How long should I wait to clean the water in my salt water aquarium?

Question

I set it up on wednesday (3 days ago) and let it filter for awhile. I'm trying to be really careful so I'm not a fish killer. It does have live sand because I didn't want to wait that long to get clownfish and starfish. I know that you are supposed to clean out 25% of the water every two weeks, but should I wait longer if I just set it up? I don't know when I should first clean it. Also, how do you know when the tank has completed a "cycle?" The man at the fish store told me it would take a month before any other fish because it has to go through a cycle but I'm new at this...I just need some information on those things, Thanks!

Answer 1

wait about 3 weeks for the first time, then do 2 weeks after that. thats what my dad did, and he's had a very healthy tank for about 5 year now :)

Answer 2

First, do you have the test kits?

Assuming you do... the 'cycle' you speak of is the basis of a healthy aquarium- it's the nitrogen cycle and it breaks down toxic ammonia into toxic nitrite than into much less harmful nitrate. So unless you are cycling with fish, don't bother doing any water changes yet.

Again assuming you have somehow started the cycle(the live sand seeded it, so alls well so far), you'll slowly see ammonia build up. Try keeping a log of when you did teats and the results of these tests. After ammonia hits its peak it will start to go down since bacteria that break it down have settled, then you'll see a rise in nitrite levels, again these will eventually start to go down and nitrate will begin to rise.

Once you have nitrate and ammonia and nitrite are both again at 0 level, the cycle is complete and you can SLOWLY begin adding fish after a %50 water change to get nitrate levels low again.

The entire cycle can take weeks, but it completely essential to a healthy aquarium.

As for 'cleaning' your tank, don't. Unless there was some huge emergency- stick to partial water changes and gently scrubbing away algae that accumulates on the tank walls. Very rarely will you, if ever, need to completely dismantle your mature saltwater tank and clean it.