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How to Clean a Fish Tank - Beginners Guide to Saltwater Fish Tanks
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
How to Do a Water Change
Weekly water changes are an important component to the long term success of a saltwater fish tank. There are many thoughts on why you don't need to do water changes for saltwater fish tanks. Beginners should not listen to this noise as water changes are the best way to replenish trace and minor elements to the water. Though there are many thoughts on how to clean a fish tank, water changes are the main result.
Why Water Changes are Important
Water changes replace minerals that are stripped from the water. As coral grow, they pull trace and minor elements from the water. Though these can be manually added back in, they can be expensive. Weekly water changes help replace these. Regular fish tank cleaning also helps remove debris, waste, as well as slightly reducing nitrates and phosphates.
When siphoning water, you can remove algae and waste. This will help prevent nitrates and phosphates from building up. These reasons alone make it worth the $25 - $50 per month to do weekly fish tank cleaning. Mostly because you will spend more than that trying to figure out why corals aren't growing or how to reduce nutrients.
How to Clean a Fish Tank
When cleaning a fish tank, start by turning off "non-essential" equipment, and equipment that could break if it is out of water. Since the water level will be low, I recommend unplugging heaters, protein skimmers, auto top offs, and any pumps that may end up out of water. This may include your return pump. For a short period of time, this is fine as your powerheads will keep the water moving.
The next step is to siphon out roughly 10% of the total volume of water in your tank and sump. While doing this, siphon any excess algae, waste, debris, and vacuum the sand bed. This will reduce the potential nitrates and phosphates from being added to the tank. Once done, add salt water back to the sump until you have replaced the amount removed.
This is an ideal time to finish any regular or weekly maintenance tasks. A couple examples include filling your ATO reservoir, changing filter socks, scraping algae from the glass, and emptying the protein skimmer collection cup.
Now that you are done with the water change, you can turn the equipment back on and dispose of the waste water. The water can go down a standard drain. Sand and other waste should really be put in the trash as they can clog the drain.
Conclusion
That's it. That's how to clean a fish tank. I know this is a beginners guide. Even some of you that have been doing this for a while need a reminder to get back in the habit. I've gotten in the trend of every two weeks or as I remember. It slowly led to major aquarium problems that were much harder to fix! We can always find reasons not to do the work, but it will only lead to regret.
About the Author
John Krenzer
John is a Software Engineer with a passion for saltwater aquariums, as well as the founder and president of Reef Stable. He started in the aquarium hobby as a child with a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium. His interest in aquarium life grew and in 2008, John set up his first saltwater aquarium.
Today, John maintains an over 300 gallon reef tank system, consisting of a 120g reef and a 210g reef. These large tanks are contained within the same system, sharing a sump as a means to reduce total maintenance and increase total water volume.
John writes articles for the blog as a means to learn about more reef aquarium topics. These articles act as a reference for the readers as well as himself. John updates these articles frequently to provide additional information or make corrections as new information becomes available.
If you would like to request an article, tank tour article, or to collaborate, let me know via the Contact Me Page!
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