How do you clean your reef tank and how long does it take?

[mermaid_life]

Hi, I just spent 5 hours cleaning my aquarium - including cleaning out the pipes and tubes. Weekly it still takes me 3 hrs on Saturdays. My BF had a good question.... "how do other people do it? Doesn't seem like it should take this long."

This is my routine:
1. Clean sand bed with python
2. Use turkey baster to blow detritus off rocks.
3. Use a magic eraser to get the coraline algae and film algae off the front and sides that my magnet cleaner couldn't get during the week
4. Scrape and brush nuisance hair algae off the rocks and corals - (I don't know what I'm doing wrong, my hair algae continues to out-compete my coral but that's not the point of this thread)
5. Because the hair algae is now flying everywhere in the tank, siphon the algae into a filter sock in the sump because if I don't, it gets caught on the corals and latches on forever.
6. Clean skimmer and change out filter media
7. Finally change out 15 gallons of salt water
8. Clean up the mini flood I just created around the tank.

I just want to check to see if it's just me and my tank or if I'm there is an easier way out there. I read about the auto water changers people are setting up now...... assuming you don't have my algae problem, I don't understand how you get around tank wall scraping and sand bed cleaning if you have one.

Thanks!!

 

[krash7172]

How old is your tank?

 

[mermaid_life]

How old is your tank?

11 months

 

[krash7172]

Hang in there. You are almost there. I'm fairly noob and I can tell you first hand that I went from hrs per week to minutes per week maintenance once my tank matured. You also might be doing more than necessary. Get a basic clean up crew.

 

[TheOne]

I use an algae free scraper on the glass once or twice a week. I vacuum my sand bed every other week with an Eheim quick vac and stir the sand after. I blow off the rocks every other week with a Turkey Baster and sometimes go over it with a toothbrush. Clean the skimmer cup once a week. Change out filter floss twice a week. Change out 20 gallons of SW every other week. Take out my 3 mp40 powerheads and scrub with toothbrush every other week.

My tank is almost a year old. I agree it is alot of work.

 

[Hermie]

My tank is 11 months old and unless I keep my phosphates in check, algae grows really bad (turf/hair etc). How you control phosphates if up to you, but I do recommend testing for it if you have an algae problem.

 

[krash7172]

Once you get past algae phase you can relax a bit. Get some snails and crabs. remove the hair algae manually if you can.

 

[23Andy23]

On my tiny tanks, weekly I scrap the glass blow off the rocks and syphon out detritus during the water change. My big tank I scrap the glass switch socks when need (if I'm using them) clean skimmer cup (if I'm using it) and every couple of weeks to a month I'll do a water change. I have a big ol list of things I do that aren't cleaning though

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I got a 120 acrylic, it takes me about 2-3 hours without cleaning the sandbed. I used magic eraser. It’s kind of a pain, no matter how careful I am, I managed to scratched the tank several small areas already in a year. Never acrylic tank again

 

[Nanoreefer4ever]

Tank is more stable if you you dont over cleaning it up except of equipments. Other living organisms will clean it up if you you live them grow peacefully

 

[Joelopez02]

get yourself a tang or two if your tank is big enough and that should take care of the algae

 

[mermaid_life]

Tank is more stable if you you dont over cleaning it up except of equipments. Other living organisms will clean it up if you you live them grow peacefully

I don't know. I went on a 2 week vacation and when I came back, it was a hair algae forest.

I definitely manually remove and yes I do have a clean up crew. Just not sure they can keep up.

I guess I'll give it a few more months and see if anything changes with the age of the tank. I have a chaeto reactor that also got taken over by hair algae if that means anything lol.

 

[Scorpius]

Bare bottom folks. My MP-40s keep the bottom free of detritus. Weekly 5 gal water changes, 3x filter sock change, weekly carbon change, clean skimmer and clean glass. I maybe spend 2 hrs a week doing maintenance. I also have worked 22 days straight so I have very limited time, but that's why I designed my current system to be stupid easy to care for.

 

[Idoc]

Here's an idea, do #2,3,4 after shutting the pumps off. The stuff will settle to the sand, then do #1 & #5 together by vacuuming the debri off the sand, then add the new water. That's basically what i do and it doesn't take that long. I have only deep cleaned my skimmer once...i ckean the cup out completely each time i enjoy it though.

Then, i put a towel under my foot and soak up my spills...i have a tile floor so it's easy. I don't think there's any easy way around that, lol.

 

[Garia666]

Wait woot? I spend around 30 minutes each Sunday and once in the 3 months like 1 to 1,5 hours for the equipment cleaning that’s it.

in the 30 minutes I do a water change of about 7,5% change my filter , sock and clean the skimmer that’s it.

oh yes once every 2 or 3 Friday’s before I go tomy lfs I get some cheato out of my algae reactor, about 5 minutes.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Once a week, on my 24 gallon 24x18x18 i put new floss in the filter, I turn the flow up on the wave maker, clean the glass and sometimes I blow the rocks off with baster while flow is up. I leave it with higher flow on until the particles are no longer blowing around then turn the flow back down, that's it for my frequent maintenance.
I have no skimmer or sump as such just an in tank filter (biobox sw) once every 4-6 maybe 8 weeks I'll change some water out or do some scrubbing of rocks and just siphon out water through a filter sock then pour most of the filtered water back in then just top up with natural sea water. I'm struggling with low phosphates so I dont want to keep diluting what I have. I do however siphon out any detritus out of the filter box and do a 10% change, along with the other things I've said above at least 3 times a year as a bigger spring clean type of thing, also I clean my wave maker every 6 months , I have 2 the same and just swap it out. The sand I leave for my pistol shrimp and goby to stir up.
My tank does better the more i leave my hands out.

 

[TheOne]

I guess it also depends on what size tank you are cleaning. Mine is 6x2x2.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I guess it also depends on what size tank you are cleaning. Mine is 6x2x2.

I agree. Depends on the size. I usually scrape my glass, stir the sand, vacuum out the water, replace with new water. Done!

 

[ReefGeezer]

My tank is about a year and a half old. It is almost mature and operates without too much intervention. The ATO and dosing is automated.

Feed the tank daily - Wipe the glass w/mag float & empty skimmer every 3-4 days - 10-ish gallon water change per week - Fill ATO reservoir every 3-4 weeks - Fill ASW reservoir & mix new water every 3 weeks - Fill kalk reservoir every 2 weeks - Clean pumps, skimmer, reservoirs quarterly-ish - Calibrate dosing pumps quarterly-ish. All that adds up to a few minutes a day and a hour or so on the weekend.

I test whenever I think it is needed and change GFO and adjust alk, calcium, or magnesium if tests tell me to do so. Those tasks add a few more minutes sometimes.

Tinkering adds a few more minutes a week... Spot feeding & otherwise maintaining corals, righting overturned snails, adjusting flow, general cleaning on the outside and around the tank and in the sump area, dealing with unacceptable algae/cyano outbreaks, and etc..