Overfeeding your fish can cause a myriad of problems, with one of them being leftover and uneaten food. While this may not seem like such a big issue at first glance, decaying food can cause dangerous ammonia and nitrite levels to skyrocket if left untreated. To help you prevent this from happening to your tank, here’s how to remove uneaten food from your aquarium.

Vacuum the Gravel

As a general rule, uneaten food will sink to the bottom of the tank and stay there unless your fish eat it. To remove a lot of waste at once, you can use a gravel vacuum to suck out uneaten food, waste, and detritus. Place the head of the vacuum at the bottom of the tank, place the tube into a sink or bucket, and let the vacuum do its magic. However, it will likely siphon out a decent amount of water, so be sure to replace any lost water with dechlorinated water.

Get Your Tank a Cleaning Crew

If there’s not a lot of waste to remove, you may want to invest in a cleaning crew to do the work for you. For example, snails are excellent at keeping freshwater aquariums clean because they love to eat leftovers. If you have a saltwater tank, you can add plenty of saltwater snails and shrimp to do the job. However, it’s important to remember that no cleaning crew can tackle a lot of waste on their own. Be sure to only rely on them to clean tiny algae blooms or bits of leftover food.

Use a Net, Scooper, or Pipette

If your cleaning crew can’t keep up, or you don’t want to go through the hassle of breaking out the gravel vacuum, you can manually remove food waste with a few different tools. For larger bits of food waste, nets and scoopers can do the job, and pipettes can suck up smaller bits and pellets. Keep in mind that these manual methods can only grab what you can see, so be sure to do a thorough job and check under gravel, plants, and décor.

Now that you know how to remove uneaten food from your aquarium, you’re better equipped to protect your fish from the dangers of uneaten food to keep them happy and healthy.