http://forum.aqua-fish.net/ A forum devoted to aquarium fish, plants, techniques and fish keeping as a whole. en http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=tank-size-and-#1 Hello!! On this site somewhere there was an article about cleaning tanks. The person said she didn’t clean her tank. She also mentioned it worked better on larger tanks. I am new at the aquarium stuff. Of course I have had pet golfish but wanted try an aquarium and was wondering if a five gallon would be good. Not sure if I should get tropical fish but that’s what I was hoping to get because they have so many vivid colors and they are unique which I really want. Really tired of the golfish and want to stay away from them. A few other people I know also agreed with the article saying they don’t clean their tanks either because it distresses the fish and isn’t necessary. I did get tired of cleaning the goldfish bowl because it was such a pain to clean. SO...I really don’t want to have to clean a tank because of time and distressing the fishes. What would I need to make this possibe? And is a five gallon tank a good size? Thanks for all your help and time!! original post: May 12, 2007, 1:01 am willow 2008-05-03 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=tank-size-and-#2 it said I am not registered but I am, not sure why my name didn’t appear in my topic willow 2008-05-03 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=tank-size-and-#3 Hello, First, I assigned this topic to your nickname. You weren’t logged in when you did this post. Cleaning the tank and aquarium size: 5 Gallons aren’t enough to create stable water chemistry. The idea of "self-cleaning" fish tank (tank which you don’t clean in other words) is based on very stable conditions inside of the aquarium. These conditions heavily depend on tank size since more water mass minimizes the effect of local changes (pH or water hardness changes). In small tanks (less than 11 US Gallons) there is high chance that something goes wrong. Picture 1000 L and 20 L tank. Naturally the second tank inclines to water chemistry changes much more than larger 1000 L aquarium. Just to mention every "water chemistry" attribute, they are: pH, dKH, temperature, oxygen (and other elements) level, etc. If there is any disaster in the large tank, it won’t become a global effect except dead large fish or other abnormal cases. If there is 1 Neon tetra dead in my tank, I don’t need to remove it at all. Moreover one Paradise fish died some time ago and I found the skelet only. If this happened in 5 Gallon tank, probably every fish would die because of water poisoning. As you wrote above, cleaning the tank stress fish. If you want to run a tank which needs minimum maintenance (no water changes, no cleaning), buy a 20+ Gallon tank. Bear in mind every new aquarium requires about 2-3 months to become stable. During first 2-3 months you will need to change water and clean if from time to time. jan 2008-05-03 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=tank-size-and-#4 Hi Thanks for adding my name and for the info! Not sure what I am going to do now. The five gallon tank with filter I like the best because it is plexiglass and doesn’t have the black plastic rim around the bottom so you can see the fish really well. It is also curved in a way that you can see them from many angles. I realize I would only be able to have five fish in it also. Since it does have two filters how often would I have to clean it? Are there any really colorful fish that would be good for this tank (since tropical fish may not work)? Thanks again for your time and help!!! anonymous 2008-05-03 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=tank-size-and-#5 It’s very difficult to say which species fit such small tank. In my experience you can use lazy fish (Siamese Fighting Fish for instance). Lazy fish are those which can breath air and live in Asia regions with many plants in their natural environment. Another species could be Rasbora heteromorpha. If I was you I’d add Panda Cories into such tank. They’re terrific and small enough! RE cleaning: You will need to clean the tank once per 2 weeks in my experience. But it also depends on fish excrements and overall water quality. So if it smells very bad, use some kind of fish tank vacuum cleaner . I would recommend you to buy plants too. Anubias nana will be very good since it doesn’t grow too large (but it is quite expensive too). jan 2008-05-03 http://forum.aqua-fish.net/?topic=tank-size-and-#6 Thanks for the info I’l look into those fish! anonymous 2008-05-03