Hi guys,

I have just bought a 20L tank. And I am going to set it up as a tropical one BUT i was wondering, how do you change the water in such a small tank. Would i have to buy a very small gravel cleaner?. I am using very small shards of gravel for the substrate so will that just suck up the gravel?. I have a big gravel cleaner for my other tanks but it is far to big to use in this tank with the fish still in there. Would I need to remove the fish from the tank before cleaning it out in this case?. Normally i dont like to move fish out because of the stress.

And if I do need to move the fish out, because they would be tropical, would I have to keep their water in a small bowl heated?. Sorry of all the questions lol.

~ Gem

As it's a very tiny tank it will presumably have shrimps in it so with carefully regulated feeding there should be minimal accumulation. In small tanks I generally prefer to use sand rather than gravel as any detritus sits on top and can be carefully sucked up without sucking up the sand. If there are shrimplets, really small fish or fry in there I use a length airline as a syphon hose to avoid creating too much suction and sucking them up.

THanks for replying Fishlady, Can you show me what this airline syphon hose looks like and how to suction it up? Thanks :)

Basically it's just a length of standard airline like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clear-4mm-A ... &var=&hash=item2a22e1be68

Put one end in the tank and suck on the other til the water is flowing then move around the end in the tank to suck up dirt while putting the outlet end in a bucket or jug to collect the water.