How to Clean a Saltwater Fish Tank

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Eric with the World of Wet Pets Tropical Fish in Portland, Oregon. I'm here to explain how to clean a saltwater fish tank. Okay. When starting with a saltwater tank it's very important to have your water, your replacement water, pre-made. Now usually a day beforehand to make certain that all the salt is dissolved so that your salinity is correct. It's also not a bad idea to put a heater in that premixed water to make certain that the water is as close to the correct temperature as you can get it. Once you have your water pre-made and you're ready to actually clean the aquarium it's a good idea to unplug your filtration as water levels are going to change as we do this. Depending on the kind of filtration you have it shouldn't matter it's just a good idea to unplug it. Once we start cleaning we're going to use a sponge to wipe down the insides for algae. Make certain that if you have an acrylic tank your sponge is acrylic safe. You don't want to scratch it unnecessarily. Also make certain that you're not using a kitchen sponge or anything that might have a mildecide in it or something like that. Wiping down the inside of the tank, it's easy just to go systematically back and forth from one side to the other. Do front, sides, backs, any surface that looks like it might need to have algae removed. Once that's done it's time to remove some of the water. Water changes are very, very important in aquariums. It's how we remove a lot of the waste, even in saltwater tanks. Now it's a good idea to have a bucket. You can have a small five gallon bucket that's clean, food grade, something that hasn't had chemicals in it. Ideally something that is fish only is a good idea. It's not a bad idea to also maybe have a large bin or trash barrel. We use the large ones on wheels to make it easy to move around. Once you are ready to remove the water you'll use siphon with usually a large barrel on the end and you'll want to start a siphon. Okay, there's my siphon is going. And now that it is going I can use the barrel to root around in the gravel and pick up all the debris that has been collecting in the gravel. Some tanks will be worse than others. If it's a sand bottom tank you usually stir the bottom first and let the debris settle on the top of the sand for about 10, 15 minutes and then you can come back in and remove the water with the siphon, okay? When returning the water from the premix that you've already made into the tank you can do it with pitchers, you can do it with small pumps and hoses. There's a lot of different ways to do it. If you have a sump system under your tank you can siphon directly into the sump system plugging the filter back in so that it fills the tank. Finally you would clean your filtration, whether you have power filters, canister filters. Sump filters there's usually a pad somewhere that needs to be cleaned or replaced. Protein skimmers is a good idea to clean them at this time if you have a protein skimmer. Just usually means removing the cup, cleaning it out and reinstalling it. At that point you're ready to wipe down the outside and your tank should be clean and ready to go for a few more weeks."