Cleaning the tanks...

[jared]

Will I ever have to manually clean the tanks, besides the cleanup crew and a siphon cleaner? If I get an eel and lionfish, the last thing I want to do is clean that baby out:nervous: .

 

[kreach]

If you use live sand instead of crushed coral for your substrate, you won't have to even use a siphon cleaner. Live sand and live rock also act as a form of natural biological filtration. Just make sure you have an adequate clean up crew to keep the rocks, sand and glass clean. The only manual cleaning we do on our tanks are water changes and using a magnet scraper on the front glass.

 

[jared]

How often are water changes needed and how are they performed?

 

[kreach]

There are lots of opinions on how often water changes should be done. Personally, we try to do 10% water changes once a month. If there is a problem with water chemistry, we may do an extra water change or do a 25% change instead of just 10%.
Here's a recent thread with some other opinions on how often and how much of a water change should be done. https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/92867/how-often-do-you-perform-water-changes
As far as how they are performed, it's simply a matter of siphoning out some of the water and then replacing it with new saltwater.

 

[reefnut]

You'll need to clean the glass off also. You can use a magnet cleaner so your hands don't get that far in the water.

 

[jared]

Whew! Thanx for the info. Glad I won't have to play keep-away with that eel!