How to Clean Your Fish Tank with Orange Juice

My little 10-gallon aquarium needs a good cleaning more often in the heat of summer, as it gets more sunlight, which of course results in algae growth. I had planned to do it within the next few days, but a neat trick with orange juice got it done quicker than I'd planned.

I was awakened well before dawn on Monday by my canine critters needing a potty break. Knowing it would be fruitless to attempt to go back to sleep at that point, I reached for my coffee mug to fix my morning tea.

I have my one cuppa each morning, then tend to just rinse my mug and use it for water throughout the day. It's still dark at 3:30 a.m., but there was enough moonlight streaming in my window that I could see to grab my mug and head for the kitchen. As I often do, I paused on the way by to empty the bit of water left in the mug into the fish tank, giving my lone little African Cichlid a wake-up call.

Alfred got more than he bargained for that morning - it wasn't water in the bottom of my mug.

I'd forgotten I'd had orange juice with a snack the night before and hadn't finished it nor rinsed my cup. I saw the water in the aquarium clouding up immediately and paused to wonder - do fish like orange juice? I even googled it.

They don't.

Now I'm often cleaning rugs at that time of the morning (when the critters wake me after they've taken care of business), but this is the first time I've enjoyed cleaning the fish tank in the pre-dawn hours. I grabbed a large bowl, scooped out about two gallons of water, replaced with fresh, and gave the filter a good rinse. It seemed like a good time to grab the spongey-thing-on-a-stick that cleans the sides of the tank, so I gave them a swipe too. The water was still pretty cloudy and I hoped Alfred would think it was just a foggy day. I don't think he bought it.

I let the tank rest and saw that it was still murky Tuesday morning, so I repeated the process of emptying and replacing water and cleaning the filter. I kept my eye on Alfred throughout the day - when I could find him through the grayness- and he seemed to be none the worse for my early Monday mishap.

By Tuesday evening the tank had cleared up and was sparkling clean. Algae scraped, filter cleaned and about half the water replaced over a two day period did the trick. Yep, Alfred had clean digs once again. All thanks to orange juice.

Obviously this bit of humor making light of my mishap is in no way recommending that you clean your fish tank with orange juice. Please don't try this at home.