Your Reef Tank Routine
A thriving reef tank is not built on heroic weekend cleanings — it is built on small, consistent habits. The most successful reef keepers follow a predictable maintenance rhythm that catches problems early, keeps parameters stable, and gives corals the steady environment they need to grow.
This schedule breaks every task into five frequency tiers: daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly. Each tier lists what to do, roughly how long it takes, and links to SaltyIQ tools that make the job faster. Start with the daily and weekly tasks. Add the rest as your routine solidifies.
Daily Tasks (2–5 Minutes)
These take almost no time but prevent the biggest disasters. Make them part of your morning or evening routine.
- Visual inspection — Scan livestock for signs of stress, disease, or aggression. Check that all corals are extended and fish are behaving normally.
- Temperature check — Verify heater and chiller are maintaining your target range (76–79 °F / 24.4–26.1 °C). A stuck heater is the fastest way to lose a tank.
- Top off — Replenish evaporated water with RODI. If you use an ATO (auto top-off), confirm the reservoir has water and the float switch is not stuck.
- Feed — Feed fish and corals according to your schedule. Remove uneaten food after a few minutes to avoid nutrient spikes.
- Equipment glance — Confirm return pump, powerheads, protein skimmer, and lights are all running. Listen for unusual sounds.
Weekly Tasks (30–60 Minutes)
Weekly maintenance is the backbone of reef keeping. This is where you test water, catch parameter drift, and make corrections before they become emergencies.
- Test the Big Three — Measure alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. These are the parameters that drift fastest in a reef tank, and they directly control coral growth and health.
- Test salinity — Confirm specific gravity is in the 1.024–1.026 range. Calibrate your refractometer monthly with calibration fluid.
- Clean glass — Scrape algae from viewing panels with a magnetic cleaner or blade. Catching it weekly prevents hard coralline buildup on the glass.
- Empty skimmer cup — Dump the collection cup on your protein skimmer and rinse it. A dirty cup reduces skimming efficiency.
- Inspect filtration — Check filter socks, mechanical media, and overflow drains for clogs. Replace filter socks if they are slowing flow.
- Dose adjustments — Based on your test results, adjust two-part or kalkwasser dosing to keep alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium on target.
Hanna Alkalinity Checker Guide
Step-by-step guide for accurate alkalinity testing with the Hanna checker.
Salifert Calcium Test Kit Guide
Follow our interactive guide to test calcium accurately every time.
Salifert Magnesium Test Kit Guide
Get precise magnesium readings with our step-by-step walkthrough.
Alkalinity Dosing Calculator
Calculate the exact dose to bring alkalinity back to your target.
Calcium Dosing Calculator
Determine the right amount of calcium supplement for your tank.
Magnesium Dosing Calculator
Calculate magnesium supplementation to keep levels stable.
Bi-Weekly Tasks (15–30 Minutes)
These tasks run on a two-week cycle. They address slower-moving maintenance items that do not need weekly attention but should not be pushed to monthly.
- Water change (10–15%) — Replace 10–15% of tank volume with freshly mixed saltwater matched to temperature and salinity. Water changes export dissolved organics and replenish trace elements that testing does not cover.
- Clean powerheads — Remove and rinse wavemakers and powerheads. Algae and calcium buildup reduce flow over time, which stresses corals.
- Check ATO reservoir — Deep-clean the ATO container and refill with fresh RODI water. Biofilm can develop in standing RODI water after two weeks.
- Inspect livestock closely — Look for pests: flatworms, aiptasia, montipora-eating nudibranchs, red bugs. Early detection is the difference between a quick fix and a tank-wide outbreak.
Salt Mix Calculator
Calculate exactly how much salt to mix for your water change volume.
Aquarium Volume Calculator
Get an accurate net water volume for your tank dimensions and displacement.
Monthly Tasks (1–2 Hours)
Monthly maintenance addresses equipment wear, media replacement, and deeper cleaning that weekly routines skip.
