Accessories useful for cleaning the aquarium

The goal of every aquarium hobbyist is to set the water parameters and choose such a stock and plants that the aquarium can be cleaned as seldom as possible. Yes, a large and mature aquarium with well-thought-out inhabitants allows you to clean it rarely, but there is no way not to clean the aquarium at all. See which accessories you will need for changing the water and cleaning the aquarium.

Accessories and preparations

The basic gadget needed for water changes, especially for large tank capacities, is an aquarium desludger. This device allows you to clean the substrate in the tank and pour out the water without much effort. The purifier is very easy to use and very practical. Even the most basic models will prove useful both in small and larger aquariums, and you can buy them for as little as a dozen zlotys.

A glass cleaner is an equally useful accessory. It allows to remove from inside of the aquarium the layer of algae, stone or quartz sand sediment. The tank glass should be cleaned with every water change to avoid algae and algae invasion. The perfect cleaner for every type of aquarium is available in the LUNA online pet store.

If you are struggling with hard, scale-forming water or green algae invasion, you can help with special preparations that change water parameters. If there is a lot of algae, a reverse osmosis filter may also be useful, as it will raise the pH value of the water and thus combat unsightly looking algae.

Cleaning stock for aquariums

To reduce the number of water changes per month, you can select certain fish and crustacean species for your glass that will clean both the bottom and the walls of the aquarium. For keeping the bottom of the aquarium tidy, especially the rocks and sand, shrimp are of course reliable. They are the most popular aquarium cleaners because they are not very demanding, do not pollute the water, can be inhabitants of small tanks, and share the tank with most fish species without any problems.

If you do not want to keep shrimps, bottom-feeding fish such as cuirassians and otos will also collect food leftovers from the bottom of the aquarium. However, they are not suitable for aquariums strewn with stones or coarse gravel as they may get injured by them and are not able to extract their food from between the stones.

Snails are very effective for keeping aquarium walls clean. However, you must be careful here, as some species are very invasive. However, varieties such as helmet, amphium and helenium can successfully clean algae and sediment from the glass without fear of invasion. Just remember not to overfeed them, because then the risk of multiplication increases. Snails, like shrimps, do not need much space and do not have any special requirements in terms of parameters.

It is not possible to talk about creatures that clean the aquarium without mentioning plecos , i.e. the popular algae keepers. Yes, they are very effective in keeping both the bottom and the sides of the glass clean, but they need a lot of space as they grow to a very large size. It is said that the absolute minimum tank size for an “algae keeper” is 60l, but in order to provide them with comfortable living and good growth conditions, the aquarium should be at least 112l in size.

A mature filter and a stable nitrogen cycle are required to keep the aquarium clean. Good water parameters make the water clear, do not “stain”, change color or form deposits. Regular water changes, cleaning the walls and bottom of the aquarium will make your tank very impressive!

Featured Photo: Robert Cianflone / Getty Images