How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

By Harry RamosLast update: 2024-03-26

How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

Keeping a fish tank clean without changing water will help you save a lot of time and effort. Not to mention that too frequent water changes improperly might cause your fish to shock and die.

In this article, I’m going to share how to keep a fish tank clean without changing water (a must-read for newbie aquarists!).

Prevention Is Better Than Cure

Be Careful With Tank Decoration Items

How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

Before adding any decoration item to your fish tank, always scrub and clean them thoroughly because in some cases, these objects are the main cause for a cloudy aquarium.

Besides, remember to check if they are specifically designed for fish tanks and make sure to buy them from a reliable pet shop. These items shouldn’t be deformed, melted, or peeled either.

Not Feed Your Pet Fish Too Much

How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

The water in your aquarium might turn to milky if you feed the fish too much and too many times during the day.

While overfeeding partly causes a tank to look cloudy, it results in some health problems for your fish. It would be best to feed them once or twice per day for a certain amount of time. Fasting them for one or two days per week is okay, if not saying that it’s good for everyone.

Consider Before Adding New Fishes

How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

This act is decided by two elements: your tank size and the filter working capacity.

Too many fishes in a small tank might cause some health problems for the fish while making the filter overload.

For goldfish, the general rule is 75 liters of water for the first one, and add 30 liters of water for each subsequent fish. Research thoroughly the fish you want to keep to determine what tank size you need.

In case that the tank size is still spacious enough for some new fishes but your filter isn’t, changing a new, more powerful one is worth considering.

Choose The Right Aquarium Filter

How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

Aquarium filters come in a variety of types with different effects on pet fish.

A cloudy fish tank could be the result of an incorrect filter used. Therefore, to make sure you have chosen the right one, check if it suits:

  • The number of your fishes
  • The type of your aquarium
  • The type of aquarium plants used in your fish tank: whether live plants or artificial plants?

There are three types of filters to choose from.

  • Mechanical filters eliminate particles in two ways: through depth filtration or surface filtration. Commonly, they trap big particles on the top, which is called “a sieving process”
  • Bio-filters use bacteria to convert toxins into less toxic ones
  • Chemical filters use active carbons, resins, and other adsorbents to remove toxins or chemicals from the water

Choose an aquarium filter that has as great capacity as possible. But keep in mind that some fish species such as beta fish and ax fish cannot tolerate the strong currents made by powerful filtration.

Grow Live Plants In Your Fish Tank

How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

Another smart way to keep your fish tank clean without changing water is to grow some aquarium plants.

Aquatic plants come in different species, some of which can grow and thrive in freshwater conditions while the rest is in saltwater.

They can live entirely or partly in water. Others are adapted to flooding environments with the leaves floating above the water surface. Aside from its beauty, aquarium live plants are capable of reducing fish wastes in water, uneaten food, decaying materials for tanks.

At the same time, it helps to replenish blank space in the surface, allowing beneficial bacteria to grow - just like a safe but effective biological filter for aquariums.

They both provide enough oxygen and absorb the carbon dioxide (CO2) that your fish exhale.

Supplement With Beneficial Bacteria

The added amount of beneficial bacteria will help with the natural treatment of your tank within a few days.

You can buy bacteria packs at any fish store. Alternatively, you can drop some gravels, stones, driftwoods, or an aquarium filter from another aquarium that has been settled down into your aquarium. These items already have beneficial bacteria living on them.

They do a great job at reducing harmful ammonia and nitrites, turning them into less toxic nitrates, which are then removed during water metabolism.

The best beneficial bacteria species that work best for this are Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter.

To encourage them to develop in your tank, avoid cleaning the filtration. Instead, use tweezers to remove fish wastes from the filter.

Keep Algae-Eaters In Your Tank

These guys are glorious additions to any aquatic family based on their expertise in algae removal combined with their quirky habits and look.

Here are some shining candidates to consider:

  • Shrimps: Amano Shrimps and Cherry Shrimps

How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

  • Snails: Malaysian Trumpet Snails, Nerite Snails, and Mystery Snails

How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

  • Fishes: Guppies, platys, mollies, Twig Catfish, Otocinclus Catfish, Chinese Algae Eater, Siamese Algae Eater, and Bristlenose plecos (Bristlenose Plecostomus)

How To Keep A Fish Tank Clean Without Changing The Water?

To get the best results in eliminating the algae in your aquarium, consider the type of algae that is needed for control then pick the right eater.

Conclusion

With the easy yet efficient ways listed above, I hope you will find a better way to keep your fish tank clean without changing water. Thanks a lot for reading!

I’m Harry Ramos, who's crazy about all things green. I’m here to share some experience in my gardening adventure and how to choose the best products for your garden. Let's dig in, get our hands dirty, and celebrate the simple, earthy pleasures of the garden together!


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