It's been way past needing to clean this thing. But the holiday season really didn't help with any of that. The filter pads ended up looking like they were caked in mud they were so dirty. Though granted there is dirt in the bottom in this thing. Though I am still working on trying to add some shorter plants to this tank once I find some good ones. Which I also recently made my own co2 doser for the tank, which really seems to be helping with the plant growth.