How to Prepare Your Saltwater Tank for Winter

Even though it is only the middle of October, now is perfect time to start thinking about “winterizing” your tank for the coming of old man winter.

While your tank won’t go into a deep freeze for the winter, the change of seasons will be felt by your tank in a couple of key areas:

#1.) Temperature drop.

Unless you keep your house at 77 or warmer all winter long, then your tank’s temperature will drop without the help of a heater.

What to do about it: If you have been running your tank without a heater all summer (that’d be me), then fall is the time to dig out the heater from storage, give it a good cleaning in vinegar and set it back up in your tank. HINT: Don’t skimp and get a glass heater. Glass can shatter, which would expose the heating element to water, therefore electrocuting everything in your tank and possibly you. A reefer in our local club experienced this very thing and it wasn’t pretty. Spend the extra $20 and get a titanium heater that won’t shatter.

#2.) RO/DI unit slows down.

The colder it gets outside, the colder your tap water will be and the slower your RO/DI unit is going to make RO/DI water. Obviously if your unit is inside your house where it is toasty, you won’t have as big a slow down. But for me and most reefkeepers, the RO/DI unit is in our garages and it is likely that we’ll see at least a 50% drop in the speed that RO/DI water gets made.

What to do about it: Keep an extra 5 gallons of RO/DI water around in case you need it in a hurry.

#3.) The TDS of your tap water will go up.

This means that if your RO/DI filters were aging before winter, the added TDS will be enough to finish them off. And the added TDS will decrease the life of even new filters. My TDS jumps from 110-120 in the summer to 180+ in the winter and I always have to replace a set of filters during the winter.

What to do about it: Stock up on a replacement filter set now before you need it.

#4.) You’ll probably go on vacation over the holidays.

What to do about it: Make sure you have a tank buddy/sitter to watch your tank. Even if you are going out of town for only 3 days, it’s worth the peace of mind to have someone come over and look over your tank.

While the coming of winter means you’ll be indoors more and therefore getting to stare at your tank more, make sure you are prepared for the change of seasons. Nothing ruins the joys of having a tank by loosing livestock or having tank emergencies and not being prepared.

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