Do filters relieve your duty of cleaning a salt water fish tank?

Question

If not, how often should you clean one and what is the best and safest way to clean it?

Answer 1

no they dont. my dad has a tank i think he cleans it like once every 2 weeks or once a week. he takes out all the rocks, scrubs them, cleans the filter, and vacums the sand, which helps renew the water. also watch the ph and salt levels

Answer 2

Nope all the filter does is help remove freefloating particles from the water and build good bacteria on the media. You still have to do water changes and clean the poo out of the tank. That will depend entirely on what your water parameters are and the biolode. In a well established cycled tank it should only be 2-3 times a month. If it's a new setup and you don't have the tank cycled yet you could end up doing water changes daily or even twice daily depending on how many fish you have in the tank and how fast the ammonia and nitrites are spiking. If you have gravel in there a simple gravel vac/syphon works well. If it's a sand substrate you don't want a gravel vac but still need a syphon. It'll take you a bit to get the hang of syphoning the poo off the sand without getting sand in the waste water as well. Remember that with sand especially you have to stir it around every so often including underneath your decor or you will get nasty fish killing toxins built up in the sand. You can get that with gravel as well it just doesn't happen as fast.