Fish Tank Maintenance

[BigC]

I've just got online again after doing a massive cleaning job on my tanks and livefood cultures which has taken practically all day. I let them go a bit over the Christmas period and it was a job that had to be done.
How much time in man/woman (must be politically correct here) hours do you the membership devote to tank maintenance on a weekly basis. Do you spread it out over the entire week or do you do it all in one mad evening.
Regards
BigC

 

[soritan]

I think I spend about 15 minutes a week on my 10gal, and about 15 on my 5gal. I'm lucky. Low bioload, lots of plants, good filtration. I'm almost afraid bragging about it has jinxed it...

 

[wuvmybetta]

As for big tanks- I do it all in one day usually,it only takes a bit over an hour or so,closer to two. As for the bettas, they're a different story, I usually spread them out over the week. The eve of Christmas eve I went in there and changed ev-ery-body and it took close to five hours.

 

[Xtech]

I do it once a week, usually on Fridays when I'm off. My girlfriend calls it "fish day". If I let it go more than a week my planted tank turn into a jungle. It usually take me 3 hours to do all my tanks. I feel good after I do it though, like I'm doing a good service for the fish. keeping them happy and healthy.

 

[rdd1952]

I do all 5 of mine the same day. It probably takes a little over an hour for a regular w/c and gravel vac. If I have to do some pruning on plants in the 75 gallon or 29 gallons, it takes a little longer. The Python has definitely shortened the time required as it now only takes about 5 minutes to put the water back in the 2 big tanks (about 7 or 8 gallon in the 29 and about 15 in the 75 gallon). When I had to use buckets, that was a 20 minute process in itself.

 

[Teelie]

Takes about 15-30 minutes to do water changes, depending on how much I can get done. The rest of the time, I spread out filter cleanings, glass cleaning, etc over the course of a few weeks.

 

[MAM]

The individual bettas (breeders), due to being in smaller tanks, get cleaned both on the weekend (whichever day I decide to spend in the fish room) and then again about mid week, but I also do daily little syphons to get uneaten foods. The cleaning takes about an hour, the syphoning only a few minutes. As for the species tanks and the one semi-community tank, I do them all in one day (5 tanks), 10-20% water changes. Usually takes me about 3 hours as I do the old "bucket brigade" (and only have two dirty-water buckets and two clean-water buckets; someday I'll break down and either buy more buckets or get a python), and I usually spend time just watching the fish before and after I clean the tanks, looking for fry, checking on health, and just watching for behaviors I may not have seen before. I usually decide a head of time if Saturday or Sunday will be the lucky day (depends on our weekend plans), then I hole-up in the fish room, crank up the tunes and go to work. I don't mind the time really, its "me" time and its time spent on a hobby I love (however, the skin on my hands often complains later in the evening, too much time in the fishy water). So in a week, I'd say I spend about 6-7 hours total working on fish (between cleaning, feeding, watching, talking to them.......... ). I'd spend more if I could. Setting up shelving for four or five more tanks though, so down the road, I'm sure this time will double.

 

[TF Keeper UK]

I do my tanks at the weekend. Ususally takes 2 - 2.5 hrs. Water change, substrate clean, filter maintenance, glass clean. I always rearrange the ornaments, so as to give the fish a different enviroment!

 

[BigC]

I'd spend more if I could. Setting up shelving for four or five more tanks though, so down the road, I'm sure this time will double.

When I lived at my last house and I had a purpose built external Fish-House, I would come home from work at 5-6pm and start feeding, cleaning, egg collecting, observing etc and the time just flew by. Some nights I'd be in there until 1am. My wife was a Killi Widow.

 

[ccg]

2 Hours a week tops. I have a 2x55g, 2x42g, and a 10g.

I have no live plants, and have sand in all of the tank. There is never anything to vac off the bottom of the tank, and tehre are plecs or oto's in each tank so no need to clean algae at all (something I havent seen in years). So all I do is do the water changes, and rinse the filters media in the old tank water for all 5 tanks and fill them bakc up. So I would say about 2 hours.

 

[Durbkat]

I spread it out because with the dechloranator I have to wait 24 hours after treating the water before I can add it to the tank and I wouldn't have enough water to do both the 20g,10g, the 2.5g and the 1g all in one day but doing either the 20g or 10g takes about 15 minutes at the most and with the bettas tanks it takes about 15 minutes.

 

[seanc]

I usually spent about 3 hours total, between tuesdays and fridays.

 

[ccg]

I spread it out because with the dechloranator I have to wait 24 hours after treating the water before I can add it to the tank and I wouldn't have enough water to do both the 20g,10g, the 2.5g and the 1g all in one day but doing either the 20g or 10g takes about 15 minutes at the most and with the bettas tanks it takes about 15 minutes.

Durbka: What type of dechloranator are you using that requires you to wait 24hours?? I am just curious.

Thanks,
Colen.

 

[trace1]

i spend a couple of hours a week depending on what i'm doing to the tanks, hubby always helps me thou carring buckets for the smaller tank & turning on hose for the bigger tank.
spent a good few hours today giving the cory fry tank a good clean as well.

 

[Annastasia]

My Bettas get water changes 3 times a week, but those only take about 20-30 minutes tops. Then all my tanks get water changes once a week, and I just pick a day. When I do them all, it takes me about 2-3 hours, depending on how distracted I get watching the fish. So about 4 hours a week for my fish.