One of the least fun things to do with an aquarium is to clean it. It has always hit me as something of a strange paradox. For several days after cleaning an aquarium, I'm always amazed at how clean the aquarium is, and how cool it is to watch all the fish swimming around their newly cleaned homes. For the last few days before I clean the tank, I'm always disgusted by the tank and wishing it was clean. So why exactly is it so undesirable to not clean the aquarium?  I'm sure it has something to do with putting your hands in smelly water, getting smelly water out of the tank, and taking a lot of time to move smelly water.

There are a few aspects of cleaning that can make the whole process easier. First off, I highly recommend getting a python. This is a cleaning vacuum will simplify everything greatly. It hooks to your sink so that you don't ever have to suck any water through a conventional gravel vacuum. The Python allows you to quickly drain water out of your tanks, and then to quickly refill them. One of the real neat things is that the more tanks you have, the better the Python works. Not that it cleans the aquariums faster, but that it makes the cleaning process take less time. For example, I have 13 tanks in my apartment. (Crazy, I know!) One thing that is always passing through our, my wife's and my, minds is whether or not we should add another tank. When most people think of aquariums they figure that it takes about 1 hour to clean the aquarium. That is roughly true, but when you use a Python, it will take about 30 minutes to clean one tank, and when you add more tanks, the time per tank goes down greatly. In just 2 hours I can do a 20% water change in every tank in the house. Now if that isn't enough to make you want a Python, I don't know what is. Getting a Python will take care of two of the three reasons people don't want to clean their aquariums: getting smelly water out of the tank and taking a lot of time to move smelly water. As for putting your hands in smelly water, there are a few things you can do that will minimize the smelliness of the water, though your hands must unavoidably enter the aquarium to clean. (buy hey! no one said you couldn't cover them)

To reduce the smelliness of the water you need to first practice good tank-cleaning habits. What are those habits? I'll give you a list:

Clean the aquarium AT LEAST every 2 weeks. If you clean the tank more often than that, the tank will be cleaner. If you have the energy to clean every week, do so, you WILL have less disease, longer living fish, and healthier fish. 'nuff said

Clean/remove 20% of the water at every cleaning. Now there are times that you may want to do much larger water changes. (Disease or very dirty water) You do want to keep a few things in mind when you do a large water change (i.e >25%) Fish become accustomed to water over time. So, if you haven't cleaned you aquarium for 4 weeks and then try to do a 50% water change to make up for it, you will actually do more harm than good. More than likely if do such a large water change after having left the tank alone for such a long period of time, the change in water quality will cause your fish to become very susceptible to both disease and death. If you find yourself in the situation above, do a 20% water change, and then 5-7 days later, do another 20% water change.

Use a filter that allows you to use carbon and make sure to replace the carbon AT LEAST every 3-4 weeks. Carbon will almost eliminate all smells in the aquarium. If you keep it fresh, you should never actually "smell" your aquarium water.

Clean the glass of the aquarium when you clean the aquarium. I recommend using some type of scraping pad to do this for example the Hagen Algae Scrub Plan. Clean the aquarium glass EVERY TIME you clean the aquarium. You will need different types of scraping pads for plexi-glass and glass aquariums. You should know what kind you have!

Clean the gravel with a gravel cleaning device (like the Python) when you clean your aquarium. Already gave my sales-pitch for these. Makes everything easier and better. One thing you DO NOT want to do is take everything out of the aquarium and clean it. If you do that, you will cause damage to the aquarium ecosystem by destroying the helpful bacteria. If you need to clean decorations in the aquarium, space the cleaning out over time. If you have heavy algae growth on your decorations, I would recommend getting a algae eater. They do great!

Don't overfeed. If you feed too much, the extra food will rot on the bottom of the aquarium. Rotting food smells bad.

Never clean anything with soap!  'nuff said.

Now while I realize that some of these items don't actually take place when you clean the aquarium, they all contribute to the smell emitted from the aquarium, and so I feel that they are well worth mentioning here. Even you are not concerned about how the water smells, all of the above tips are very useful.

Cleaning the aquarium is something that you have to do, so the best thing you can do is to is enjoy it and to learn to look forward too. I hope all the tips I've given you will help you in all your cleaning adventures!