1.1.14. Aquarium Maintenance

If one listened to all the well-meaning but ill-informed commentators on social media about aquarium maintenance one would be doing the following:

1. Do 50% water changes every week
2. Thorough gravel vacuuming every week
3. Mechanical media cleaning once weekly
4. Bleach brown algae off the ornaments every two weeks
5. Filter media cleaning and/or replacement once a month
6. Clean the algae off all sides of the aquarium weekly
7. Feed the fish three times a day

This amount of maintenance is NOT needed and is such a pain in the butt that anyone doing it will leave the hobby in very short order.

In truth, with most aquariums, for maintenance, one can simply do:

1. Do a 50% water change every two months
2. Do NO gravel vacuuming
3. Clean the mechanical media in the filter once a week
4. Just let the brown algae do its thing
5. Partially clean the filter media once every six months
6. Clean the algae off the front and side glass once a week
7. Feed the fish once a day

Probably 95% of all aquariums in the hobby are just fine with this regimen.

Maintenance in Greater Depth

For more on this topic go to this link:

18. Aquarium Maintenance

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Aquarium Science Website

The chapters shown below or on the right side in maroon lead to close to 400 articles on all aspects of keeping a freshwater aquarium. These articles have NO links to profit-making sites and are thus unbiased in their recommendations, unlike all the for-profit sites you will find with Google. Bookmark and browse!

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