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Scraping muck and slime from the side of a tank, and continually cloudy water, annoys many fish owners.

But now a young designer has created a fish tank that she claims never needs cleaning, the water never needs changing, and owners can save money bu never needing to replace the filter. 

The spherical tank only requires an owner to top up the water occasionally – and to feed the fish.

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Cleaning up: A young designer has created a fish tank that she claims never needs cleaning, the water changing, or a new filter. The spherical tank, called Avo, (pictured) only requires an owner to top up the water occasionally – and to feed the fish.

Suzy Shelley, a graduate from Loughborough University, created the 15-litre tank, which is fitted with technology that enables fish, plants and bacteria 'to work together to create a balanced ecosystem'.

The tank, called Avo, has a self-cleaning filter that 'never needs replacing'.

A continually-moving bed recycles older bacteria into plant food, creating space for new bacteria to grow.

'Harmful ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are naturally removed from the water, meaning the water never needs changing,' according to the company, called Noux. 

Fish lovers meet Avo, the labour-saving, self-cleaning tank

Crystal clear: A continually-moving bed recycles older bacteria into plant food, creating space for new bacteria to grow. 'Harmful ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are naturally removed from the water, meaning the water never needs changing,' according to the company, called Noux. The process is illustrated

A bright idea: Avo features smart LED lighting that is optimised for plant photosynthesis and growth, which leads to clear water. It glows red in the morning, white during the day, and blue at night to look pretty in a room

Avo features smart LED lighting that is optimised for plant photosynthesis and growth, which leads to clear water.

The lighting is soft red in the morning, white during the day, and blue in the evening.

The tank is designed for tropical fish with a constant water temperature of  27°C (80.6°F).

The heating elements are positioned to create convection currents which help the nutrients reach the roots of plants.

The plants are housed in seven trays so they can be easily maintained and moved around to change the look of the tank. 

It has taken Ms Shelley over four years to develop the tank, which is now raising funds on crowd funding website, Kickstarter.

Avo can be pre-ordered from £150 ($242) plus shipping and the tank is due to be shipped in July next year.

So far, £45,000 ($72,669) has been raised out of her £60,000 ($96,892) goal, with 52 days to go.

'I've always kept fish and it was a steep learning curve in the early days - trying to maintain a tank properly, making sure my fish were healthy and had a clean tank,' Ms Shelley said.

'Fish keeping isn't as easy most people think…there's important bacteria in the tank that need to be maintained, plus there's the weekly water changes and smelly filter cleaning needed to maintain a healthy tank,' she wrote on Avo's Kickstarter page.

'I decided I'd design something that takes the stress out of keeping tropical fish and makes fish keeping simple, beautiful and above all enjoyable.

'Avo is packed full of technology and clever design features that make it really, really easy to keep fish.'

Suzy Shelley (pictured), a graduate from Loughborough University, created the 15-litre tank, which is packed with technology enabling fish, plants and bacteria 'to work together to create a balanced ecosystem'