Cleaning your aquarium

You will need a Reef One service kit to carry out maintenance. The service kit contains a replacement filter cartridge, sachet of stress coat and stress zyme and a special algae cleaning cloth. Other helpful equipment include a 10 litre bucket for preparing water, 10 litre bucket for the dirty water and a cleaner pump.

For step by step instructions for carrying out maintenance see Service Kit Instructions.

Never remove more than 30% of the aquarium’s volume at one time.

Why do partial water changes?

Nutrients builds up in the aquarium over time these affect water quality, encouraging algae and poor fish health. Regularly diluting the aquarium water should keep these nutrients to a safe level.

What are the water preparation chemicals?

These sachets contain two different liquids to prepare fresh water for use in the aquarium. The first sachet removes chlorine and other additives from tap water which are harmful to fish and filter bacteria. The second sachet contains filter bacteria in liquid form to top up the aquarium. We recommend using the chemicals provided in the service kit, if you prefer to use different ones please ensure that they are made by the same manufacturer as each other.

What do I do with the fish whilst cleaning?

Fish should be left in the aquarium whilst cleaning is carried out, being removed and then reintroduced is likely to be more stressful for them. However, take care not to disturb the water inside the aquarium too much.

Floating debris?

You may find that cleaning causes debris such as bits of dead plant to float around in the water. Remove as much of this as you can with a small fish net. The rest will settle in the filter over a day or two. If there is always lots of debris you may be overfeeding, overstocked or not carrying out maintenance often enough.

Condensation?

After cleaning you may find that more condensation and bubbles appear than usual, particularly around the top of the bowl. This is quite normal, a big change in the aquarium has occurred and it can take a few days to return to normal.

Dirty ceramic media?

If the ceramic media is very dirty this can be scrubbed with a clean nail brush in water taken from the aquarium. Never wash the ceramic media under the tap or leave it out of the aquarium for too long as this will kill the beneficial bacteria living living in it. To avoid scratching remember to lift the rocks in and out of the aquarium by hand.

Dirty sponge?

If the blue sponge becomes very dirty before maintenance is due it can be washed in tap water and replaced. This can be done in tap water because the filter cartridge does not provide biological filtration. If the sponge gets dirty very quickly this is a sign that the aquarium may be overstocked, overfed or maintenance is not carried out often enough. The life of the carbon and resins in the filter cartridge is limited so the filter cartridge must be replaced at least every 8 weeks.