How To Clean A Betta Fish Tank (Correctly): Easy Steps

Last Updated: July 11, 2022 by Flora Gibbins

I’ve often answered the question “How to clean a betta fish tank?” with the answer “do so at the risk of killing the fish”.

Bettas or Siamese Fighting Fish are like any other fish in the sense that the more you disturb their home the higher the risk of injury, illness, or death.

Regardless of your betta’s tank size, you are better served by mimicking a natural setting with built-in balancing elements as opposed to focusing on how to clean a betta fish tank.

Overview 

Rather than asking “How often do you clean a betta fish tank?”, you are much better off thinking of it as “maintaining” the water quality and appearance of the tank.

This simple change in outlook makes it much easier to recognize the fact that there is no need to restore the tank to an unnatural pristine state, let alone set off all kinds of damaging water chemistry trends in the process.

Cleaning Challenges Associated With Small Aquarium Management

There is no question that a smaller aquarium kit is cheaper than a big one. People also tend to feel more confident because things are easier to reach and work with.

I think this is why many people choose a betta fish as a first pet for children, and also as the first aquarium fish, they try on their own.

From that perspective, I often say that bettas should never be sold to first-time fish tank keepers because they simply aren’t ready for the challenges associated with smaller tanks.

Here are some challenges associated with cleaning a betta fish tank that can kill off a betta within hours because of the limited betta fish water amount:

Ammonia surges

When answering the question “How do you clean a betta fish tank?”, most “experts” will talk about doing certain percentages of water changing.  

Unfortunately, each time you do water changes, some of the good bacteria circulating in the fish tank get removed. 

Let’s say you do a 25% water change. In a 10 gallon tank, that is around 2 gallons of water. 

Remember, the tank water amount will be less because of the room taken up by gravel and ornaments.

Even at 25%, that still leaves around 7 gallons of water with beneficial bacteria in it.

Now, when it comes to a 1-gallon betta fish tank cleaning, you will have to remove around 4 out of 16 cups of tank water. That will put an enormous drain on good bacteria. 

Non-staggered Filter Media Changes

Over the years, I have often been disappointed by the limited selection of filter options for very small tanks. 

Many of the cartridges are grossly undersized. To add insult to injury, there is no way to reuse or preserve the mechanical media while swapping out the activated carbon.

Typically, a significant amount of good bacteria in the betta fish tank are housed in the filter’s floss or other mechanical media.

When you take that cartridge out, you will be triggering a reaction almost as bad as if you did a partial or complete water change.

If you answer the question “How often to clean betta fish tank?” based on manufacturer guidelines for these cartridges, you may wind up cleaning small tanks too often for the good bacteria to recover.  

As with the water changes, when you are taking care of a small tank, even slight changes have a large impact on the nitrogen cycle and ammonia management.

Algae Blooms

Algae is dangerous in any tank because when the individual organisms die off, they decay and produce ammonia. 

Now let’s look at the math of this.

Let’s say in a 10-gallon tank you have 100 algae cells in the tank. Now let’s also say that you killed off half the algae. 

In a 10-gallon tank, this might result in a slight ammonia surge that might lead to the fish gill pumping and showing other signs of distress.

You would probably have anywhere from a 3 to 5-hour window to get to the tank and take corrective measures.

On the other hand, in a 1-gallon tank, the concentration of ammonia in the tank water from those 50 dead algae cells will be several times higher. It can easily be enough to kill the fish in about an hour.

Fluctuations in pH

This is another situation that can wreak havoc because bettas do best in soft, acidic water. In general, it is harder to balance the carbonate hardness that serves as the buffer for pH. 

As with other situations, it’s about the concentration of different chemicals and molecules dissolved in the water and how they interact over time.

When you are working with a bigger tank, you may have several hours or months to recognize and correct the problem.

This is why you should always make sure you fully understand water chemistry and experience managing in larger tanks before you move on to figuring out how to clean a betta tank.

Fun Fact: Cleaning your betta fish tank could be a daunting — if not a guessing-game — task especially if you are a newbie to aquariums. Fret not. We strongly suggest you go over our post on Betta Fish Tank Size: Which Is Best for better guidance and more efficient betta tank maintenance!

Preserving Aged Water and Why it Matters

I’ve been known to say that when you have one aquarium, you should always keep a second one on hand to store any aged water you happen to remove from the main tank.

The only exception to this is water that you remove for the sake of managing an active disease outbreak. If you have ammonia in the water, don’t worry about it. The bacteria in the second tank will break it down.

When you set up the second tank, it should have adequate filtration and also a large number of plants. 

Aged, clean water is very important for a healthy aquarium setting because:

• if you have fish in the tank, they will release slime from beneath their scales. This slime, in turn, helps prevent disease and also helps the fish feel calmer.
• Aged water also contains nitrifying bacteria that break down ammonia and nitrites.
• You reduce the risk of adding new water with dangerous chemicals and heavy metals.

