# [Wet Thumb Forum]-How many weekly hours for maintenance?



## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

How many hours a week do you spend on your tank(s)?

Robert
King admin
www.aquabotanic.com


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

How many hours a week do you spend on your tank(s)?

Robert
King admin
www.aquabotanic.com


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## Vicki (Jan 31, 2003)

Well, I CAN count them, but it's more than four. It varies considerably depending on what needs to be pruned or if I'm redoing anything. And if I'm tending fry, the hours go up in a hurry, between the extra water changes, feedings, BBS, etc.--which is why I don't do a lot of breeding anymore, I just don't have the time!

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## IZM (May 24, 2003)

I have 3 planted tanks (5.5, 10, and 45) and 2 fish only tanks (45 and 75) and I can spend up to 4 to 6 hours per week on them combined.

There always seems to be something to do on the 45G planted and I'm still using the old 5 gallon bucket and gravel vaccuum method on the 75 so that takes a long time to do water changes.


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## qbal18 (Jul 19, 2004)

i have 3 tanks now a 75 BB for discus a 29 low light live bearer and a 50g high teck tank i probally spend about 4 hrs betwen them all a week but 2-2.5 of that is prabally the 50g

50g, 3.8wpg PC 11hr, presserized CO2 PH 6.4-6 KH75ppm,


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## poormanisme (Jun 7, 2003)

hmm, lets see between my 46,55,180,and the 2.5 probably 6-8 hours a week. I depends on what im doing as i can often combine things and save a little time.


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## imported_RTR (Sep 11, 2003)

LOL! I am glad you had the last option - the greedy among us spend at minimum 1-2 hours per day on the tanks, generally with at least one 4-hour session per week. But I have cut back substantially.

"Where's the fish?" - Neptune


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

Per tank?









I had to choose the last option too, definetly more than 4 hours. I think if it wasn't for the high light tank I could have chosen the second option easily.

Giancarlo Podio


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

WOW! so much for low maitenace tanks!

Robert
King admin
www.aquabotanic.com


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

OK, so you guys that spend more than 4 hours a week, what areas or tasks take up the most time, and how do you think you could better streamline your time?

Robert
King admin
www.aquabotanic.com


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Robert H:
> WOW! so much for low maitenace tanks!


Well I guess it depends on the tanks, my 90 gallon is my ultimate low maintenance tank, it's at my wife's office so I only see it once evry 3-4 weeks when it's time for a water change, cleaning and pruning etc. I probably spend 3-4 hours on it a month. My other tanks are not as well balanced and require weekly water changes and so forth, plus it's not a business for me, it's a hobby so ultimately I enjoy spending the time fiddling with them. If it were a choir, I could definetly get away with a couple hours a week to do everything but it wouldn't be as fun. At the moment I'm doing a lot of testing and changing amounts of nutrients to see how things improve or not, I just changed what I use to fertilize my tanks so I kind of have to re-figure everything out.. Once that's done it's back to using an automatic doser and far less testing.

How could I streamline the process? I guess one of these days I'll pick up some digital testers, I'm still counting drops and shaking test tubes







I also really need to keep up with the times and get myself a python type setup or similar, some of my tanks require carting buckets up the stairs. I also have to heat the water for the 90 gallon as the office has no hot water, not sure what I can do to solve that problem. And finally I could stop fiddling around and _playing_ with my tanks and just be happy with the way they are restricting myself to pure maintenance, that would probably be the biggest time saver right there for me. My wife would be happy about that too









Giancarlo Podio


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## Vicki (Jan 31, 2003)

ROFL! I never said my tanks were low maintenance! The thing is there's a big difference between what I have to do and what I want to do. Like Giancarlo, puttering around in my tanks is all part of what I enjoy about the hobby. If we're talking strictly water changes and filter cleaning, I could do all that in three hours easily, even with 9 tanks up and running totaling 330 gallons, I have that down to a science. But then there's pruning, rearranging, fiddling, trying out new plants, moving old ones, cleaning glass tops, cleaning reactors, removing old driftwood for that fabulous new piece you found somewhere, yadayadayada. And then of course there's the fish--noticing you have a new batch of krib fry, watching them, losing track of time and all of a sudden it's an hour later; deciding to remove and RAISE the fry, and then you're doing daily water changes and BBS is merrily bubbling away in the bathroom-it's always something! But that's what makes it so much fun for me, even water changes. I've ALWAYS enjoyed doing water changes, I love the way the tank sparkles when I'm done, and the fish and plants, too.

http://www.wheelpost.com


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Well the most time I spend is doing water changes and vacuming around plants. Thats pretty much all I do. I do not to any water testing. Pruning and cleaning the glass from algae doesnt take too much of my time, partly because I neglect it!

