# How often do you clean saltwater aquarium tanks?



## DChalo

Hi, i was going to buy a bunch of saltwater fishes (eels, octopi, crusteaceans, etc) and i was wondering how often i had to clean their tank. Because if i have a filter, whats the point of cleaning it myself? Because i would be pretty freaked out if i had to take all those fish out of the tank.


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## GetITCdot

I think what you want to do is read up a bit more on how saltwater tanks work, and also on what you want to put in your tank. 

But to stay on topic, with the correct setup the only time i stick my hands into the display tank is to move a piece of coral that has fallen, or to scrape glass. Or to punch my annoying Naso Tang in the face <sarcasm>


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## snail

Start by reading up on the fish you want, what tank setup they need and which fish you can keep them with.


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## Paul B

My reef is 40 years old and I only really cleaned it twice and that was just by moving the rock and stirring up the gravel so I could suck out detritus. Besides that the bacteria is what cleans a salt water tank. Except for the glass, you still need to clean that so you could watch that octopus eat all the crustaceans as he will as soon as he aclimates. It's what they eat. *old dude


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## Callum_c94

okay salt water aquarium tanks arent just freshwater with abit of salt they take alot of work and effort first of all you need either a RO unit fitted (Reverse osmosis) so this takes all the chemicals out the water or you can go to a aquarium specialist and they sell them in 25L tanks, so everytime you refill your tank you need to replace it with more RO water however with the RO water you still need to add marine salt which is rather expensive about £25.00 on ebay, and you need to partial water change at least once every two weeks, in your tank the salt levels should be 1.23-1.24 and you have to buy a reflexometer to measure the salt levels in the water, this is only scratching the surface marine fish are hard to keep. so really consider if its worth the hassle. 

Good Luck!

callum


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## GetITCdot

Callum_c94 said:


> okay salt water aquarium tanks arent just freshwater with abit of salt they take alot of work and effort first of all you need either a RO unit fitted (Reverse osmosis) so this takes all the chemicals out the water or you can go to a aquarium specialist and they sell them in 25L tanks, so everytime you refill your tank you need to replace it with more RO water however with the RO water you still need to add marine salt which is rather expensive about £25.00 on ebay, and you need to partial water change at least once every two weeks, in your tank the salt levels should be 1.23-1.24 and you have to buy a reflexometer to measure the salt levels in the water, this is only scratching the surface marine fish are hard to keep. so really consider if its worth the hassle.
> 
> Good Luck!
> 
> callum


I like your enthusiasm, but let me fix up your post a bit.
RO water is not NEEDED, however it is preferred.
reflexometer should actually be refractometer, or you can just use a hydrometer. 

Don't want to get the poor people too afraid of jumping into the hobby :fish-in-a-bag:


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## str8fancf

You can also use distilled water.


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