Steps To Changing Aquarium Salt Water

Aquarium salt water will at some stage need to be changed by you. Although the filters in a filtration system do work effectively, they are not capable of extracting every piece of waste material that is going to be accumulating in an aquarium salt water tank.

If the waste material is left in the tank, over time it will turn the water cloudy or yellow in color and it can help to increase the buildup of algae in the aquarium salt water. This waste build up can also cause problems with the growth of the fish and coral in the tank, and may put them under stress which can result in them becoming ill. So the one question which any good aquarist should be asking themselves is "Not should I change the salt water in my aquarium, but when should it be changed?"

Changing Aquarium Salt Water - When Is The Right Time To Do It?

Ideally you should never leave changing the aquarium salt water in your tank for more than a couple of months at a time in order to provide your tropical fish and invertebrates the correct kind of environment. Although many people choose to completely change their aquarium salt water by removing the tropical aquarium fish and invertebrates and reef items from the tank, this may cause them more harm than good.

Instead the better option is just to change only a small amount of the aquarium salt water regularly and allow the aquarium fish, invertebrates and coral reef to remain in the tank. It is best if you remove about 1/3 of the total water in the tank and replace with fresh salt water of the same amount.

Steps You Need To Take When Changing The Aquarium Salt Water

1. The first thing that you need to do is unplug all the electrical equipment that is attached to the aquarium, other than the lights. If left turned on, the pumps providing heat to the water and filters will become overheated if they don't have enough aquarium salt water to work with. Plus if you leave the heater pumps on whilst you are replacing the old with new freshwater, then this may lead to the glass in the tank cracking. Remember just how much the tank cost you initially and how much it is going to cost to replace it.
   
   
2. Next you need to take an aquarium scraper and use this in order to help remove any build up of algae on the inside of the aquarium glass. Plus using this in your aquarium will help to remove any waste deposits which have become fixed to the glass. When using a scraper or scrubber accessory in your aquarium salt water tank, do so very slowly and gently to prevent the fish from panicking and becoming stressed.
   
   
3. After you have scraped the glass inside, now you need to remove any kinds of plants which are inside the aquarium so that you can get rid of any parts which are dead or dying. After removing the plants, you need to stir up the gravel in the base of the aquarium, but do so carefully as some fish like to bury themselves inside it. Bank some of the gravel towards the back of the aquarium but leave the middle and front low. Now allow the gravel a chance to settle and you will soon be able to spot the waste deposits settling on top of the gravel in your aquarium salt water tank.
   
   
4. Once the gravel has settled, you are now ready to move on to the next stage, which is to siphon off about 1/3 of the aquarium salt water. It is best when siphoning off aquarium salt water that you use one of the specialist aquarium products for doing this, and which also along with removing the water, helps you to remove quite a large amount of the debris and waste material that has accumulated in the tank also.
   
   
5. After you have siphoned off the right amount of aquarium salt water, you now need to replace this with aged rather than freshwater. The best way to make sure that the water for your aquarium is right is to either let it stand for several days, or by adding the right salt mix products to it prior to your adding it to the aquarium. You should only ever use specialist aquarium salt for your tank and not normal sea salt. Plus it is important that the temperature of the aquarium salt water to be added to the tank, is of a similar temperature to that which is currently in there by at least 2 degrees Fahrenheit. If you need to, after adding the new aquarium salt water, you may find that you need to add an additional amount of aquarium salt.
   

Now all you need to do is plug back in the filtration system and pump heater and turn them back on. Also whilst you are changing the aquarium salt water, it won't do any harm spending time cleaning the tank's cover and also the glass on the outside as well.