How to Clean Your Discus Tank

To Keep your Discus fish happy and healthy you need to clean their tank and add fresh water once a week. Cleaning an aquarium isn't difficult, especially if you make sure to do it on a schedule so algae and other residue doesn't have time to build up. This article explains how to clean your Discus aquarium.

Prepare your supplies:

1. Aged water with the quantity you will replace
2. An algae pad 
3. Gravel vacuum /siphon type 
4. Large Bucket 5 gallon or bigger 

Clean the sides of the aquarium:

Run the algae pad against the interior aquarium walls to remove algae and scrub in some areas if necessary to remove algae that is sticking.

Siphon out the old water. 

Start the siphon and direct the old water into a pail, preferably a five-gallon bucket (or larger if necessary). It's best to buy a new bucket and use it only for cleaning your fish tank; residue from soaps or detergents can be harmful to your fish. This means no repurposing the laundry room bucket or the bucket that used to hold your dish washing cleaning agents. 

Clean the gravel. 

Push the gravel vacuum through the gravel. Fish waste, excess food, and other debris will be sucked into the the vacuum.


Add fresh water. Replace the water you took out with fresh, treated water at the temperature of the aquarium. A thermometer is the way to verify the temperature. Staying inside the dictated temperature parameters is crucial for the health of your fish.
If you use tap or faucet water, conditioning the water to remove heavy metals and other toxins that your fish can't process is a must.