cleaning a 10 gallon fish tank?

ok so i have a 10 gallon tank with 1 black moore and I cleaned it about a 1 week ago and i have been doing 1/3 water changes every couple of days and i have a filter hooked up i want to get all of the crud out of the water i have a 2.5 gallon tank i could put the fish in while i clean.
Here is what i have what could i do to get a good clean

Dont try and clean the tank 100%, it’s actually not a good thing for the fish.

Get a gravel vac and an algae scraper. Clean the algae off the glass with your brush, a scraper or whatever works best. Then use your gravel vac to suck up any stray algae and crud from the gravel. Only remove about 1/3 of the water. Your goldfish is actually likely to eat some of the free floating stuff, they like a bit of greens.

You can clean out the filter sponge or remove and clean any ornaments in the old old tank water before you tip it out.

Then top up the tank with new water, with a splash of conditioner to remove any chlorine. Try and approx match the temperature.

Thats it really. Unless you have some disaster the tank should NEVER need to be emptied and cleaned. You are trying to achieve a natural balance in the tank, of bacteria and fish. Any time you empty the tank and clean it too well that balance is thrown out.

You can do the glass cleans, gravel vacs and partial water changes as often as you want, every day even. Leave the fungus and ick treatments in the cupboard, they are only needed if you get an outbreak. If you keep the water clear and the tank running and cycled properly, your fish wont get sick in the first place.

But dont empty the tank, remove the fish etc unless you absolutely have to.

Ian

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