Skip to content
Daily Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance

Daily Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance

Daily Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance Podcast

Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance

When it comes to saltwater aquarium maintenance, its hard to generalize information, so that is useful for everyone because no two aquariums are the same. A good example of this is If you were to setup two aquariums with the same materials at the same time, with the same equipment, they could yield very different results. In the end, no two saltwater aquariums are the same.

The Information you will find here is common maintenance topics when it comes to maintaining a saltwater aquarium. You may find that your saltwater aquarium could need more or less attention daily. What's important is that you are giving your aquarium, maintenance daily to avoid bigger problems down the road.

At the very bottom of this page you will find a link to a PDF file that you can download and print for your referral.

Daily Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance

1. Turn Lights on: Aquarium lights play a large role in a saltwater aquarium. If you keep corals, We recommend automating your light schedule with the use of a light timer, wifi outlet or aquarium controller such as an Neptune Systems Apex or Hydros Control 4 Starter Pack.

Aquarium controllers are not just for turning the lights on and off and do much more, but that's a topic for another time.

Automating your lights can increase your aquariums stability, coral's overall health and growth.

2. Check Temperature: Maintaining a stable temp is very important to the long term success. The ideal range of a saltwater aquarium is 76-80 degrees. When it comes to equipment the aquarium heater is the most likely piece aquarium equipment to fail, that's why it's important to check the temp daily. When it comes to heaters we recommend titanium aquarium heaters, they have a proven track record of long term use and reliability.

The use of a Digital Aquarium Thermometer is recommended for quickly being able to ensure correct temperature.

3. Livestock Health Check: Doing a head count and checking your livestock for health is important. In the event of a death within the aquarium it's very important to remove the animal quickly. Leaving an animal to decay in the water can have a negative impact on water quality.

Checking your livestock isn't just about looking for death. If you can find something wrong before it results in death you have a chance to treat the issue.

4. Feeding your Fish and Invertebrates: A great way to get your fish out and about to perform a health check is to feed them. Most livestock need to be feed at least once a day. Some fish require more than one feeding a day so it's important to do your research and understand the requirements of the fish, inverts and corals before you buy them.

5. Cleaning The Glass or Acrylic: Cleaning the sides of the aquarium should be apart of daily aquarium maintenance. This will force the cleaning crew to focus on cleaning the rock and sand bed. If you have a glass aquarium it's important to use aquarium glass cleaning tools and if your have Acrylic aquarium use tools that are designed for acrylic aquarium cleaning.

6. Top Off Evaporated Water: Water will evaporate from your aquarium daily so it's important to replace it daily. Keep in mind that the salt in your aquarium will not evaporate so when you "top off" your aquarium, you use freshwater from a RO/DI Filter.

An ATO (Auto Top Off) such as the IceCap ATO or the Duetto ATO is a great way to automate topping off your aquarium. Instead of doing it once or twice a day, an ATO will top off your tank as needed. This will drastically increase the stability of your saltwater aquarium.

7. Equipment Inspection: A daily Inspection of your aquarium equipment can be the difference success and disaster. There is no telling when a heater will burnout or when a powerhead will die. A daily inspection will help you find little problems before they become a larger one. Below you will find a printable PDF that can help you with your daily saltwater aquarium maintenance.

Daily Saltwater Aquarium Maintenance Conclusion 

Daily Aquarium Maintenance may seem like a lot of work but truth be told once you have the basics down, most of the topics we just covered can be done at the same time. If you're in the planning stages of setting up a saltwater aquarium, or just getting started, you can expect to spend 10-20 mins a day with daily maintenance.

Here's a FREE printable  Download Aquarium Maintenance Checklist (PDF file)

Daily Aquarium Checklist

We now offer an Aquarium Maintenance Service here in Maine. Follow the link for more.