How much time a week

D

diablo

I see a lot of posts on the sell thread of people getting out because they do not have the time to tend to the tank. It has made me think, along with some other stuff, that I do not tend to my tank often enough.

How much time do you spend on your tank each week and how big is it?
 
Im self employed so i get to spend as much time with my tank as i want. Right now its only a 5g chexk out my build thread i startes with a 10 then went smaller
 
I spend about 10 minutes each day on average. I make water every 2 weeks and it takes a little more time attending to the RODI on those days. But some days I feed the tank and thats it and it only takes a minute or two.
 
I probably mess with it every day for 5minutes. Weekends longer, but it's a hobby, that's what you do.
 
So what is it that you spend time doing? Feeding for me is very short and I do not empty the skimmer everyday.
 
Clean the skimmer collection cup, clean the glass, and add water to the top off every 3 days, feeding every day, water change and carbon every 2 weeks. Test chemistry 1 a month. Add media to Calcium Reactor and Bio Pellets every 2 months. Clean pumps and skimmer, change RODI filters every 6 months. I don't keep track of time but I would guess 15 hours a month on average.
 
Daily maintenance is about 10minutes a day. Thats feeding and cleaning glass if needed and checking parms. If your system is automated and such, the up keep is not bad. The big problem is getting your setup to a stable system. Its a learning curve. If its not stable, you are constantly doing things to try and stable it. It takes a couple hours here and there when you are doing water changes, cleaning equipment, etc. Most of the time I just watch my fish, but when I first started there was allot to learn and I'm still learning.
 
Daily = feeding and dosing some supplements, maybe 5 min?
Weekly = 10% WC, clean the glass, clean out skimmer cup and skimmer, replace filter floss, refill ATO container, testing a bunch of parameters. Breaks down to about 20 min for the water change, 10 min to clean the glass depending on if I do the back wall, 45 min for testing (if I just test the basics, then 20 min) and maybe 20 min for skimmer, floss, and refill of ATO container so call it 1.5 hours tops.
Bi-monthly = 15 min to replace carbon and clean out carbon reactor.
Monthly = 15 min to replace GFO and cleanout GFO reactor.
Quarterly = Vinegar soak and clean MP40 wetsides, make more 2-part and refill dosing containers. Guessing about an hour.
Plus whatever time I need to turn on/off RO/DI, replace RO/DI filters.
Time researching stuff = 15 hours or more a week
Time on the forums here and elsewhere = about 20 hours a week [smilie=lol.gif]

The thing is, there is ALWAYS another project or upgrade I want to do that takes more time . . . but that's the fun of it all.
 
180 gallon tank. I spend about 20-30 minutes a day. Usually feeding doing a fish count. Moving corals to and sure there in best locations and making sure everything is clean. Especially glass,glass brace, wood canopy , top of sump. I figure its best to clean once a day quickly than once a month and take to much time
 
In the beginning you will spend more time prob (4-5 hrs) a week on actual tank maintenance but once you get your tank set up and to where it is stable your time will be reduced to prob (2hrs) a week. Also, you will get better at doing your tasks which will make everything go faster. The thing is is by that point you are hooked and spend more time just cuz you have a great hobby the you love to do and not piss you off like golf...lol

I have a 120 mixed reef and a 30 gallon for my 19 week old
 
So basically once you get the hang of the hobby and learn the lesson of leave the aquarium alone and always glue your corals down, so you don't loose them and get the urge to move and kill them. Its a breeze [smilie=rofl.gif]
 
It takes anywhere from 1 - 4 hours each day to keep up with our 3 fresh water tanks, 4 soon to be 5 salt tanks, and the new coral table.
That doesn't include time for setting up new tanks like the 210, 180, or the coral tank.

1 hour days are just the multiple feedings for the basic fish, cleaning skimmers, scraping glass, water top off, maybe a quick chemistry check and/or dose.
4 hour days are filter sock cleaning, hand feeding the preds chopped frozen food, gut loading shrimp for the live feeders, and water changes.
Once every 2 months or so I spend a few hours cleaning frag racks, cutting corals, etc.
 
@mtraylor wrote:
So basically once you get the hang of the hobby and learn the lesson of leave the aquarium alone and always glue your corals down said:
+1000 I'm still trying to learn the lesson of it is better not to futz with stuff all the time. [smilie=smile.gif]
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