Fish Tank Maintenance

[Fella]

I never seem to go more than3 days without getting my arms wet, from either tank rearrangement, water changes or other maintenance bits and bobs.

 

[Bloo]

With my planted tank that takes quite a bit of weekly pruning etc. in total I spend approx 4 hours maintenance on my three tanks per week in total
It can be cut down to an hour but then I simply have to catch up the following week (sigh).


I try to spread it out over a couple of days - it's just too exhausting doing all in one go.

 

[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.

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

Thanks,
Colen.

I use amquel+ and it says on the bottle to wait 24 hours after treating water before adding it to the tank.

 

[morgan]

It always takes twice as long as I think it will. Mainly because the filter hardly ever starts first time so I have to take it apart and clean it, even though it doesn't look dirty! That was with one 20ukgal tank. I now have a 65ukgal as well. It is bliss at the moment as I have a fish tank to the right and left of me when I am sitting in the living room. Sadly the old tank has to go according to old grumpy. I am going to set it up in the dining room when the loose floor boards have been fixed.

 

[Xtech]

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.

I use amquel+ and it says on the bottle to wait 24 hours after treating water before adding it to the tank.

Durbkat, you should really pick up some new Dechloranator. Try some Stress Coat or Seachem Prime. Water that sit for 24hrs on its own will out gas chlorine. That stuff sucks. I know it was brought up before that you needed to do a emergency water change and you couldn't 'cause you had to let the water sit.

 

[Weaver]

It always takes twice as long as I think it will. Mainly because the filter hardly ever starts first time so I have to take it apart and clean it, even though it doesn't look dirty! That was with one 20ukgal tank. I now have a 65ukgal as well. It is bliss at the moment as I have a fish tank to the right and left of me when I am sitting in the living room. Sadly the old tank has to go according to old grumpy. I am going to set it up in the dining room when the loose floor boards have been fixed.

Get rid of old grumpy and keep the fish tank

 

[Synirr]

~45 minutes once a week for the 12 tanks that get partial changes, ~45 minutes for the 10 betta tanks that get 100% changes, and ~45 minutes total for the week on water changes for the betta fry tank when I have a spawn.... so about 3 hours. The fry tank gets changes every day, and I do the other tanks once a week, partials one day and 100%s another. Once I start jarring betta fry that'll be another hour or so every 3 days

 

[BigC]

10 betta tanks that get 100% changes

Synirr, where are you drawing your water from ie: tap, RO, rainwater or tapwater chemically treated by yourself.
Just curious what with the 100% water changes.
Regards
BigC

 

[Ben]

10 minutes a day on each tank

DD

 

[rdd1952]

I just did all mine last night. It took just a touch over 2 hours to change about 15% on all tanks, do a good cleaning (scrubbing the tank walls to remove some algae) on 3 of them and pruning plants on 3 of them. That time is a little skewed thought as it also included about 15 minutes required to pick up/vacuum up the glass from a broken tank top, get some blood off the carpet and put a bandage on my foot (long story, don't ask, only a flesh wound - word or warning, if you take the glass top off while you're cleaning, don't lay it on the floor near the tank).

 

[CFC]

I do all 10 tanks in one day over the weekend changing roughly 150 gallons of water which takes from 3-5 hours from start to finish depending on how cold the water coming from the tap is when refilling, the colder the water is the slower i have to run it back into the tanks to avoid the temperature dropping too low.
I'll also change water on the biggest tank during the week if i have a spare couple of hours and nothing else to do.

 

[Fish_n_Frys]

Hey,

Every week i would spend around 15 minutes taking out snails (I have a snail problem at the mo) and i would clean the glass. But every 3 or 4 weeks I do a 50% water change and clean out my filter.

Missy

 

[Animation]

It dosen't really bother me just i hate cleaning the filters

 

[Inchworm]

Before I got a Python, I used to do a few tanks every day using a siphon and 2 gallon pot. It was pretty much an ongoing process, but one I enjoyed.

Now I have sand in most of my tanks and use the python, so I do them all at once, every 5 days or so. For some reason it seems like such a big job now, more like work than pleasure. I spend about 4 or 5 hours between draining, wiping the inside glass, and refilling.

Of course, the fry tanks still need their daily water changes too.

 

[rdd1952]

Hey,

Every week i would spend around 15 minutes taking out snails (I have a snail problem at the mo) and i would clean the glass. But every 3 or 4 weeks I do a 50% water change and clean out my filter.

Missy

Part of your snail problem could be your cleaning routine. Excess food can cause a snail population explosion. If you arent' doing a gravel vac and water change weekly, there could be a lot of left over food for them