Water Changes
Another one of the most basic aspects of aquarium husbandry (and one of the best means of achieving nutrient control and export!) is the performance of regular, modest water changes in your system. In my opinion, smaller, more frequent water changes are preferred over larger, less frequent ones, and are much less labor-intensive. Try changing as little as 5% of tank volume on a twice-weekly basis, and you’ll be astounded at the difference this will make in your system! Fish will be livelier and more colorful, Corals will open up like you’ve never seen them do before, and levels of dissolved organic substances, such as Nitrate and phosphate, will decrease significantly. Frequent water changes allow the aquarist to help dilute and reduce the concentration of waste products from the system before they begin to accumulate as nutrients. This, in turn, will result in less potential for nuisance Algae growth, and a more stable system.
Remember to use high-quality source water when mixing up your saltwater for water changes. Be consistent, methodical, and siphon out as much detritus as you can from the rockwork and other areas from the aquarium. Frequent water changes also give the hobbyist the added advantage of being “in touch” with the system on a very regular basis, resulting in a better understanding of just what’s going on within his or her aquarium. As the old hobby saying goes, “nothing good happens quickly in a marine system,” so the benefits of frequent water changes will begin to manifest themselves gradually-but they will become obvious after a brief period of time. Give more frequent water changes a try!
Bioload
The best (and worst!) part of the marine aquarium hobby is choosing among the hundreds of available creatures in order to stock our aquariums. With new Corals, fishes, and other Invertebrates hitting the market on a regular basis, we are constantly tempted to add new animals to our systems. High tech protein skimmers, filters, and various “additives” often provide the hobbyist with a false sense of security, lulling us into believing that our system can “handle” an absurdly high biological load. Despite our best intentions, the temptation to add “one more” fish, coral, or invertebrate can risk upsetting he delicate balance that occurs within our systems, and creates the potential for an over-crowded, unsanitary, and unsustainable aquarium. It is important to “under crowd” our systems with animals, so that we may create a better life for our captive specimens.
Over-crowded aquariums result in excess amounts of metabolic wastes, which will create seriously degraded water quality in little time. An aquarium with a very high bioload will offer little “margin for error” on the part of the aquarist. The very real potential exists for the dreaded “crash” of the system, a horrible situation where the toxic metabolites accumulate to rapidly for the Biological Filtration mechanisms to process and reduce them into relatively harmless substances. Utilize common sense when stocking your aquarium, both in terms of the number and types of animals that you are attempting to keep. The bottom line here, dear reader, is to resist that temptation to add more specimens to your system than it can handle! | 
