diff --git a/phpBB/language/en/acp/search.php b/phpBB/language/en/acp/search.php
index 564d9dd04c..98412cb050 100644
--- a/phpBB/language/en/acp/search.php
+++ b/phpBB/language/en/acp/search.php
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ $lang = array_merge($lang, array(
 	'FULLTEXT_SPHINX_PORT_EXPLAIN'			=> 'Port on which the sphinx search daemon (searchd) listens. Leave empty to use the default Sphinx API port 9312',
 	'FULLTEXT_SPHINX_WRONG_DATABASE'		=> 'The sphinx search for phpBB supports MySQL and PostgreSQL only.',
 	'FULLTEXT_SPHINX_CONFIG_FILE'			=> 'Sphinx config file',
-	'FULLTEXT_SPHINX_CONFIG_FILE_EXPLAIN'	=> 'The generated content of the sphinx config file. This data needs to be pasted into the sphinx.conf which is used by sphinx search daemon.',
+	'FULLTEXT_SPHINX_CONFIG_FILE_EXPLAIN'	=> 'The generated content of the sphinx config file. This data needs to be pasted into the sphinx.conf which is used by sphinx search daemon. Replace the [dbuser] and [dbpassword] placeholders with your database credentials.',
 	'FULLTEXT_SPHINX_NO_CONFIG_DATA'		=> 'The sphinx data and config directory paths are not defined. Please define them to generate the config file.',
 
 	'GENERAL_SEARCH_SETTINGS'				=> 'General search settings',
diff --git a/phpBB/phpbb/search/fulltext_sphinx.php b/phpBB/phpbb/search/fulltext_sphinx.php
index 79d68d2ae1..427464eb3c 100644
--- a/phpBB/phpbb/search/fulltext_sphinx.php
+++ b/phpBB/phpbb/search/fulltext_sphinx.php
@@ -256,8 +256,8 @@ class fulltext_sphinx
 				array('type',						$this->dbtype . ' # mysql or pgsql'),
 				// This config value sql_host needs to be changed incase sphinx and sql are on different servers
 				array('sql_host',					$dbhost . ' # SQL server host sphinx connects to'),
-				array('sql_user',					$dbuser),
-				array('sql_pass',					$dbpasswd),
+				array('sql_user',					'[dbuser]'),
+				array('sql_pass',					'[dbpassword]'),
 				array('sql_db',						$dbname),
 				array('sql_port',					$dbport . ' # optional, default is 3306 for mysql and 5432 for pgsql'),
 				array('sql_query_pre',				'SET NAMES \'utf8\''),