3 Tips for Keeping a Healthy Tank
For a lot of fish keepers, tank maintenance can be what we like to call a ‘Marmite topic’; for some, maintaining their tank is a time-honoured, therapeutic ritual. For others, however, it’s a laborious chore that has the potential to ruin a perfectly good Saturday afternoon. The conundrum is that those who enjoy aquarium maintenance probably already have their own systems and techniques in place, making for a more pleasant experience all round. We’ve put together the following guide for those of us who aren’t so excited by the prospect of a thorough clean-out, to show that, when carried out regularly, aquarium maintenance needn’t be such a daunting experience.
1. Fresh Water
We talk to a lot of aquarium keepers who all seem to hold onto the same, albeit false, belief that they don’t need to change their water very often. The truth is, however, that a clear tank doesn’t necessarily make for a happy one; remember that all aquariums are prone to the unhealthy build up of nitrogen, which, although not harmful in small doses, can come to cause problems for your ecosystem in the future if left unchecked. By changing a percentage of your aquarium water every so often, you can maintain a healthy level of nitrogen in your tank.
2. Reduce, Reuse… Replace! 
Replacing various parts of your aquarium, from the lighting to the filter media, is often one of the most fiddly, and therefore arduous, tasks of the average fish keeper. It’s important to maintain your aquarium lighting to ensure optimum performance, something that can easily be done by taking time to regularly clean the bulbs, preventing build up of excess salt or grime. It might seem like an obvious point to labour, but remember to clean the bulbs after a cool down period to prevent any unfortunate burns!
It’s also important to replace your aquarium lighting tubes on a regular basis, so as to ensure their continued performance in your ecosystem. As standard, T5 tubes should be replaced every 6-8 months, and metal halide tubes should be changed every 9-12.
Filtration media should also be regularly replaced in order to maintain a healthy nitrogen balance in your tank. iQuatics recommends putting your activated carbon products into designated filter media nets, which offer a much quicker solution to the overall process of replacing your filters. These nets actively reduce the time and effort it takes to replace your aquarium filter media, making the overall maintenance process a lot less painful.
3. Failing to plan…
Apologies for borrowing a clichéd phrase from your old head teacher, but when it comes to aquarium maintenance, the importance of a regime can’t really be understated. Regardless of what fish tank maintenances means to you, whether that’s anything from cleaning skimmers to fragging corals, having somewhat of a schedule in place can prevent a small task becoming a big chore. Whether you clean your tank on a weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly basis, devising a maintenance schedule will stop small, manageable tasks giving rise to that sinking “oh no” feeling when you wake up on a Saturday morning.