Springcleaning your tank....

Just how long can a tank go with exclusively water changes.... (before a springclean is required) meaning to remove the fish and scrub the gravel, wash out the tank etc.

 

For My tanks, this is around 4 - 6 months. I have silica and is goes brown so fast. I usually put 50% of the water I took out, back in the tank and slowly add water every hour.

I have seen a tank at a house without any water change or cleaning. Just a top up. The built in filter was stuffed too...

You can only guess what that looked like. I did some rescuing and I now own that very same tank. It took me 4 hours to clean the muck of the front, inside etc. It even had ants living in the lighting system. Now it looks like new and a new home to my tetras.

So yeah...the tank can go for as long as you leave it in that state....very bad Fish Keeping though.

 

To date I have NEVER taken out the gravel and cleaned it as you are asking. Just good gravel vacuuming.

 

You should never, in this way, 'spring clean' your tank. The most I'll ever do is a 75% water change if I'm re-arranging the tank decor and lots of muck comes up from under the rocks and fouls up the tank.

If you take the gravel out, you run the risk of re-starting your tank's cycle, which is a risk to the fish.