Many people believe that cleaning an aquarium on a regular basis is an extremely daunting chore. They have anxiety over the thought of emptying all of the water and rinsing out the gravel every single month. Luckily, that is not how an aquarium should be cleaned.  Once a month maintenance is ideal, but instead of tearing down the aquarium each time, only small ¼ water changes are needed.  By using a gravel siphon, you can drain a partial amount of water from the aquarium while leaving the fish, ornaments and substrate in the aquarium.  Just topping off an aquarium when the water level is low is not cleaning. When water evaporates, all the ammonia and gasses are still in the tank.  Filling up an aquarium when the water evaporates, doesn’t count as a partial water change. You need to extract a portion of water periodically.  This process takes only 5 – 10 minutes for the average size aquarium.

There is such a thing as cleaning your aquarium too much.  Beneficial bacteria that grows on the substrate is a necessity for a healthy aquarium. It eats away at the toxic ammonia that the fish produce. If you take the gravel out of the aquarium and give it a good cleaning, you are destroying all that good bacteria that is needed.  The gravel siphon allows you to remove the dirt along with a partial amount of water from the aquarium without destroying the bacteria. I highly suggest getting an aquarium siphon if you don’t have one.  These simple devices are designed to get into the gravel and siphon out the dirt without destroying the good bacteria.  Creating a healthy environment for you fish doesn’t mean a sterile environment.

-Kevin Ellwanger