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Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance Tasks - And How often to Do Them!
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance Tasks - And How often to Do Them!
Reef aquarium maintenance is essential to success in the hobby. Routinely doing regular maintenance will prevent nutrients from forming in your tank, as well as replenish minor and trace elements removed by corals. Keeping a regular maintenance schedule will help you maintain success and optimize color and growth in your saltwater tank. Let's dive in to some of the most important techniques of reef aquarium maintenance.
Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance - Replace Heaters
Frequency: 6-12 Months
One saltwater aquarium maintenance task frequently forgotten is to replace all of your heaters. You heard me right. Even if your heaters are working perfectly fine, you should replace the heaters at least once per year. When heaters fail, there are 3 things that can happen. The heater could be stuck on, killing everything in your saltwater aquarium. The heater could be stuck off, which is less of a problem, but depending on how long it takes to notice and replace the heater, could also kill your fish and coral. The final failure is the most concerning. The heater could crack or "pop", leaving an open electrical line in your saltwater aquarium. Not only could this kill your fish and coral, but you and your family are at risk as well!
Once per year, replacing your aquarium heaters is a low cost, simple saltwater aquarium maintenance task to prevent this from happening. I personally recommend the Finnex Analog Titanium Fish Tank Heater.
Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance - Replace Aquarium Light Bulbs
Frequency: 6 Months
An often forgotten saltwater aquarium maintenance task is to replace T5 and metal halide bulbs that seem to work. Over time, the lighting used for reef aquariums shifts in spectrum as the bulb life declines. This leads to algae growth in your saltwater aquarium. If you replace all of the bulbs at the same time, assuming there are more than one bulb, you could stress the corals leading to bleaching or die off. How do we handle changing these bulbs without stressing the coral? The key is to split the bulbs up and change them throughout the year.
As a standard saltwater aquarium maintenance task, bulbs should be replaced every 6 to 12 months. That means if you have 2 Metal Halide bulbs, you should replace one in January, the other in March. Replace the first bulb again in June and the second in September. Essentially alternating which bulb is replaced every 3 months will let you get 6 months out of each bulb and keep your light spectrum more consistent. This will minimize your nuisance algae growth inside the tank.
If you have a 6 bulb T5 fixture, you can replace 1 bulb every month, allowing you to keep your light intensity consistent yet replacing each bulb every 6 months with minimal stress on the coral.
Regardless of how you wish to split up this saltwater aquarium maintenance task, every bulb should be replaced after 6 months. I personally recommend the ATI T5 Bulbs as a replacement bulb!
Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance - Clean Powerheads and Pumps
Frequency: 3 - 6 months
Another saltwater aquarium maintenance task that is frequently overlooked, and often under appreciated, is to clean all of your pumps and powerheads. Every 3 to 6 months you should remove each powerhead, take the propeller out and clean all of the shafts and plastic pieces. Soaking them in a small amount of vinegar mixed with RO water will help soften the hard composites such that you can remove the build-up from the pump. Remember to remove all algae from the plastic shielding as well. Using a new, cheap toothbrush from the dollar store, will help make removing this buildup easy work.
Regular aquarium maintenance on your powerheads and pumps, including return pumps, every 3 to 6 months will keep your equipment running more efficiently and may even allow the equipment to have a longer lifespan, saving you money in the long run. This process can be time consuming, but the rewards are well worth the work! Regular saltwater aquarium maintenance will keep the highest amount of flow and lowest stress on your equipment, meaning a healthier aquarium and lower expenses.
On a personal note, I just cleaned my return pump this way and using a power monitor, saw between 10% and 20% performance increase! And it only took about an hour worth of work!
Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance - Water Changes
Frequency: Weekly
Though up for debate by many, water changes are commonly accepted as one of, if not the, most important saltwater aquarium maintenance for a successful reef aquarium. The reason water changes are important is not just for removing nutrients from the water, in fact that is one of the least important benefits. Good saltwater aquarium filtration will handle most of the nutrients. If not for "cleaning" the tank, what are water changes for?
