A hobby is defined as “an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure” and there’s no lack of things to do when you’re looking after an aquarium. We tend to think of aquarium maintenance as cleaning the glass, managing algae, cleaning the protein skimmer and looking after the health of the fish and corals but for us being a hobbyist means so much more than everyday maintenance.
When our tanks are coasting we spend a lot of time observing how the reef life behaves and how the equipment is performing but when there’s nothing to do specifically we turn to servicing the aquarium gear to keep everything working in peak condition. Every, single, device – anything with moving parts start ‘degrading’ the moment they are pressed into service and this is especially true of the machines exposed to aquarium water where lime buildup and biofouling work to slow down and reduce their performance.
Water pumps like wave makers, return pumps and especially protein skimmer are especially prone to slowing down as the growth of biological films increase the friction of the moving parts. The best way to keep them running now and for a long time to come is simply to clean them and if it’s been a long time since you took them apart, you’ll be surprised how much flow your wave makers produce and how much better your protein skimmers run when they are cleaned inside and out.
Water pumps are the most obvious place to focus your deep cleaning efforts but dosing pumps also require regular cleaning and calibration, fan cooled LED lights should also be kept free of dust and debris, and there’s many dark corners of our reef tanks like sumps and overflow boxes that shouldn’t be ignored. Most if not all of the issues that escalate into full blown tank crashes can be easily avoided with regular maintenance and cleaning of critical aquarium gear.
In the latest session of Reef Therapy we dive into the art of aquarium maintenance for nearly two hours and it’s a perfect companion piece to cleaning and servicing important parts of your reef tank which will help your tank run trouble free, as well as giving you piece of mind that everything will stay that way.
