Do You Keep A Tank Diary?

[gaz gun man]

Do you keep a diary of your tank stats and such?

I have kept a diary for my tank since I filled it with water the day it arrived.

I record, date, time, test kit used, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, tank temp, water changes, dechlor added, the additions of new fish or plants and note my filter maintence when I do it.

 

[ox5477]

yes, have a saltwater diary 55G Reef

Ox

 

[Spishkey]

no i dont but am now considering doing one!

 

[adamgreen240]

i keep one, i record when i buy new equiptment, fish and when i do my maintenanace. i dont own a test kit so i cant record that.

 

[Ian H]

if you mean a hand written diary that you keep in your house then no i dont, i ahve one on here though just dont update very often

 

[BigC]

Tank and breeding logs
Regards
BigC

 

[Dorkhedeos]

Never did, never will. I dont really see the point of keeping record of past stats because they have nothing to do with the present or the future. I used to keep one for new additions for fish and plants, but I quit that because it is a little too much work when you get more and more fish, and I just remember all the species ive kept anyways.

 

[ox5477]

I will say that the past can help you with the present and the future. It's something called Quality Control (QC). I work for a medical diagnostic company and many of the machines that we produce require a daily or atleast weekly QC log to be kept to see trends and irregularities. True, if your keeping a tropical tank with little to worry about more than doing a wc every week... this isn't that crucial, but when keeping a marine reef where you are buffering the water for maybe 5 or 6 chemicals, it is almost crucial to keep a record of tank stats to be able to catch any possible problems that may occur before they do and your $2000.00 reef is dead over night.... True, thats the worst case and quite drastic, but better to do a little here or there, then do a sh*t ton when something goes wrong. This is why I keep a record of my marine stats.

Ox

 

[gaz gun man]

I was in QC myself for 4 years so maybe thats why I am so obsessive over keeping records!

 

[SJ2K]

Stats? Fish? Lol, no, in the early days of course you need to keep an eye on the levels etc but once its mature, nothing really matters unless things start looking bad Havent done tests in donkies

 

[geo7x]

no lol, I don't have much to write down I never test the water.

 

[UBigBobby]

Nope. I've thought about it, but never saw the advantage. I know the species I keep, and if my paramaters are out of whack I'm more concerned with fixing them than writing them down. True, recording can help with future problems, (ie. I can see what I did last time I had that or a similar problem), but chances are if I have a problem, I'll always remember it, and what I did to fix it.

The only real advantage I see is keeping on early on during the first cycle so you can keep track of your daily params. Once you're cycled though...I rarely test. My fish will tell me with their behavior if something it out of whack.

 

[ox5477]

well when your spending $80 for a coral frag or $75 for a dwarf angel, I would rather test the water rather then stressing the fish and waiting for them to either start shriveling or losing their color before I do anything. But, on the fresh side, I dont test very regularly.... but I dont think you guys should generalize all fish keeping into one rule that you dont need to keep records...

Ox

 

[RedeyesUK]

I don't keep a diary as such, but I do keep a spreadsheet that lists my tanks and their inhabitants, and links to a couple of online species profiles.

I find it handy as a quick reference to look up any sort of behavioural issues etc, and can also use it when I'm looking to add any more fish, for compatibility and so on.
I'm also in the process of cycling a new tank, and am using the spreadsheet to keep a log of the stats on that. That will stop once the cycling is complete, however. I did start logging all my tank stats, but stopped bothering when I realised they stayed pretty much the same all the time.

The other reason is that I'm an accountant, and I like doing spreadsheets!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

not at the moment, it's really important to keep a record if you are cycling or having problems with the tank. not least because it'll help anyone else trying to diagnose the problems to have full thorough records (another quality control girl here.... well similar anyway, i do quality management which is slightly different but you have to be just as anally retentive! ). Likewise is the more complicated environments like a reef tank or breeding you should keep records

But for my bog standard community tank that's been running with no problems for a couple of years now..... nah don't log anything