Daily: Clean food and fresh water dishes, clean waste and food from surface. I use hot tap water and rinse in declor, and I always buy two sets of everything, so I already have a dried set of food and water dishes ready to go, so that I know any clorine remnants are gone when I put the next set in the tat. Takes about 15-30 minuets
Weekly: In addition to the cleaning I mentioned above, I aerate the surface sand of the tat by mixing it up, this helps the balance of good and bad bacteria in that tat, I clean and replace the salt water pool and all the rocks in it, and I clean the shells and replace them, using the same cleaning methods I mentioned above. I also clean the tank walls using declor water and plain paper towels. This takes about an hour.
Every two weeks: I do the same thing I mentioned above, only I also take out everything so I clean under and around it. I meant to do this weekly, but I was quite a chore so I changed it to every two weeks. This takes about 2 hours.
Every 2-3 Months: Deep clean, take out all the sand, vacuuming the last little bits out that I can't get with a sponge and spoon. Use diluted vinegar and water solution to wash tank, let it dry completely (hermies are in ISO while this happens). Clean everything in there in hot tap water, rinsing in declor, and just like with food and water dishes I have several sets of decor, so instead of putting back what was in there I rinse new set of decor in declor water and switch them out. This generally takes four hours of work, but it's an all day project, because it normally takes all day for the tat to dry and not have a vinegar smell anymore. I prepare all I can the day before.
WOW. It makes me tired just writing about a deep clean.
