Maintenence on your fish tank is very easy, as long as you have the proper equipment.  The things listed below are the basic things you will need when cleaning and maintaining your fish tank.
 

• Gravel syphon
• Cleaning sponge (to scrub the side of the glass)
• Bucket and or sink
• Net for removing fish (if necessary)
• Salt (e-mail me with questions about this procedure)
• Some type of stress coat or amonia remover

• Make sure that everything is unplugged or off.
• Take out all of your decorations and other things so that all that is left in the tank is fish and gravel.
• Get your syphon started. There are two ways to start this. The first way is to put the thick end of your syphon in the water and leave the thin end out. Suck on the thin end, like you would a straw, and be careful to not swallow any. When the water reaches close to the top of the tube, quickly stick the other end in the buck or the sink and let physics take their course. The second way to do this (sometimes cleaner way) is to take the whole tube, thick end and thin end, and submerse it completly in the water. Leaving the enlarged end in the water, place your thumb over the small end and pull that end out. Place your hand over the bucket, release your thumb and let physics take their course.
• Once you have the syphon started, take your gravel syphon and syphon the gravel so that you suck up all the debris and fish waste that has accumulated at the bottom of the tank.  (Only go over the whole gravel bed once.  If the tank is really dirty, usually due to over feeding or a heavy bio-load, wait and do another gravel syphon in a week or so).  Going over the gravel only once, will ensure that you don't kill off all of your bacteria bed and start the tank cycle over again. I try to get a little system going in which I start at one end of the tank and go in rows up and back until I have covered the whole tank. I put the tube in the gravel for no longer than 1 second and then move on. It helps if you set a predetermined amount of water that you are going to remove before you start. This is simply done by eye balling your tank and figuring out where half of the tank is.
• Do not exceed in removing more than half the tank's water in one cleaning.  I usually suggest that you remove about 1/4 of the water when doing a gravel syphon.  I usually do mine about once a month and remove 1/2 the water.
• Once you have reached the level of water you want to remove, you can clean the inside of your glass with a sponge. This may be necessary to remove algea and other gunk that may accumulate on the front of the glass.
• When you are all done syphoning the predetermined amount of water from your tank, add your stress coat to help the fish recover from the stress that they may be enduring. Most of the instructions on the back of the stress coat bottles say to add one teaspoon for every 5 gallons. Read the back of the bottle you have first before you put your stress coat in. Don't just pour it in.
• Make sure that the water you are adding to your fish tank is about the same temperature as the water that is in there now. This is done by simply feeling the water in your tank and then filling your bucket with the same temperature water. You can add warm water to your tank, but again, make it the same degree as the water already in there.
• Fill your tank up and then plug everything back in.
• Congratulations! You have completed your first water change. Continue doing these every month or more often depending on time and bioload.

There are all different types of beliefs and suggestions about how often these water changes should be done. I have adapted this rule of thumb. If I have plenty of filtration on my tank, I do my water changes once a month. If I have a fairly high bioload (lots of fish) then I do them about once every two weeks. It is up to you, how often you are going to do your water changes. Just make sure you do them.

Once you have finished visiting everything else, maybe you can take some time and look at some pictures of my fish tanks.