An aquarium is a happy and thriving aquarium only if it is a clean aquarium. It seems that your sparkling clean aquarium remains in that state for only a few days after a thorough scrub of the tank. Maybe before you bought your aquarium you didn’t realize how much time, effort, and money it takes to maintain your pets’ home, but it is your responsibility to properly care for your pets.
This type of long-term responsibility, not to mention the cost, is often not associated with having fish as pets. Tank maintenance doesn’t just mean keeping a clean aquarium for aesthetic purposes, but it means upkeeping the health of your pets. Frequently cleaning the tank yourself is manageable, but it is more advantageous to hire a regular service and here’s why...
Advantages of Hiring a Service to Clean Your Aquarium
Cost of materials
What you need: water-changer kit, gravel washer, thermometer, cleaning devices, stable temperature products, filtration aids, aquatic chemicals, proper illumination, filter pads, sponges, activated charcoal, bio balls, protein skimmers, live bacteria, UV sterilization, algae scraper, 5-gallon bucket, simple siphon hose, aquarium-safe glass cleaner, bleach, metal or plastic razor blade, and water test kits. Larger tanks will cost over $1,000 dollars a year for regular upkeep.
Regular cleaning may cost around $85, but that depends on the size of your tank. Some aquarium maintenance services charge $1 dollar per gallon, so cost widely varies. Especially if you have a larger aquarium, professional maintenance will be more cost-effective and time-efficient -- ultimately worth the amount you will pay.
Frequency and Effort
Tanks need to be cleaned at least monthly. In between the monthly cleaning, the water pH needs to be measured and maintained, and water needs to be changed weekly. You should also check the temperature every day to ensure the fish are in a livable environment.
Deep cleaning is not an hour-long ordeal, but rather full Saturday event. Maintenance can easily take up the free-time and energy that you have left in your busy schedule.
With professional servicing, frequent upkeep will greatly reduce the time you have to spend cleaning, checking, and maintaining your aquarium.
Just changing the water
If you are changing the water in between deep cleans, that is far from a simple process as well. Not only do you need to gently catch the fish, but you have to drain all the water. You can’t just refill the tank with tap water either, you have to reconstitute the water. This means adding some of the old water to the new water to keep some of the good chemicals. Water test kits are a necessity for maintaining the environment of healthy fish.
Catching your fish
Nobody talks about what to do with your fish when you clean the tank. Professionals recommend that you keep the fish undisturbed in the tank. This makes the cleaning process a tad bit difficult. While cleaning the tank, you must keep the tank in a stabilized state -- with constant temperature, salinity, and aeration. This process is especially challenging for amateur aquarium cleaners.
You should consider calling in a professional aquarium maintenance service professional to make sure that your fish don’t get hurt, or worse, die during the cleaning.
Clean pebble by pebble
This is a tedious, detail-oriented task. A thorough clean has to be performed to ensure the health of the environment and therefore the fishies. You don’t literally have to scrub one pebble at a time, but you do have to be meticulous in checking off all the steps and measuring correctly. Professionals are well-seasoned in proper tank cleaning and fish care.
Fish Health
Fish require a specific temperature and breathable water to survive. Water needs to be changed frequently because the tank quickly fills up with by-products that can bind environmentally friendly compounds to poisonous ones.
Learn Information
Aquarium maintenance professionals will not only keep your fish healthy and their tank clean, but during the service, they can educate you on how to maintain your aquarium and what your specific type of fish requires. So even if you don’t plan on getting a regular service on a monthly basis, you could do it once or twice to learn what needs to successfully maintain an aquarium.
If the service cost is tricky, you can opt-in for a maintenance service every other month or every few months, and you would perform the cleaning in between professional servicing.
Boca Raton Aquarium and Water Feature Maintenance
It is important to keep in mind that even a minuscule chemical imbalance can cause a detrimental environment for your fish. You have to take your cleaning seriously if you want your fish to survive.
If you have an aquarium in South Florida, Crystal Oceans maintenance contractors are trained on how to keep away algae, parasites, and bacteria that can be detrimental to your fish. We are your aquarium maintenance service in Pompano Beach of the highest quality and dependability that is exemplified in our devotion to you, your fish, and your budget.