I use a python to fill my tanks, but I use a syphon and bucket to remove water and cleaning because there is always too much stuff that gets sucked up to block the python, so I constantly have to stop, dislodge whats blocking the python and start again. So I use those big 5 gallon painters buckets and dump the water on my plants in the patio!

But this means I have to carry the buckets down a flight of stairs as half my tanks are on the second floor. If I do all my tanks in one day, it takes most of the day. Plus I have to move the python up and down the stairs. I dont know what I can do exactly to cut this work down.

Robert
King admin
www.aquabotanic.com


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## Guttboy (Jul 27, 2003)

Hi all!

I spend a bit of time in the tanks because they are in 
"my Room"
The computer is in here and I am up to 3 tanks now...100, 10, and 15 gallon tanks.

I agree with Vicki...I spend lots of time looking...observing....checking things because I enjoy that and it relaxes me.

My biggest time consumer is the water changes....I fill my tanks with a 2.5 gallon bucket...so as you can imagine I make about 20 trips to the bathroom and back with the fill water. The siphoned water I take out via a 5 gallon plastic container that i put on the flowers and grass I have in my courtyard.

Mike









PS I do NO vacuuming....

100Gallon/Rena Filstar XP3/Icecap660 with 4x4' Ge Aquarays/Flourite Gravel mix/Malaysian driftwood


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## Tenor1 (Mar 3, 2003)

Hi Guttboy,

Have you considered getting a Phython or something similar to make water changes easier? It would save your back and give you time for more fun things like re-arranging the plants, lol.

Regards,
Carlos

==============================
I try to keep the tank plain and simple but it never stays that way!


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

I spend about 4 hours/week on 7 tanks. Water changes take about 40 minutes/week -- about a half hour toting buckets for the 6 smaller tanks and about 10 minutes with a hose in the large tank. The actual time elapsed changing water in the large tank is more than 10 minutes, but I don't have to be there while it's going on. The rest of the time is spent (in order of descending time per task) removing unwanted algae, trimming and/or replanting plants, juggling DIY CO2 setups, cleaning filter cartridges, fertilizing and cleaning glass. Trimming and replanting is the fun part.

I could reduce the maintenance time and annoyance by putting pressurized CO2 (or no CO2) on all of the tanks. I could further reduce the time necessary if I found a way to get rid of the cladophora-like plague in my 55.


Roger Miller

"The indispensible first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want" -- Ben Stein


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> I use a python to fill my tanks, but I use a syphon and bucket to remove water and cleaning because there is always too much stuff that gets sucked up to block the python, so I constantly have to stop, dislodge whats blocking the python and start again. So I use those big 5 gallon painters buckets and dump the water on my plants in the patio!


Robert, I used to run a hose to the shower and syphon the water out of the tank into the tub, I originally tried the window but one of my fish whent flying by mistake one day so the tub allowed me to fish them out if that happened again. Perhaps that might be an alternative to buckets for you.

Giancarlo Podio


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## imported_29gallonsteve (Jun 26, 2003)

I use a gravel vac to do a 2 gallon substrate vacuuming (when it gets really bad), but generally us my own homemade device to change the water in my 29 gallon...takes about 25 mins to change 50%. That's just my water change...nevermind about the pruning/replanting of all of my plants!!!

Thanks,
Steve


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## Kevin Jones (Apr 4, 2004)

Generally I'm at about 2-4 hours per week to maintain my 5 tanks (10, 20, 25, 30 and 65 gallon tanks) all planted only the 10 lacks CO2. This hour count encompasses 30% water changes for each tank and replanting/pruning. I did it all yesterday in about 2 hours.


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## Alex (Mar 31, 2004)

Water changes take about 1.5 hours for 2x5.5g, 4x10g, 29g, 30g, 32g and 55g tanks. Once a month I clean canister filters whcih takes 30 minutes. The 5.5 are fry tanks with java moss so pruning there is just pulling out a wad once a month or so. The four tens aren't so bad as one is vals only, one is an Ohio river tank with some random floating plants. The 29 is a Cichlid tank so I gave up on plants there. So I usually prune a tank every four weeks so I do tank once a weekend. So I can usually get by with 2 hours a week. This doesn't include the 3-6 times a year that I do major maintenance which can be 4+ hours on one tank.

Alex


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## IZM (May 24, 2003)

I would say most of the time I spend on my tanks have to do with trimming and cleaning the glass and other equipment. I can't exactly reach into the tank comfortably so it takes a lot of time to get into the right position to clip off what I need to. My 45g is pretty tall too (and I'm not) so the water almost comes up to my arm pits when I reach in.


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