Managing the aquarium Once your aquarium is up and running you need to manage it to keep the fish healthy and the aquarium beautiful. There are task you should perform daily, weekly and monthly which helps keep the aquarium in good condition.
Daily tasks: You should count your fishes every day to make sure that they are all alive. This is important since a dead fish can pollute the water and thereby causing the death of more fishes. If you find a dead fish you should remove it immediately. You should also look for signs of disease in your fishes since they chances to cuis when you feed them as this brings them to the front of the aquarium... You should also remove dead and floating plant parts once a day.
Weekly tasks: You should clean your aquarium and change some of the water once a week. There are several important things to do when you clean your aquarium. You should start by removing any large debris you can spot in the aquarium. Once you done this you should remove some of the water from the aquarium. You should preferable remove 15-20% of the water in the aquarium. The best way to remove the water is to use a siphon which allows you to clean the bottom at the same time as you remove the water. Move the siphon over the bottom substrate to clean it. Once you have removed the water and siphoned the bottom you should take a look at the plants. Do they need to be trimmed? If so, trim them. When youre done cleaning the aquarium you should replace the removed water. Make sure to add water of the same temperature as the water in the aquarium.
Monthly tasks: You should clean your filter once a month. Do not clean your filter more often then once every 3-4 weeks unless it gets clogged. Take the filter out of the aquarium and clean the filter material. Never use hot water when you clean your filter or filter material. Hot water will kill bacteria in the filter which are necessary for the filter to work.
When needed: Remove algae from the glass when needed.