A Child's Guide for Cleaning a Fish Tank

Whether you have a classroom or at-home fish tank, teach kids how to care for and clean the tanks to give the fish a healthy environment. Guiding children through the steps to cleaning a fish tank teaches them responsibility.

  1. Empty the Water

    • Changing out the water in the fish tank gives the fish fresh and clean water to live in. This is an important process in cleaning a fish tank because it gets rid of the gunk and waste buildup in the water, but it is also one that must be done with caution. Remind the child that the fish tank water must not be poured out abruptly. Rather, the child should scoop the fish into a spare fish tank filled with water for the time being. Then, a siphon, which is a rubber tube, is used to suck out the dirty water into a bucket.

    Clean the Glass

    • The inside glass of the fish tank must be scrubbed with an algae scrubber to get rid of the grime. Make sure to tell children about the types of products that can be used to clean the glass of a fish tank, and which ones might be toxic to the fish.

    Decorative Items

    • The fish tank likely has decorative items, such as fake plants, castles and other structures for the fish to hide in. Show kids how to remove these items and wash them off. You can place them into a strainer or colander and rinse them under the faucet. Do not let kids add the decorative items back into the spare fish bowl or else this will contaminate the clean water that your fish is swimming in.

    Change the Gravel

    • Periodically, the gravel in the fish tank should be changed. The gravel is where a lot of the fish droppings and dirt collects. While you can suck a lot of this up with the siphon; at some point it is more effective to just toss the old gravel and add new gravel in.

    Add Water Back In

    • After the cleaning process, fresh water is added back into the tank. Restore the decorative items and add your fish into the tank.

    Leave the Filter

    • After a fish tank cleaning, tell children to not replace or clean the filter. Too much change to the water quality all at once can shock the fish, as it was accustomed to a particular environment. Rather, save the filter cleaning or changing for another time when you haven't freshened the rest of the tank.