How I Keep My Aquariums Crystal Clear

I get a lot of questions asking how I keep my aquarium so pristine and tidy, so in this video I'm going to break down my maintenance routine that keeps my aquascapes crystal clear, clean, and looking the way that they do on video. If you enjoy my content, go ahead and like the video, subscribe to the channel, and hit the bell. It really does make a difference for my little channel. You may notice there are a lot more fish in here. A couple weeks ago I added the final group, which was about 120 Cubotyrus boras. They're super tiny bright neon green fish and they fit really well into this layout without totally stealing the show. They've been in here for about two weeks now, so I've given them time to settle in nicely. So now it's time for a larger maintenance session. The fish are from Coast Gem USA based in San Diego, but they do ship all over the country. I've got a discount code if you want to place an order of fish right in the video description. So my typical weekly maintenance routine is pretty simple. I do a 15 to 20 percent water change twice a week spaced out, but about once every six weeks I'll do a deeper maintenance session where I clean things like the lily pipes and go a bit further than the usual upkeep. So that's what we're doing today and these sessions are really important for keeping things pristine. The first thing I always do is turn off the filter. I run all my equipment through smart power strips so I can just shut it off from my phone. Once the filter is off, it's time to remove the lily pipes. And then I put those pipes into a separate plastic container that I've reserved just for cleaning my lily pipes. And then I add concentrated bleach. You don't want splashless bleach or any scented bleach, just regular bleach. I have gotten some comments saying that bleach is intense and harsh, but I want to assure you I've been using this method for many years. It's extremely effective and safe when done properly. Bleach is not some mysterious dangerous chemical, it's just chlorine. It's very easy to neutralize and rinse out. While the rest of the maintenance is happening, those pipes are just going to sit there and soak, which makes cleaning them later much, much easier. It's time to move back over to the tank and begin the water change. I'm using my Canvey water change system right here. The inflow clips right onto the tank itself and once you get it going with a little hand pump, it drains the water at the perfect speed so I can do my maintenance while it's removing the water and I'm not wasting time. Efficiency with five tanks is really important for me. So the first thing I'm going to clean today is the glass and I'm using my Canvey razor scraper to go over the front glass and remove any surface algae. This is actually even important to do even if you can't see algae because it just removes the spores. A razor scraper is completely safe on a glass aquarium but just know that if you are running an acrylic tank, you don't want to use a razor. I've been lucky enough that this tank has actually been really clean so in today's case, there's not much to remove but if you do have heavier algae, something like a melamine sponge can be a better option. Now it's time to move on to the corners of the tank. So since there's silicone here, I'm going to switch over to my electric toothbrush and gently clean out any detritus or buildup. Again, it's a small detail but it makes a difference in the long run and I film my tanks a lot so gotta keep them looking sharp. And after that, I'm gonna go through and remove any floating debris or plant matter, in today's case by hand. There was a little bit of aqua soil that made its way forward during the initial setup so just gonna go ahead and siphon that out manually to keep the foreground nice and tidy. So with the bulk of our cleaning done, it's time to start refilling the tank. I run an RODI system that lives completely under my sink so I just hook the outflow onto my tank and slowly start refilling the aquarium. I do have a complete guide on my channel breaking down the system I use as well as RODI in general. I'll link that down in the description. While the tank is refilling, I'm gonna clean the inflow and outflow tubing using a pipe cleaner and some hot water. You're gonna want to push the pipe cleaner through, pull it back out, repeat a few times, and it will remove any detritus buildup inside which, if you've had a loss of flow and circulation, a lot of the times this is your culprit. So be patient here. By this point I know, okay, the loli pipes have been soaking for about 20 to 30 minutes so we're gonna run over to the sink, put on some gloves, and clean them with a pipe cleaner. By this point the bleach has pretty much broken everything down so not much mechanical force is needed which is important if you're working with glass pipes. I rinse them really thoroughly with hot water and then transfer them into a second container with fresh hot water and then I add some dechlorinator for that safety step and neutralization of any remaining residue. You can even add some dechlorinator to the tank itself if you want to be extra cautious. With our pipes clean, I reattach them and turn the filter back on even while the tank is still refilling. I like doing that because it keeps the circulation going and avoids leaving the beneficial bacteria in my filter without oxygen for too long. From there I dose my liquid fertilizer. For this tank, which is mostly low demand plants, I'm using a lighter formula, the UNS Plant Food Min. And since I'm refilling the tank with pure RO water it's going to dilute the tank's mineral content so I add some minerals back. I bring the TDS back up to around 150 parts per million TDS using Seachem Equilibrium which is going to restore the necessary GH to support the life in this tank. And once everything is filled back up and running, the last step is to just sit back, observe, and feed the fish. As you can see the fish are eating really well, they're active, and man everything in this tank is just looking really solid. So there you have it, that's pretty much my full deep maintenance process that keeps my five planted aquariums pristine. It's something I've refined over about 10 years and it's designed to be efficient while keeping the tanks consistently clean and stable because I live here, I don't want any of these tanks being an eyesore. Let me know what you think of my process, let me know if you have any questions, or even if you have tips of your own. If you like my content, please like the video, subscribe to the channel, and hit the bell. I'll catch you guys and gals next time, buh-bye.