Taking Care of Your Saltwater Aquarium.

 There are several things that you will need to do to take care of your salt water aquarium.  Since you just invested a good deal of money into only not the aquarium itself but in the fish that you are going to stock it with, it makes sense to take some time to learn about the things you need to do to maintain your tank. 

 Doing so is not necessarily hard to do, but it is something that you need to do if you plan to keep your tank up and running and your investment in fish well worth it.  It is not hard to do. 

 To help you, here is a checklist of the things that you need to do to keep your salt water aquarium up and running at its best level.

 •    Test your water every two weeks.  There are several things that you need to test the water for.  These include the ammonia levels, the salinity level, the pH level, the nitrite and the nitrate levels. 

 These things are easy to test for and really only take seconds to do.  You will want to know what the normal levels of these items should be, which you can easily learn from your pet store clerk prior to purchasing your fish.
 
 •    If your level of pH is too high, you can adjust it by adding one tablespoon at a time of baking soda to the water.  Make sure to allow it to completely dissolve before adding more.

 •    If your level of salinity is too low, you can easily adjust this by adding salt to your water.

 •    If your level of salt is too high, which is commonly the case, you will need to add dechlorinated water to the tank.  This happens naturally as the water in the tank begins to evaporate.  It will level the salt concentrates in the water remaining.
 
 •    Add the appropriate levels of iodine and calcium to your tank.  To know what levels and how often to do this, talk to your fish clerk about what the right amounts are.  These are generally specific to the type of fish that you own.

 •    Once a week, you should remove ten percent of the water from your fish tank and replace it with fresh, dechlorninated water.  This will keep the water fresh.

 •    Once every few months, remove 25% of the water in your tank and replace with fresh dechlorinated water.
 
 •    Keep your water temperature at 75 to 80 degrees unless you have fish that prefer a different level of temperature.

 •    Maintenance of the tank is also necessary.  Keep algae off the interior cover and walls of the tank, check the filter pads and test its alkalinity as needed.  You will also need to clean out the gravel in the tank as well.

 Doing these things will help you to keep your salt water aquarium up and running at its peak performance and it will keep your fish happy.