Maintenance of a saltwater aquarium is very simple! Usually the only maintenance that will be required is cleaning the tank walls when algae grows over them and doing a water change every 2 weeks. Outside of that, there may be a handful of chemicals needed to supplement coral growth if you end up doing a reef aquarium.

It is recommended that you only change about 20% of the water at a given time. Any more than that has the potential of being too drastic. A much greater water change has the possibility of creating too drastic of a change in the system when performed. So do not fret, you will never have to change all 55 gallons of your new tank at one time. Once you get into a routine, doing a full clean on even a moderate sized tank should not take more than an hour; and that’s only every two weeks! In addition, make sure the saltwater going back into the tank is at a similar temperature to the water in the aquarium (ie room temperature). It would not be advisable to add water that has been sitting out in the garage for a few days during the middle of winter into the tank! A major swing in temperature like that would not have good consequences.

In addition to these two simple measures, adding buffer to the system whenever the pH gets low is also important. A trick of the trade is to mix buffer in the freshwater used to top the tank off with; you get to perform two jobs at once. Now if you have a large reef tank, of course there will be more chemicals to add such as calcium and iodine, however adding a teaspoon of calcium to the aquarium takes all of two seconds! See! Taking care of a saltwater aquarium is nowhere near as difficult as it is made out to be – this really is all there is to it!