What’s your cleaning schedule?

[CasperOe]

Hi Reefers!

Below is roughly my cleaning schedule for my Cade 1200 reef tank. How‘s yours? What do you do different- and why?

Daily:
- Any active alarms on any equipment?
- Quick glance- is any glass or sand cleaning necessary?
- Check dosing pumps, tubes and containers
- Check filter roller
- Check KH Keeper
- Feeding

Weekly:
- 10% water change
- Test: Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Nitrate, Phosphate, Salinity
- Adjust dosing pumps as required
- Skimmer cup cleaning as needed

Monthly:
- Change carbon and GFO
- Clean sump for any accumulated ditritus

Bi-Monthly:
- Triton ICP test

Quarterly:
- Calibrate PH, Salinity, TDS, Temp. sensor and KH Keeper
- Check RODI membranes (carbon / DI)
- Clean power heads, skimmer and return pumps as required

Yearly:
- Change heater and buy new backup

 

[Tamberav]

Umm. When I get time. Once a week vs once every 3 months. Who knows!

 

[CasperOe]

Umm. When I get time. Once a week vs once every 3 months. Who knows!

I have been quite religious about above for the last couple of years on my last reef tank- might just still be ‘new’ in the hobby

 

[w8lifts]

Daily is glass cleaning. Every Thursday is 5% water change and testing. Every other Thursday is algae scrubber and protein skimmer maintenance plus my weekly maintenance.

 

[Jedi1199]

Hi Reefers!

Below is roughly my cleaning schedule for my Cade 1200 reef tank. How‘s yours? What do you do different- and why?

Daily:
- Any active alarms on any equipment?
- Quick glance- is any glass or sand cleaning necessary?
- Check dosing pumps, tubes and containers
- Check filter roller
- Check KH Keeper
- Feeding

Weekly:
- 10% water change
- Test: Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Nitrate, Phosphate, Salinity
- Adjust dosing pumps as required
- Skimmer cup cleaning as needed

Monthly:
- Change carbon and GFO
- Clean sump for any accumulated ditritus

Bi-Monthly:
- Triton ICP test

Quarterly:
- Calibrate PH, Salinity, TDS, Temp. sensor and KH Keeper
- Check RODI membranes (carbon / DI)
- Clean power heads, skimmer and return pumps as required

Yearly:
- Change heater and buy new backup

Not nearly as diligent as you...

I clean the glass as often as it needs it, usually a couple times a week. I don't have nearly as much hardware on my system so no worries about dosing pumps, controllers, calibrating sensors and all of that.

Clean the skimmer when it gets full and replace filter sock (usually both at same time... 4 or 5 days).

Water change every week maybe 2.

Test parameters when I think about it.. I am bad about this step.

RODI filters get replaced as needed DI resin usually every month or so depending how much I need to run the system., but I do a full swap of all of them annually.

 

[CasperOe]

Thank you for your feedback above, everyone has their own way of doing things- im happy to see what you take as maintenance

Happy reefing!

 

[OldRed1]

We have a 25g AIO in our apartment, which makes it convenient to do 20% weekly water changes. Before changing the water, I use a long pipet to disturb the sand bed and areas of rock that do not receive as much flow. This is to agitate detritus into the water column so that I can siphon it out.

As far as hardware, I scrub down the Nero 3 every other week. I change the filter floss 2 - 3 times per week. And I use a tunze glass scraper to clean the glass interior several times a week.

Lastly, I keep a bottle of RODI/Vinegar mix handy to spray on the outside glass. I clean the exterior of the glass at least once per day.

 

[Mark Bradley]

Reefer 170.
Water change weekly (20 litres)
Carbon - weekly renew
Reactor - change Rowaphos when phosphate reach 0.1
Skimmer - clean cup every day
Skimmer itself, return pump, pump for reactor - clean everyweeks
Sump - hoover round every 6 weeks

Tank healthy and everything is growing so not sure if my husbandry is ‘perfect’ but all seems ok so keep to this schedule.

