lot of the plants so they're not really attached to the gravel yet

Should I be doing 30% or 50% water changes? My ember tetras are new, so I'm not sure what the usual number of nitrate is, but before I added them it was 5ppm to 10 ppm at most. The plants are helping a lot

I'm quite new, and I really don't want to upset my stock with water changes; and I'm more or less likely to do one sooner or later (since my tank is going to go through a mini cycle for the tetras)

Thank you for reading, I'd appreciate any advice!

 

Leave him in, get a 5 gallon bucket and a thin airline tube to vacuum the gravel and use a toothbrush to remove algae I do this every other week for deeper cleaning and on other weeks I just do a general clean and wc

 

I would do a 50% water change once a week and leave him in.

 

My question is, how am I supposed to clean my tank? Should I take my betta out, or leave him in with the other fish?

How am I supposed to gravel vacuum tight spaces where plants are? I just planted a lot of the plants so they're not really attached to the gravel yet

Should I be doing 30% or 50% water changes? My ember tetras are new, so I'm not sure what the usual number of nitrate is, but before I added them it was 5ppm to 10 ppm at most. The plants are helping a lot

I'm quite new, and I really don't want to upset my stock with water changes; and I'm more or less likely to do one sooner or later (since my tank is going to go through a mini cycle for the tetras)

Thank you for reading, I'd appreciate any advice!

Just remove water and add new water. Done. Even when the plants are firmly rooted, you don't have to gravel vac each time you do a waterchange. See to it that you remove most uneaten foods, that's all.

Also 50% waterchanges are a safe bet. Just do them weekly. The nitrates won't rise much if you stick to the schedule.

The fish will get used to your cleaning regime. At first it's a bit uneasy, but just do it. If you don't they won't get used to it.

 

When a tank is going through a mini cycle as we believe it will with these new fish it’s important to realise bacteria live on all hard surface. Not just ON the filter but on the glass,on the gravel,on ornaments, even on the heater and power cord. All hard surfaces are a home to some bacteria. More will be were food ( ammonia) is going past continuously. The glass panel directly in front of a HOB waterfall has a good supply food hitting it.
It’s important not to clean any hard surfaces when a tank is growing more bacteria.
When a tank has a full working nitrogen cycle/ a full house of bacteria we can clean one panel of glass each week. We can clean 1/3 of the gravel each week. We can clean part of the filter each week .
The water has almost no bacteria in it. We can change water as often as necessary to keep any ammonia or nitrites low. We can change water as often as necessary to keep nitrates belos approximately 40 ppm for most species. Approximately 20 ppm for some species.

We can change UP TO 50% of the water every 4 hours in an extreme emergency.


A fully cycled tank/ a tank with lots of bacteria can often only need one 50% water change to keep the nitrates below 40 ppm just before the change.

Cleaning only a little of the hard surfaces each week is still a safe practice with any tank. It’s not necessary or advisable to OVER clean any tank ALL on the same day.

 

I couldn't agree more with MacZ, Flyfisha and jkkgron2 Change out 50% of the water in this tank each week for the life of the tank and your fish should bless you with a long healthy life. Your fish will get used to your tank maintenance.

If you don't already have one get a turkey baster. You will find lots of uses for it. It is great for getting into places where muck builds up. Use it to stir up the buildup so your filter can pull it out.

 

As others said, don't remove your fish for water changes. As far as vacuuming the substrate around plants, I don't bother with it. That stuff will turn into fertilizer.

 

This is a prime example of why I do not use live plants.

 

Leave him in, get a 5 gallon bucket and a thin airline tube to vacuum the gravel and use a toothbrush to remove algae I do this every other week for deeper cleaning and on other weeks I just do a general clean and wc

I would do a 50% water change once a week and leave him in.

Just remove water and add new water. Done. Even when the plants are firmly rooted, you don't have to gravel vac each time you do a waterchange. See to it that you remove most uneaten foods, that's all.

Also 50% waterchanges are a safe bet. Just do them weekly. The nitrates won't rise much if you stick to the schedule.

The fish will get used to your cleaning regime. At first it's a bit uneasy, but just do it. If you don't they won't get used to it.

When a tank is going through a mini cycle as we believe it will with these new fish it’s important to realise bacteria live on all hard surface. Not just ON the filter but on the glass,on the gravel,on ornaments, even on the heater and power cord. All hard surfaces are a home to some bacteria. More will be were food ( ammonia) is going past continuously. The glass panel directly in front of a HOB waterfall has a good supply food hitting it.
It’s important not to clean any hard surfaces when a tank is growing more bacteria.
When a tank has a full working nitrogen cycle/ a full house of bacteria we can clean one panel of glass each week. We can clean 1/3 of the gravel each week. We can clean part of the filter each week .
The water has almost no bacteria in it. We can change water as often as necessary to keep any ammonia or nitrites low. We can change water as often as necessary to keep nitrates belos approximately 40 ppm for most species. Approximately 20 ppm for some species.

We can change UP TO 50% of the water every 4 hours in an extreme emergency.


A fully cycled tank/ a tank with lots of bacteria can often only need one 50% water change to keep the nitrates below 40 ppm just before the change.

Cleaning only a little of the hard surfaces each week is still a safe practice with any tank. It’s not necessary or advisable to OVER clean any tank ALL on the same day.

I couldn't agree more with MacZ, Flyfisha and jkkgron2 Change out 50% of the water in this tank each week for the life of the tank and your fish should bless you with a long healthy life. Your fish will get used to your tank maintenance.

If you don't already have one get a turkey baster. You will find lots of uses for it. It is great for getting into places where muck builds up. Use it to stir up the buildup so your filter can pull it out.

As others said, don't remove your fish for water changes. As far as vacuuming the substrate around plants, I don't bother with it. That stuff will turn into fertilizer.

Thank you for all the replies, I checked the ammonia this morning and there's no trace of ammonia (I think the Seachem Stability is keeping it low).

I'll then do 50% weekly and clean out some poop (but leave some for fertilizer?). And I do have a turkey blaster so so far so good.

And I won't be cleaning the gravel, maybe just 1/3 every week once my cycle is stable. Thank you so much for the replies, I'll jot these down for reminder when I water change

This is a prime example of why I do not use live plants.

Yeah~ but for me, the benefits outweighs the cons so, I love the plants. And I'm 100% sure it won't damage my bettas fins so it's a win win for me XDDD plus- they look nice and it feels rewarding when they grow XD

 

Some great advice in this thread. And yup you should be able to manage whatever small pieces you can't vacuum up by using the turkey baster. I would say that my turkey baster is the number 1 tool I use in my tanks

 

Some great advice in this thread. And yup you should be able to manage whatever small pieces you can't vacuum up by using the turkey baster. I would say that my turkey baster is the number 1 tool I use in my tanks

I know right, this forum is awesome XDDD

I originally got the turkey blaster for snail poop but it was pretty useful for so many things XDDD It's basically the jack of all trades for aquarium equipment