Keeping a saltwater aquarium means maintaining a fairly strict maintenance schedule to keep the life inside healthy. The water in saltwater aquariums requires regular testing for a variety of minerals and chemical balances. Figuring out the right feeding schedule and amount for your fish is a task that needs attention when you first stock your aquarium and when the population changes.
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To keep the fish and other marine life in your saltwater aquarium happy and healthy, you have to do some basic maintenance. Some tasks you need to do every day without fail; other jobs you do weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. And every three months you need to conduct a thorough examination of all aquarium systems, including lighting, heating, filtration, sump, powerheads, aeration pumps, and tubing. Replace or clean parts as needed.
The following table shows the tasks to do on a continuing basis:
| Every Day | Once a Week | Every Two Weeks | Every Month |
| Turn the lights on and off. Most aquarists prefer to use an automatic timer. If you choose not to, try to turn the lights on and off in a consistent pattern. | Remove excess algae, keeping beneficial algae at acceptable levels and getting rid of nuisance algae. | Clean filters as needed. Partially change or rinse the filter media on some filters if the bioload is high, the media is dirty, or the flow is restricted. | Conduct thorough filter checks. Replace the filter carbon and rinse the filter media and components, as needed and depending on bioload. |
| Observe your fish and invertebrates for signs of stress, disease, or death. Be prepared to remove or treat fish that aren’t well. | Clean the glass, both inside and out; remove salt-creep deposits. | Change twenty percent of the tank water while vacuuming the gravel. | Clean the protein skimmer. |
| Feed the fishes and invertebrates twice a day, removing any uneaten food. Some fishes might require more frequent feeding, while others not so much. Make every effort to cater to the needs of each species. | Conduct all water tests weekly after the water matures and the nitrogen cycle is established; include alkalinity, calcium, and phosphate. Record all test results and add trace elements and buffers as needed. | Replace airstones as needed. | |
| Conduct water tests until the water matures and the nitrogen cycle is established. Routine tests include ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH. Record the test results. | Clean the outside of the aquarium, removing salt and calcium deposits, dust, and dirt. | ||
| Check the water temperature and specific gravity or salinity. Adjust the heater as needed. | Rinse any tank decorations that suffer from excess algae. | ||
| Empty the protein skimmer collection cup as needed. | |||
| Check the water level and top off as needed. | |||
| Check all aquarium systems: heater, filters, aerators, protein skimmer, sump. Make sure they’re running properly and smoothly and pay special attention to intakes and siphon tubes. Make sure nothing is leaking. |
Develop a working sense of how much and how often to feed the fish and invertebrates in your saltwater aquarium. Use the guidelines in the following list and keep in mind that it’s definitely better to feed them too little than too much.
Some foods, such as lettuce and spinach, are nibbled over time, so the five-minute rule doesn’t apply.
You can’t visually determine the pH balance of the water in your saltwater aquarium. To maintain healthy levels of chemicals and minerals in the saltwater aquarium, you have to test the water, and to do that, you have to buy test kits for saltwater aquariums. Here’s a general guide for purchasing test kits for your fish-only or reef tank. As your tank becomes more complicated, you can always add to your test-kit collection.
| Test Kit | Fish-Only Tank | Reef Tank |
| pH | yes | yes |
| Ammonia | yes | yes |
| Nitrite | yes | yes |
| Nitrate | yes | yes |
| Alkalinity | optional | yes |
| Dissolved oxygen | optional | optional |
| Copper | optional | no |
| Phosphate | optional | yes |
| Iodine | no | optional |
| Calcium | no | yes |
| Silica | no | optional |
Test kits are made so you don’t have to be a chemist to use them. Although a couple of methods have been developed, the most common involves adding drops of the test chemical to an aquarium sample that changes the color of the water. You then match the watercolor with that on a color chart, which tells you the correct level of what you are testing.
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