Minor and Trace Element Replacement
Frequent water changes replace minor and trace elements that are pulled out of the water by corals and algae. This includes elements such as potassium, iron, strontium, and other lesser known elements found in salt mixes. Major elements such as Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium are commonly added back into the aquarium by dosing, and are removed much faster than water changes can replenish them. Though major elements are easily maintained through dosing, minor and trace elements are much more difficult to maintain. This is because measuring the consumption of each minor and trace element and adding it to the water is both expensive and time consuming.
Weekly water changes of 15 - 20% of the total water volume of the tank is one of the best saltwater aquarium maintenance tasks that will help replenish the lesser measured minor and trace elements.
Cleaning the Sand Bed
Another benefit of weekly water changes as a regular Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance task is allowing you to remove debris and un-eaten food from the aquarium's sand, before it decomposes and turns in to excess nutrients in your aquarium. Siphoning debris and slowly cleaning parts of your sand bed each week as part of your regular saltwater aquarium maintenance, you will be able to remove these nutrients before they are added to the aquarium. This can reduce algae and some cyano from forming.
Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance - Changing Carbon and Filter Media
Frequency: Weekly
Another important saltwater aquarium maintenance task is to to clean your aquarium filtration and replace the filter media. Every week or two you should open the filter, replace the filter media, including carbon and GFO, and rinse the filter itself to remove any algae or other buildup in the filter. This simple saltwater aquarium maintenance task will keep your aquarium water quality pristine and reduce the excess nutrients in your reef tank.
Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance - Changing Filter Socks
Frequency: 2 - 3 Days
filter socks catch food and debris before it gets in to the sump. But if you don't change your filter socks regularly, then the waste they catch breaks down inside the sock and the nitrates and phosphates they were designed to prevent are still added to your aquarium. The key to success with filter socks is to replace them at every other day. Every day would be better, but this is not realistic from a time and cost standpoint.
Many people like to replace filter socks with new ones, but if you replace them as frequently as you should, this saltwater aquarium maintenance task would get rather expensive. Thankfully, you can just wash them! Once per week (or month if you have enough filter socks) turn the dirty socks inside out, and wash them in your washing machine. To prevent too much debris from getting in your washing machine, rinse the socks before adding them to the washer. Wash them using hot water and DO NOT use laundry detergent or any other soaps. If needed, you can add some bleach to whiten the filter socks, though this is often just a preference. Finally, put the filter socks through at least another rinse cycle, but ideally another full wash, with just water to ensure everything, including the bleach, is rinsed off the filter socks. You can let them air dry and there you have it, clean filter socks!
Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance - Cleaning the Glass
Frequency: As Needed
As needed, it's important to clean the glass both inside and outside of the tank. Every couple days, or as needed, you can use a magnetic scrubber or scraper remove algae from the glass. If the algae is too hard, such as coralline algae on the front glass, you can use a razor blade or hand-held algae scraper to remove hard buildups from the glass. The Flipper Algae Scraper has both of these options built in! Making it the best solution on the market!
As for the outside of the glass, DO NOT use commercial glass cleaners because the chemicals can harm the aquarium. It's best to start by using a damp towel to remove anything from the glass and then use a dry towel to clean off the water. This will keep your glass clean and your reef aquarium healthy.
Reef Aquarium Maintenance Schedule
For optimal success in the reef aquarium hobby, you should create and stick to a regular saltwater aquarium maintenance schedule, or saltwater aquarium maintenance checklist. In order to help you be successful in this hobby, I made a saltwater aquarium maintenance schedule for you that you may print and hang near your aquarium as a reminder of when you need to perform your aquarium maintenance. Just right-click the image below and click save. You can then print it from your computer.
Conclusion
There are a number of saltwater aquarium maintenance tasks that you need to remember. For tasks that need to be done every 6 months, picking holidays near the dates makes it easy. For example, New Years Day and Independance Day (USA) are perfect aquarium maintenance markers! Simple task like those mentioned above will help you make the difference between an "okay" reef tank, and a truely stunning reef aquarium!
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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