This is our fish n flush aquarium manual. We made it simple because we are not experts. It is small and not comprehensive because the maintenance of any aquarium depends on the environment and use.  For example if your bathroom has a lot of light from a window, it will require different maintenance then it is always dark.  If your bathroom remains less than 68 degrees than certain fish will do better than if your tank is temperature controlled or has a 10 –15 degree temperature fluctuation.

The best thing to do is to go on the internet and search "small aquarium "maintenance" for general information and then go to your local fish store or pet shop for specific fish and/or plants for your conditions. Read several sites because the are some disagreements on "best methods" from professionals, so choose the ones that work best for you.  The system was designed by a marine biologist (soon to be a Phd.) so we feel confident about its capabilities. Our one recommendation is to use distilled water for the fish tank.  Even with the addition of chemicals to set the water for new aquariums, city water does not seen to agree with the fish and we at AquaOne increased our success rate from 25% to about 99% on starter tanks when we made the switch. That’s just our experience, but we thought we would share it.

Rinse the aquarium tank, before you set it up, with soapy water. No need to scrub it. Just add a little dish soap to the inside of the tank and rinse it out in the bathtub or outside with a regular garden hose. The purpose is to remove any of the packing material that might harm your fish or animals. Dry off the outside with a paper towel to remove any hard water deposits. (No need to wash the flush tank.) To clean the outside the tank under normal use, simply use light soapy water on the outside.

You may see some light scratches on the inside of the tank. This is because of the molding process used create these optically clear and high impact resistant tanks. This will not affect the look of the tank. Once the tank is filled with water the scratches disappear.

The inside requires three types of maintenance cleaning. Vacuuming the gravel, algae removal and water change. All are done as needed and depend on the environment in which your Fish ‘ n Flush exists and the type of environment you created in your tank. The addition of an algae eater and a bottom feeder in the tank makes life easy.

First, remove the algae from the inside walls of the aquarium. For easy cleaning of the inside of the tank, we use a magnetic “scrubber” for acrylic tanks purchased, for $5.95 at PetSmart. Make sure it is for acrylic or plastic tanks.  It has one piece that we let stay in the tank and another piece that stays outside the tank.  It is magnetic so that when the two pieces are opposite each other they connect to each other and create a small cleaning surface on the inside of the tank.  Simply move the outside piece up/down/back/forth and it removes the algae. We also keep a small algae eater in all our tanks.

Second is vacuuming the gravel. The blue siphon pump is used for this and can be slightly compressed so it will fit down into the bottom of the tank to remove debris from the gravel.  Just pump the water directly from the fish tank into the toilet bowl moving the siphon end back and forth across the gravel surface. It help to remove the plants first. There is a complete explanation that we copied from the internet on the under-gravel filtration system elsewhere on our website.

Last, one third (1/3) of the water should be changed each month. More if you have LOTS of fish. Replace the water with distilled water or follow the instructions of the experts in preparing proper fish-safe water. What ever method you use, place the new water in the same area as the toilet for several hours so that new water you add is the same temperature as the water in the tank.

Here at AquaOne, we are all a bunch of engineers and computer geeks and do not have a regular maintenance schedule.  That being said, our tanks have been tremendously successful whether in our sunshine filled showroom or in our dark employee bathroom.  We have tanks ranging from 10 fish to 4 fish and even one with a crayfish that has molted numerous times. Our fish ranged in cost from 12 for $1 to $49.99 each and all are doing well.

Enjoy, and most of all, have fun with, your new Fish ‘n Flush Toilet Tank Aquarium,

PS. We love to get pictures :-)