 

[OldRed1]

Reefer 170.
Water change weekly (20 litres)
Carbon - weekly renew
Reactor - change Rowaphos when phosphate reach 0.1
Skimmer - clean cup every day
Skimmer itself, return pump, pump for reactor - clean everyweeks
Sump - hoover round every 6 weeks

Tank healthy and everything is growing so not sure if my husbandry is ‘perfect’ but all seems ok so keep to this schedule.

Your tank is beautiful! Those oranges pop so wonderfully.

 

[doubleshot00]

I have a newer tank and have OCD so i do more than most.

Daily: check the following- sump water level, water level in overflow box, cheato, ato reservoir and see how dirty the glass is. My water level seems to never stay put and IDK why.

Every 2 days ive been checking phosphates as they have been going down.

2x a week i check N03, po4, alk, clean the glass, replace socks, empty skimmer and turn cheato over.

Weekly replace ato water, 15 gal water change (depends on the tests), inspect all dosing containers, inspect co2 scrubber, test cal, mag and test PH to make sure it matches my Apex.

 

[ReefGeezer]

Here's my schedule-ish. I'm not good at following a schedule.

Daily: Feed - Look at the tank and sump area & check equipment - Dose 20 ml Vinegar

When Needed: Clean glass - Dump/Clean Skimmer Cup - Fill AFR reservoir - Fill ATO reservoir - Clean/fix equipment

2 to 3X per week: Target feed my little starter colonies of Favia & Acans - Dose phytoplankton

Weekly: Test Alk and adjust AFR dosing pump, Install filter socks then Scrub spots of algae & Cyano as needed, disturb sand, then Turkey Baste rocks & Dose DIY Coral Snow/MB7 solution, then remove filter socks

Whenever I don't like what I see: Do water change & test N, P, CA, Alk, & Mg.

 

[Mschmidt]

I really need to clean the glass. It's getting hard to see. That's about the metric for that.
water changes on average every week and a half. feed and count fish daily. feed coral weekly. clean sand when I need to and have time. Filter maintenance not nearly enough.

 

[Waters]

Weekly I do a manual water change strictly to suck up any detritus, clean glass, and replace MP40 wetsides and Neptune Wav guards (dirty parts are soaked and prepared to be swapped out the next week). I also clean the skimmer cup and check the sock. Sump is cleaned as needed, usually about once every 3-6 months.

 

[ReefGeezer]

I really need to clean the glass. It's getting hard to see. That's about the metric for that.
water changes on average every week and a half. feed and count fish daily. feed coral weekly. clean sand when I need to and have time. Filter maintenance not nearly enough.

Yea... I forgot about the "count fish" thing. Daily for me too 'cause I'm paranoid!

 

[Mschmidt]

Yea... I forgot about the "count fish" thing. Daily for me too 'cause I'm paranoid!

Only do it because they are some of the countable ones. I can count the fresh water angels, 4, and the reef fish, 11. After that who knows what's happening in the tanks.

 

[exnisstech]

I'm not much at following a schedule. The only things that are scheduled are daily dosing of 2 part and very small daily water changes, both done manually. Im retired tho so I do spend a lot of time tinkering and watching things. Glass gets cleaned when I get bothered by it.

 

[kevgib67]

Clean glass, skimmer cup and power head as needed. Every Sunday I do a 12.5% water change. The last Saturday I do a deep cleaning, filters, biomedia, sponges and replace carbon. Every water change the LEDs and glass get wiped down with white vinegar and water.

 

[Buckster]

Since my 180 looks awesome, I'm not changing anything! I do 35 gal water change every two weeks. I put in some coral foods when I remember, I clean the glass when I can't see the fish.(actually every couple of days) I can't remember the last time I tested levels. I tested frequently in the beginning . I tried not to chase the numbers and now I don't think about it too much.

 

[Lavey29]

Reefer 170.
Water change weekly (20 litres)
Carbon - weekly renew
Reactor - change Rowaphos when phosphate reach 0.1
Skimmer - clean cup every day
Skimmer itself, return pump, pump for reactor - clean everyweeks
Sump - hoover round every 6 weeks

Tank healthy and everything is growing so not sure if my husbandry is ‘perfect’ but all seems ok so keep to this schedule.

Awesome fox coral and shrooms