Maintenance questions?

[Brennos]

I have been looking for the most natural, and easiest (low fuss) way of keeping my tank clean and healthy. I purchased 2 mature Bristlenoses the other day, to go with my 2 juvenile BN's, and have 4 Kuhli Loaches, The idea is to use these animals to clean the algae and substrate, and I have been contemplating getting a freshwater mussel or two from the pet store, but I have heard mixed things about slowly killing them in aquariums due to starvation, the idea was to use them to help filter the water as naturally as possible, I am trying to achieve an aquarium that human hands don't need to fiddle with too much, in the way of glass cleaning and substrate siphons etc. As it stands, I test the water twice a week (may reduce to once a week, now all my sick fish issues seem to be over), a 30% water change weekly, and a gravel clean weekly, I also plan to open the canister filter once every month or so, and rinse the pads, and remove any plant matter that may be caught up in there. Cleaning the gravel is a pain in the ass, due to rocks, driftwood, and plants, what else can I put in the tank to clean the gravel, if there is any fish that will do that. I'd like to get to a pint where I only have to do minor water changes, and gravel cleans as infrequently as possible. Is this possible, or am I dreaming?

I do have plants in the tank, and am planning on adding more plants to "feed" off the fish waste in the gravel.

EDIT: Also, are freshwater shrimp available here, would they make a nice addition to the cleaning crew?

I'm also interested in what sort of maintenance you guys do, I know as a novice, I used to clean everything far too much, as in I would dismantle the whole tank, and use boiling water to clean everything the re assemble and refill, That caused all sorts of problems, but after researching and reading I realised I was making a huge mistake, and ceased, now I'm on my 3rd tank, and everything seems fine, no more new tank syndrome every week

[Fruju]

buy a golden algae eater = no more algae.

[Brennos]

buy a golden algae eater = no more algae.

Algae isn't a huge problem for me, occasionally, a small amount may settle on the rocks, as soon as the BN's realise, its gone. I should of mentioned, When I was having trouble;e with fish dying, I purchased a UV steriliser, since then, the hair algae, and that horrid brown stuff has gone, now its a small amount of green algae on the rocks, and driftwood.

[SamH]

EDIT: Also, are freshwater shrimp available here, would they make a nice addition to the cleaning crew?

Unfortunately, no tropical shrimp, just the native specie(s). I've found nothing living really gets rid of algae, not even Ottos. Just keep up water changes, reduce lighting hours and scrub it off.

Personally, I keep my display tanks understocked with 8hr photoperiods and hardly ever clean the filters. Never vacuum the substrate either. In my breeding tanks I do daily water changes though.

HTH

[xxdarnixx]

you have to watch with algae eaters tho as they can get really agressive,my mums killed a heap of her guppys overnight and the ones i used to have used to pick on my bigger fish too.

i love those biiiig snails as cleanup crews,they dont make mess and everything is sparkly afterwards lol,just gotta watch it with them if you get a breeding pair as you will be over run with them and they do tend to chew on your plants,my tanks have never been cleaner since i got mine tho 8)

[si_sphinx]

I'm going to experiment on an AWCS (automatic water change system) on my next big tank to reduce the 200ltr + water changes just to change 20-30% of the water.

I'm going to be connecting into my main water supply and slowly dripping water into the sump, the drip is capable of 20-30ltrs of water every 24hrs, thats around 200ltrs a week. so on a 1000ltr tank its a decent water change.

However this will depend on the mains water supply water condition, chlorine content etc. so maybe a filter before it enters the sump will be needed.

The sump will have an overflow discharging into a drain or gullytrap on the house where the water will slowly drip into.

Im unsure how well this will work but Im gonna give it a try anyway.

Bn for algae crew.

Don't feed too much. plenty of water flow. and it should be clean and clear.

[Fruju]

I do the occaisional water change, should prob do more :roll: but everything seems fine, but i have to do it more regularly in my small tank. algae is taken care of by an GAE, my maintainence is low, easy to care for, could you describe your problem a bit more?

[Brennos]

No specific problem, I just want to try and make the set-up as natural as possible, if you know what I mean