How do we all clean our tanks" thats a important subject "

[newfishliny]

I DON'T THINK I EVER SAW A THREAD ON THIS:jumping:
I CLEAN MY TANK ONCE A MONTH SIPHON OUT THE BASE , CLEAN AROUND THE ROCKS. USE SMALL POWER HEAD TO GET DIRT OFF THE ROCKS. ALL THE GLASS FRONT AND BACK .
I HANG A AQUA CLEAR WITH CARBON /FILTER PADS.
THEN DO WATER CHANGE.
:thinking: DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY GOOD IDEAS FOR CLEANING THE WATER?
ANYONE USE A DIATOM OR ANYTHING ELSE.
NEWFISH

 

[nanoambiance]

This is regime every 2-3 weeks. Clean sides of tank with mag float. Take powerhead, get in b/t LR and places of low flow, blow out any trapped debris, detritus, and then take some plastic tubing (rigid) and siphon all stuff out of water column, do about 10% of total tank volume. I learned you do not disturb/siphon the sandbed in reef tank. Then add back in premixed (at least 24 hours) 10% made up of RO water and salt mix, heated and aerated. Then dose small amount of iodine and calcium (depending on your tank needs). You could also add a phospate sponge for a 24 hour period. Change out your activated carbon if you use, etc.
I take the powerheads and skimmer out and soak in distilled white vinegar every 3 months for optimum performance. Good luck, I hope I was helpful! Nano.

 

[bigmac]

I clean the front glass every few days and the equipment as needed..
Nothing inside my tanks needs to be cleaned except for the front glass

 

[arjayl]

I do a 5 gal water change every week.
(55 gal - 15 gal worth of sand & rock + 12 gal sump/WetDry = 52 / 5 = 10%)
I clean the glass every three days and leave the side and back glass to be cleaned by the Snail, Tang, Coche, and Blenny. I do a light vacume of the sand when I do the change to clean up some of the waste from the fish. I clean one filter every 2 - 3 weeks. I rotate them so I can replenish the benificial bacteria into the new filter. In fact, when I change the filters and/or clean them, I try to keep the bristle worms that somehow end up in the filter (always use rubber gloves!).
Since I changed to RO water, the tank has been much cleaner and everything seems to be thriving.
Ive heard a LFS say every month, and another say every week. I guess it depends on the load? But I can tell you one thing, the store that does a small change every week, has much better looking tanks than the store that recommends it once a month?
In Fact! The last time I lost a coral was when I was using regular tap water and Cyno took over an Xenia colony (over 2 years ago). My only other issue a crab that is some sort of hitchhiker...I think it did in my flame angel and CBS a while ago. Just can'y catch the bugger!

 

[beaslbob]

replace filter pads on tetratec, scrape glass, clean glass top, each week. every other week remove crushed oyster shells in filter box and rinse. replace evap water as needed (~every two days or so)
Fw planted once every 6 months scrape calcius algae from glass.