Natural Ways to Keep the Gravel Clean

When it comes to signs of an unkept tank, gravel is usually one of the first indicators. Many people make the mistake of trying to siphon out debris from the gravel. 

 Here are some things you can do to keep the gravel clean and looking good:

• Avoid using light-colored gravel. This includes light blue gravel which can make fish waste look even more obvious. 
• Avoid using gravel that has been obviously dyed or epoxy coated. These gravels will chip or lose their color over time. Usually, these gravels are clear or milky colored underneath. As debris builds up in the gravel, it will look unsightly.
• Use neutral browns, black, or other darker colored gravels. You can use light-colored accents as long as the gravel size is finer or smaller than the main gravel size.
• Use two different gravel sizes. Set the smaller-sized gravel at the lowest level in the tank. Next, add larger-sized gravel. As water circulates in the tank, debris will be pulled through the larger-sized gravel and then get trapped by the smaller one.

As a result, the debris won’t be visible, however, it will still be readily accessible to plant roots and nitrifying bacteria.

• Keep freshwater shrimp and other scavengers in the tank. They will eat all kinds of debris and keep the bottom of the tank clean.
• Never overfeed the fish. This is the easiest and best way to keep the gravel clean. When there isn’t excess food in the tank, most of the bacteria in the tank will be available to break down fish waste into nitrates that are absorbed by plants.

Preventing and Managing Algae

Algae is something you will always have to battle. Natural methods tend to work well most of the time: 

• Limit the amount of light in the tank. Just make sure that you choose plants that do well with reduced amounts of light.
• Never leave excess food or plant debris in the tank. These will all get broken down by bacteria into nitrates.
• I don’t recommend overfeeding fish and other creatures because they will produce more waste. 
• Ideally, you should only have enough waste in the tank so that live plants absorb most, if not all of the nitrates.
• Make sure the tank has as many live plants as possible. This will ensure that fewer nitrates are available to feed algae.

If you see algae on the walls of the tank, simply use an aquarium safe sponge to wipe it off. Some will get into the water, so you may need to increase the filtration rate so that it gets into the filter faster.

The other thing you can do is use an algae-killing chemical such as an aquarium formulation that includes hydrogen peroxide. I don’t recommend those for large infestations because they can lead to deadly ammonia surges.

Watch this short video to  see it in action:

Water Chemistry Monitoring and Adjustment

Betta tanks are a bit more difficult to balance because you are working with much smaller amounts of water. 

As a result, you may need chemicals, water softening pillows, and other media to keep the water in balance. 

In some cases, you may only need them for a year as the tank comes into its own balance. I’ve also had some betta tanks that required chemical adjustments for 3 years, or the lifespan of the fish in the tank.

As with other tropical fish, you should always monitor the pH, general hardness, carbonate hardness, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels.

During the first 6 months of operation, I recommend testing the tank weekly. After that, you can go monthly unless the betta shows signs of distress.

Topping off Guidelines

Topping off an aquarium is always a necessary evil, however, it isn’t as bad as doing a partial or complete water change.

I usually top my tanks off weekly in the winter months or other times when evaporation happens faster.

If you live in a dry or arid region, then you might have to top off weekly all year round. Otherwise, I usually top off every 2 weeks.

To reduce the impact, it is best to have aged water on hand as opposed to new tap water. 

This will reduce the stress on the fish and also ensure that the new water already has matching parameters.

I recommend Jungle’s Start Right because it also manages heavy metals that may be found in tap water.

Fun Fact: Chances are you are a newbie to aquariums if you are engrossed with this topic! We suggest that you try out some of the best self-cleaning fish tanks to lessen your stress in learning about your fish’s aquatic environment and minimize errors that could severely affect your pet fish’s survival!

Frequently Asked Questions

How often do you clean a betta fish tank?

Ideally, you should never routinely consider cleaning a betta fish tank. Rather, you should do routine maintenance and testing on a weekly to monthly basis. The more balanced your tank is, the less you will have to do to ensure a healthy, attractive aquarium.

How do you clean a betta fish tank?

The best approach to cleaning a betta fish tank is to start off with a tank that has fully completed its first nitrogen cycle. Be sure to have plenty of plants in the tank.

As you conduct water tests, look for ways to add natural, renewable methods for controlling the water chemistry and other problems.

For example, if you have an algae problem, reduce feeding or lighting in the tank as opposed to constantly using an algae sponge or chemicals.

How to keep betta fish tank clean?

The best way to keep a betta fish tank clean is to ensure natural processes do the job for you. While this is more challenging in smaller aquariums, you can still get the job done if you are careful about plant types and other additions to the tank.

Conclusion 

If you have a veiltail betta, chances are you will be keeping him or her in a 1 to 2 ½ gallon tank. This doesn’t give you much room for making mistakes.

Learning how to adjust the water parameters without doing an actual “cleaning”. When you use methods based on nature, aquarium keeping takes up less time and is much more enjoyable for your and your aquatic pet.