Clean that thang

I just spent about 2 hours totally cleaning my tank up and I thought it would be good to post a reminder to everyone to do the same. Now I know most of you are way better than I am about keeping up on things but some may be just as bad as me. So this is what I recommend doing about ever 3 or 4 months:

If your tank has a glass or acrylic cover you should clean it on both sides. If it is a brace or rim on the tank that can not be removed I recommend cleaning the top taking care that you don't drop any salt creep or dust into the tank. Then you will also need to clean the underneath of the brace for algae etc.

Why clean the top?
If you have salt creep, algae, dust, etc on there it is blocking light. Why pay the electricity bill on all that light if you aren't going to maximize the usage.

Clean all your pumps, if you have algae and detritus build up on them get it off. If it doesn't come off easily then I recommend using some vinegar on them and that usually does the trick.

Why clean the pumps?
You will be amazed how little algae on a pump can slow it's performance and output down. This also causes wear and tear on the pump and shortens the lifespan. Plus when you clean the detritus off you WILL see a difference in your corals, believe me I am amazed at this.

Clean overflows and return lines. My overflow was loaded up with a hair like algae. I use a toothbrush to scrub it out as best as I can.

Why clean the overflow?
It gets clogged and restricts flow, thus causing tank overflows and floods to your house, believe me I know. The more algae the more detritus builds up.

Clean your fans. Fans load up with dust and this really cuts down on the air flow. I use a vacuum on mine to get them clean, just use the brush attachment.

Why clean fans?
If a fan is clogged up with dust it isn't moving much air, this can help in causing your tank to over heat. If it gets real bad it can cause heat in the fan and possibly start a fire. Plus it is just downright gross cause that dust is probably your dead skin.

Lastly I clean my lights. I turn off power to them and take them off the tank and put a towel on the floor because surprisingly the light is usually the dirtiest part on the tank. First I clean all the dust and salt creep off the outside. I usually use some Windex and paper towels for this. Once I am done with the outside I take it apart and clean the inside. Now if you have metal halide lights be very careful not to touch the bulbs, you have oil on your fingers and it will create a hot spot on the bulb causing it to burn out right away. If the light has been on I don't clean any glass until it is completely cooled off. Hot glass plus cool Windex equals shattered glass. Once I have cleaned the glass off I clean out the fans, you won't believe how much dust is in a lighting fixture fan.

Why clean the light?
See why clean the top and why clean the fan.

I know we get all caught up in water changes but this stuff needs attention too.

Excellent reminder! this does make up the majority of my monthly routine along with:


clean the airline on your skimmer, if you start noticing less airflow it may be because salt creep is growing inside the airline.
i clean my airline with RO every couple months and it always seems to make a difference.

Clean the intake on your skimmer pump. same reason to clean the intake on your return pump.

Check silicone seals on tank corners. i would rather be aware if a hermit crab is picking off the silicone so i can fix the problem than ignore it and suddenly have a tank failure resulting in water everywhere and everything dead.

Weekly:

if you use cheato then you probabally already know this but each time i do a water change i collect the dirty water in a 5 gal bucket, and swish my cheato algae around in it. that stuff captures sooooo much detritus its not even funny. (extremely usefull algae though)




(For me)
Daily: rinse filter pad on overflow. (keeps the overflow quiet) i am impressed how much crap is collected in just one day!!

Some good good points guys. Tank maintenance is a pain but gotta do it to keep everything happy.

Good point Keith, I never even thought about the Chaeto.

Great write up , also never forget to clean the siphon break !

great reminders that we all need to be more conscious of and get done to doing! It's so easy to let these things slip...

I got lots of water changes and cyano to scrub off the 75gal. My fuge needs a cleaning too and I am going to collect amphipods to start a cultre of them.

I gotta scrub the anthelia out, but I think that's a unique problem of mine.

LOL sounds like it.