Reef aquarium maintenance by people who only do reefs.
Ongoing, professional care for saltwater reef aquariums across the Oklahoma City metro. We manage the chemistry, equipment, and livestock of your reef on a consistent schedule, not just when something goes wrong.
Clean glass is the easy part.
A lot of people start by searching for aquarium cleaning or saltwater aquarium service. That makes sense. Nobody searches for “someone to manage the carbonate chemistry of my reef.”
But if your tank has coral in it, cleaning is the smallest part of what it needs. A reef is a closed system of chemistry, biology, and equipment, all depending on each other. The glass is the window. We take care of everything behind it.
That’s the difference between a cleaning visit and professional reef management. One makes the tank look good for a few days. The other keeps the reef healthy, stable, and worth looking at for years.
What ongoing reef care includes
The specifics depend on the system. A 40-gallon soft coral tank and a 300-gallon SPS system don’t need the same visit. But ongoing care covers the whole reef.
Water chemistry
We test the parameters that matter for your reef, including alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, phosphate, salinity, and temperature, and we track them over time. One test tells you where the reef is. A trend tells you where it’s going.
When routine testing and what we’re seeing in the reef suggest a deeper look is worthwhile, we can use laboratory (ICP) testing as another diagnostic tool. Most visits don’t call for it. When a reef does, it’s there.
Dosing and nutrients
As corals grow, they consume more. We adjust dosing to match what the reef actually uses, and we manage nutrients toward the levels your livestock does best with. Not too high. Not stripped to zero.
Water changes
Water changes sized and scheduled for your system.
Equipment
Skimmers cleaned and tuned. Pumps and powerheads cleaned before they lose flow. Heaters checked against actual temperature. Dosing pumps calibrated. Probes cleaned and calibrated. Auto top-off, reactors, and filter media serviced on schedule.
Reef equipment tends to fail slowly, then all at once. We’d rather catch the slow part.
Lighting and flow
A growing reef changes its own conditions. Colonies shade each other, rockwork fills in, and dead spots appear where flow used to reach. We watch lighting and flow as the reef matures and adjust them before the corals start telling us something’s wrong.
Coral and fish health
We watch the livestock every visit: coral color, polyp extension, tissue recession, fish behavior, feeding response, and early signs of pests. Animals often tell you something is off before a test does.
Algae and appearance
Glass inside and out, algae kept in check, sand and rockwork presentable, and coral trimmed or repositioned as it grows into its neighbors. Nuisance algae is usually a symptom, so we go after the cause, not just the film.
Good reef care is mostly invisible. So we write it down.
When a reef is well managed, the best evidence is that nothing happens. No swings, no crashes, no mystery losses. That’s the goal, but it can make the work hard to see.
After every maintenance visit, you get a simple service summary. It covers the parameters that matter for your system, the work we did, what we adjusted, what we observed, and anything we’re keeping an eye on.
You’re not paying for someone to visit your aquarium. You’re paying for someone to manage it, and you can see exactly what’s being managed.
How often we visit
Visit frequency is set by the reef, not a default package. It depends on:
- System size and livestock load
- What you keep. SPS-dominant reefs usually need closer attention than soft coral systems.
- How much of the system is automated
- How hands-on you want to be between visits
Those same factors shape what ongoing care costs. That’s why we recommend a plan after the assessment instead of quoting blind.
Already know your system? Good.
Some of our clients could maintain their reefs themselves. They’re short on time, they travel, or they just want an experienced second set of eyes on a system they’ve spent years building.
We learn your system before we change anything: your dosing regimen, your controller setup, your parameter history, the way you like things done. We won’t swap out what’s working just to put our stamp on it. And if you want to talk alk targets or skimmer tuning, we’re in.
Never kept a reef? You don’t need to learn.
Plenty of people want a reef without wanting the hobby that comes with it. That’s a completely reasonable thing to want.
You don’t need to understand alkalinity, dosing, or skimmer tuning. We handle the complexity. You get the reef, and a straight answer when you have a question about it.
Taking over a reef that’s already running
Maybe you’ve been maintaining it yourself and it’s become too much. Maybe you’re switching from another service. Maybe you bought a home or moved into an office that came with a reef.
Any way it happened, the first visits are about learning the system: what’s in it, how it’s set up, and where it stands. We establish a baseline before we change anything.
If the assessment shows the reef needs more than routine care, we’ll tell you plainly. That’s what Reef Recovery is for, and it ends in the same place: a stable reef on an ongoing plan.
Maintaining a reef for a business?
Offices, medical and dental practices, and restaurants get the same reef-specific care, with no one on your staff responsible for the tank.
Reef maintenance across the OKC metro
We maintain reefs in homes and businesses throughout Oklahoma City and nearby communities, including Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres, Edmond, Arcadia, Moore, Yukon, Mustang, Bethany, Piedmont, Midwest City, Del City, and Choctaw. Include your ZIP code when you request an assessment and we'll confirm we can reach you.
Questions about reef maintenance
Do you service freshwater or fish-only saltwater aquariums?
No. We only work on reef aquariums. If it doesn’t have coral in it, it’s outside what we do.
Will you work with the equipment I already have?
Yes. We’ll learn your setup first. If something is holding the reef back, we’ll explain why and what we’d recommend, and you decide.
Can I still do some of the work myself?
Absolutely. Some clients handle feeding and top-offs and want us on everything else. Others want us to own all of it. We build the plan around how involved you want to be.
Do you offer one-time cleanings?
Our work is built around ongoing care, because that’s what keeps a reef healthy. If your reef needs serious attention before regular maintenance makes sense, Reef Recovery is the place to start.
What if something concerning comes up between visits?
Get in touch. Maintenance clients can reach us between scheduled visits when something doesn’t look right. You’ll be talking to people who already know your reef, its history, and what’s normal for it. That context is one of the real advantages of an ongoing relationship.
Let’s see your reef.
Request a reef assessment. We’ll look at the whole system, where it stands, and what you want from it, then recommend a care plan that fits. For prospective maintenance clients, the Reef Assessment is complimentary.
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