Tank Cleaning?

[busdriver]

Does anyone ever strip down a tank to clean it, ie: take all the rocks, plants, driftwood and ornaments out and if so, how often?

[beowulf]

Does anyone ever strip down a tank to clean it, ie: take all the rocks, plants, driftwood and ornaments out and if so, how often?

Never done it.  I do move things around from time to time but not for cleaning and I would not clean the rocksm driftwood etc as that would remove some of the good bacteria.

[kennyman]

I have made a couple of posts about this maintenance paractice more as a joke than anything else. Throughout the 70's and 80's my dad had a big tank in the living room and I had a smaller one in my bedroom. Twice a year we would strip them down, boil the gravel, wash down the ugf plates and any other filter equipment and replace the charcoal. I guess it prevented old tank syndrome somewhat but those cleanings were THE water changes. Otherwise the only water added was topoff. My Dad still clings to this routine. He has a 55gal in the Livingroom of his house full of 3" redtailed blacksharks and clown loaches. I am sure when they start dieing off it will be someone else's fault 

I believe that the modern way of gravel vacuuming the substrate and frequent large volume water changes prevents old tank syndrome for occurring. It makes other cleaning unnecessary. But proper cleaning the filtration equipment is essential. You can preserve the filter media when you do it but it is a good idea to strip down the filter and scrub out any tubes and housings, inspect the impeller ect ever couple of months.

I Kept allot of differnet fish as a kid but none for very long due mostly to the maintenence practices of the day. I had neverheard of a water test or the nitrogen cycle back then. And as far as fish only growing as big as their tank. Well that was some kind of magical deal we did not dare question.