Cleaning help

Hello I have a 55 gal reef and am still new to the hobby I was wondering what are some peoples cleaning schedules Like how often do you clean the filters, replace filters, clean out sumps and so on. Ive been claning the filters so far but have not replaced any. Also one of my corals seems to be retracting so I anyone has a tip for keeping corals alive would be great.

 

cjke77418 can I call you cjke for convenience in future?

if your talking external cannister filters? then , when I used these on a reef tank
the top layer filter sponge was cleaned weekly, in the water I removed from main tank at water change time

in addition I had carbon in there, which I changed monthly
and also monthly when changing the carbon, I removed the lower trays of sintered glass rings, and shook them about in the bucket of old water to rinse them

what coral is retracting please?
do you do your own water testing ? if so can you indicate your parameters
Temp
PH
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate
Calcium
Magnesium
ALK or DKH

also more details about your set up and equipement would be helpful


Steve

 

This is good for a canister. I agree totally steve. For a wet dry like my setup I do filters on sunday every week and a partial w/c I have been doing 10 percent weekly. I never did before but had a bad nitrate spike and until I have it comfy for 6 mo I am keeping with this schedule. I would do weekly water checks at min and weekly maintaince is a must!

 

Cjke is fine and thanks for the start I will get those numbers to you soonand the name of the coral. I inherited the tank so Im not sure what is in the tank and being new to the hobby Ive had to look up alot.