It is a breath of fresh air when the fish tank is all set up and ready to go as the owner can see the beauty of the hard work done prior to the completion of the fish tank. Once the fish tank is established, the work does not literally end there. The first tank like any other needs to be maintained and taken care of as time goes by. As the fish tank ages, so as everything inside the tank and what comes with it is the byproduct of the cycle like left-over food and waste product from fishes that need to be cleaned from time to time.

If the fish tank includes live plants, those plants need to be cleaned as well and pruned when needed. There are a lot of different ideas that can be found online that differ in the timeline of when to clean the fish tank and the answer to that is always dependent on the fish tank itself. 

Cleaning the fish tank is more dependent on the factors that can be easily seen by the naked eye and like the color of the water is no longer clean and it is already showing evident signs of algae greens where it is already difficult to make-out of where the fishes are or to see the inside the fish tank then that signals the right time. 

The live plants inside the fish tank are also included in the consideration of when is the right time to clean the fish tank, the plants need pruning to discourage more dead leaves and for new leaves to grow. 

The fish tank size is not directly contributing largely when to clean but can also be a factor when the fish tank is densely populated by both fishes and live plants. A more densely populated fish tank needs more attention than those fish tanks that are simply holding fewer fishes and live plants. 

The filtration system of the fish tank is another factor that owners need to pay attention to. Filters do not work as cleaners that magically removes fish waste products without storing the byproduct. The byproduct of fish wastes and left-over food is stored inside the filters which in a regular household, a bin that keeps the garbage that still needs human manual disposal. 

The frequency of fish tank clean-up is always a constant puzzle that can only be solved through experience, not through a reference that can be found everywhere. General accepted ideas may not work for every fish tank owner so guides may present a wide range of information that is confusing sometimes so trial and error method is the way to go. 

Lastly, fishes and any other marine animals inside the tank are recommended to be removed off the fish tank when cleaning as it does more harm than good. Catching the fishes causes a lot of stress that can lead to illness or worse, death to severe cases. The fish tank does not need to be unloaded with everything like the water and the plants, all can stay inside the fish tank while cleaning is in progress.