- Replace filter media — Swap carbon and GFO (granular ferric oxide) media. Carbon loses adsorption capacity after 3–4 weeks. GFO saturates and stops binding phosphate.
- Calibrate instruments — Recalibrate pH probes, refractometers, and any digital testers. Drift in calibration leads to drift in your dosing — garbage in, garbage out.
- Clean protein skimmer — Disassemble and soak the skimmer body, venturi, and airline in a vinegar-water solution. Calcium deposits choke air intake over time.
- Test nitrate and phosphate — While the Big Three get weekly attention, nutrients should be checked monthly. Target ranges: nitrate 2–10 ppm, phosphate 0.02–0.10 ppm for mixed reefs.
- Inspect plumbing — Check all hose clamps, unions, and bulkheads for drips or salt creep. A slow leak on a return line can dump your sump overnight.
- Clean return pump — Soak the return pump in a vinegar bath to dissolve calcium deposits. Reduced flow from the return affects skimmer performance, heating, and circulation.
GFO Media Calculator
Determine the right amount of GFO for your tank volume and phosphate level.
Carbon Media Calculator
Calculate how much activated carbon to run based on your system volume.
Quarterly Tasks (2–3 Hours)
Quarterly maintenance is your deep clean. These are the tasks that keep equipment running for years and prevent the slow decline that creeps up on neglected systems.
- Deep clean sump — Siphon detritus from sump baffles and chambers. Remove and rinse bio-media if applicable. Do not over-clean — you want to remove waste, not sterilize beneficial bacteria.
- Replace probe membranes — pH and ORP probe membranes degrade. Replace or refurbish according to manufacturer instructions for accurate readings.
- Inspect and replace tubing — Dosing pump tubing stretches and hardens over time, changing dose accuracy. Peristaltic pump tubing should be replaced every 3–6 months.
- Service lighting — Clean light fixtures, check for corrosion on mounting hardware, and verify spectrum settings have not drifted. Wipe salt creep from LED lenses.
- Full parameter snapshot — Test everything: alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, phosphate, salinity, pH, and temperature. Log it. This quarterly snapshot reveals long-term trends you cannot see week to week.
New Tank vs. Established Tank Differences
Not every task on this schedule applies equally to new and mature systems. Here is how to adapt your routine based on tank age.
New Tank (0–12 Months)
- Test more often — Test the Big Three twice per week while you learn your tank's consumption rate
- Larger water changes — 15–20% weekly to dilute cycling byproducts and stabilize chemistry
- Skip dosing initially — Most new tanks do not consume enough calcium or alkalinity to need supplementation; water changes replenish what is used
- Watch for diatoms and algae blooms — Ugly phases are normal; increase cleanup crew rather than chasing with chemicals
- Stock slowly — Add one or two coral frags at a time, waiting 2–3 weeks between additions to let the system adjust
Established Tank (12+ Months)
- Weekly Big Three testing is sufficient — Your consumption rate is predictable, and dosing is dialed in
- Smaller, consistent water changes — 10–15% bi-weekly keeps nutrients in check without disrupting stability
- Dose to consumption — Two-part, kalkwasser, or calcium reactor to maintain the Big Three between water changes
- Focus on pest prevention — Dip and quarantine new additions; an established tank has more to lose from a pest outbreak
- Tune, do not overhaul — Make small adjustments to flow, light, and dosing rather than large changes; stability is your biggest advantage
Make It Routine
The best maintenance schedule is the one you actually follow. Start with daily and weekly tasks — they take under an hour combined and prevent 90% of common reef problems. Layer in bi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks as each tier becomes second nature.
Write your schedule down. Set phone reminders. Keep a maintenance log (even a simple spreadsheet) so you can spot trends over time. When something goes wrong, the log tells you what changed and when.
Consistency beats perfection. A reef keeper who does 80% of these tasks on schedule will have a far healthier tank than one who does everything perfectly once and then falls off for a month. Build the habit, trust the routine, and your reef will reward you.