If one listened to all the well-meaning but ill-informed commentators on social media about aquarium maintenance one would be doing the following:
- Do 50% water changes every week
- Thorough gravel vacuuming every week
- Mechanical media cleaning once weekly
- Bleach brown algae off the ornaments every two weeks
- Filter media cleaning and/or replacement once a month
- Clean the algae off all sides of the aquarium weekly
- 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:
- Do a 50% water change every two months
- Do NO gravel vacuuming
- Clean the mechanical media in the filter once a week
- Just let the brown algae do its thing
- Partially clean the filter media once every six months
- Clean the algae off the front glass once a week
- 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
Startpage Aquariumscience
Source: Aquariumscience.org – David Bogert
