Is your tank(s) hard work??

The most common reply I get when talking fish to non aquarists is "No ways!!!... to much hard work".
Now maybe I'm missing something, but even when I had all 40 of my tanks up and running.... I had a set routine, but it was never really to much work or "hard" work???
What's your take on this?.... do you work hard at maintaining your tank(s)??

 

no, i do water changes on a tuesday or wednesday. i drain water into a large bucket. then put the replacement treated water on a ladder and wait for gravity to do the rest. the container on the ladder has a pipe siliconed into the bottom which makes life easier. i think what helps is not overstocking your setup. i change ten litres on my 2ft and five litres on my 1ft every week and have 2 filters in each tank. filters are cleaned once a month.

 

I do "clean-ups" on Saturdays. Generally by around Wednesdays I can't wait for the weekend to arrive so that I can do it all again! So for me it is not a case of hard work, it is something that I do to keep my fish happy and healthy... (And funny enough - I kinda enjoy it!)

 

I agree.

And i have Discus that need the best water quality.

 

I think this perception comes from way-back-when when you had to take all the gravel out every few weeks to clean the undergravel filters... and that perception has stuck!

 

Zoom. I don't take my undergravel out to clean, I just use a gravel vac once a week and do a 20% water change. I want to build myself a canister filter so I can take the UGF out. As for people not wanting fish. I just think they are lazy.

 

Lol, I also get that alot. People will come over and say: "this tank must be hard work man." We had a tank and all the fish died . How do you manage? And I am like, I do nothing really, just a water change and filter wash.

 

Sheesh but you guys do a lot of work.
My tank gets a waterchange once a month,feeding of course twice a day,Admiring the whole day.

How?
Correct Type and amount of fish,filters,plants,fertilizers and size of tank.

 

I basically clean my filters once a month, that includes my canister filter and my power head. I stopped doing gravel vac's because I found it rather pointless with my Oscar as all his waste is rather solid and just sits on top and I end up vac'ing nothing more than clean water...other than that I remove algae from the glass whenever I notice it and trim the dead leaves off my plants. And every 3-4 day I just use my trusty old net and scoop up any solid fish waste I see.

I am currently experimenting with my water changes for my tank as I found my nitrates and ammonia is pretty much rock bottom from the start so I went from a 30% on a weekly basis to 30% on a monthly and so far so good. Obviously there is smaller maintenance stuff on a daily basis but that is not even worth mentioning.

 

My Nano get's a W/C ever week. This is because I need to get rid of the algae.

My big tank actually only get's W/C every 2nd week. This is because of study commitments that I am unable to do it once a week. But I have been very fortunate that even after 14 days I am only starting to get GSA on the glass.. which is a good sign.

 

Takes me 45min every sunday to do a 10% water change on all three of my 250lt tanks, which includes vacuuming the sand/gravel each time. My main tank takes about an hour and a half to clean. So theres 2 and a quarter hours to maintain something I really enjoy. No effort at all then.

 

IMO, anyone who considers keeping an aquarium "too much work" should be forbidden by law to ever own an aquarium!

I enjoy any "work" that needs to be done, and more often than not, worry that I'm not doing enough.

After all, isn't that what aquarists do? Care for our fish. A true labor of love.

 

I do things to make it less work and less maintenance time:
Auto water changer with solenoid valves
Auto topup
Pressurized Co2 instead of diy

The rest is the fun part.

 

I too enjoy the maintenance on my tanks. I find it has a soothing effect on me and I could spend an entire day working on a tank if need be

 

Honestly i enjoy my water changes once a week on both my tanks, i gravel vac the 1.2m weekly and the betta setup every 2 weeks. I dont understand the to much work thing personally i get alot of satisfaction sitting down afterward and looking at my clean tank.

 

True, nothing like after having a hectic or stressful day at work then after-wards spending it maintaining your setup and admiring your handy work and having your own little eco-system in your home.

Regards
Frikkie Vis Vingers