
In order to ensure that your
community fish tank stays healthy, there must be a proper routine schedule and checklist that is set up for one to follow every week. Unlike normal
aquarium cleaning, community fish tank maintenance usually requires more tedious tasks because basically you need to maintain tight water parameters in order to accommodate every living species in the natural surrounding. As always, it is not necessary to remove all the fish and plants during maintenance because this will disrupt the ecosystem but what is more important is that every control and monitoring needs to be carried out at present interval without fail.
Let’s look at some of the basic tasks involved for any community fish tank maintenance. I would recommend you use the aquarium checklist here.

pH and temperature check. Every fish in community aquarium has different requirements. Find out more about
individual species preferences and use
pH test kit for the adjustment.

removing
algae by scrapping the sides of aquarium and hard to reach corners

siphon and clear off any waste material including dead leaves from plants

confirm
nitrite nitrate level (basically the frequency of checking for newly-established aquarium is almost everyday but once it stabilizes, weekly confirmation should be sufficient)

vacuuming the
gravel bed at least once a week by using gravel cleaner

servicing and changing the
filter media for
aquarium filter so that it won’t choked up

topping up the
salt and
check salinity for saltwater community tank only (you might be interested to find out more about how to
change water for saltwater aquarium)

check
aquarium lighting to see whether the fluorescent tubes still emit the same intensity of light (usually the tubes need replacement roughly every 6 months)

cleaning of
protein skimmer (for saltwater aquarium) to ensure no accumulation of debris and hardened material at the chamber surface

weed out presence of pests especially
aquarium snails (if any)
That’s it. Hopefully the list here can be used as a guide to properly maintain and ensure successful propagation of your community tank.