Real Time Maintenance at a Customer Site with Q&A

Four months without maintenance sounds scary, but this SEA 80 aquarium was actually doing incredibly well.

The glass cleaning and a few regular jobs had been neglected a little, but the corals still looked amazing.

Today, Ben’s running through a quarterly water change using the Living Oceans maintenance kit, the same kit included with every aquarium.

The goal isn’t to reset the tank.

It’s to refresh it.

Because everything was healthy, only around half the water was changed to avoid unnecessary stress and keep the ecosystem stable.

The process is simple:

• turn the power off
• remove the light and auto feeder
• lay towels down for spill protection
• swap the carbon and phosphate media
• siphon out around 30 to 40 litres
• mix fresh saltwater
• clean the glass and turn over the sand

Everything in the maintenance system is built around reducing risk.

Water is removed into a bucket system designed to prevent flooding and pumped back in once salinity and temperature match.

While the water level dropped, Ben gave the tank a tidy up.

The glass was cleaned, sand turned over, and filter media replaced.

Importantly, the biological media stayed untouched to protect beneficial bacteria.

Fresh saltwater was mixed, matched, and pumped back into the aquarium.

Then came the upgrades.

Ben installed the Sea Grass Lagoon, an in-tank algae refuge that quietly grows macro algae using the existing light to naturally export nutrients and support the ecosystem.

He also added three hermit crabs to strengthen the clean-up crew and help tackle the remaining algae.

Five minutes after maintenance:

• corals were already opening
• fish were back out
• hermit crabs were already cleaning

A 50% water change, a refreshed ecosystem, and everything back to normal almost immediately.

Thanks for watching.