How much time to maintain aquarium?

[Jeff Bello]

I am a newbie who wants to start a large sal****er mixed fish/coral
aquarium. How much time per week does it take to maintain a large
aquarium of this type?

[paulj48]

"Jeff Bello" > wrote in message
m...
> I am a newbie who wants to start a large sal****er mixed fish/coral
> aquarium. How much time per week does it take to maintain a large
> aquarium of this type?

On my 50 gallon I spend 10 minutes a day topping up water, feeding and
cleaning glass. Every week spend an extra 10 minutes cleaning/replacing
mechanical filter media. Every 2 weeks an hour for water change.

It's not really the time to look after the tank, you'll want lots of time
just to look at it. I can sit for hours just staring at my live rock or
watching a hermit go on its daily routine, the wife thinks I'm mad
sometimes.

[Dsybok]

It varies depending on how diligent you have been with your maintenance.
Right now, because of several lengthy business trips, I am working on my
tank almost non stop to correct some nitrate problems. In a normal week, I
wipe the glass once a week and clean the skimmer once a week, dose every
other day and top off water twice a week.

Normally I spend about an hour a week working on the tank. This week its
probably two hours a day due to my nitrate situation.

Tank is a 50G reef.

D
"Jeff Bello" > wrote in message
m...
> I am a newbie who wants to start a large sal****er mixed fish/coral
> aquarium. How much time per week does it take to maintain a large
> aquarium of this type?

[Eric]

Jeff Bello wrote:
> I am a newbie who wants to start a large sal****er mixed fish/coral
> aquarium. How much time per week does it take to maintain a large
> aquarium of this type?

For me (100g tank, ~140 gallons total system volume):

- 10 minutes per day to feed fish and make sure the topoff tank is full.
- 1 hour a week for misc cleaning (glass mostly)
- 1 hour every two months to change water
- 2 hours every two months to clean the skimmer and whatever else might
need it.

LOTS of time: watching all the life!

Eric
http://www.atreis.com/

[Scott Bennett]

I have a 75G that's been running for 8 months. I spend much more time than
everyone else has said, doing tests, checking chemistry for reef, etc. I'd
guess when I get going, I spend 1 hour/day, plus 4-5 hours on weekends. I
have other days that are 10 minutes. I expect it to drop as I figure out
the right dosing regimens.without having to check caclcium and alk every
day.


(Jeff Bello) wrote in news:dad2f12c.0407072019.c94c590
@posting.google.com:

> I am a newbie who wants to start a large sal****er mixed fish/coral
> aquarium. How much time per week does it take to maintain a large
> aquarium of this type?

[rtk]

Scott Bennett wrote:

> I have a 75G that's been running for 8 months. I spend much more time than
> everyone else has said, doing tests, checking chemistry for reef, etc. I'd
> guess when I get going, I spend 1 hour/day, plus 4-5 hours on weekends. I
> have other days that are 10 minutes. I expect it to drop as I figure out
> the right dosing regimens.without having to check caclcium and alk every
> day.
>

I am a recovering fishaholic. I've reduced obsessive caring for my 29
gallon sw tank to virtually no time at all per day. Nor do my fw tanks
or turtles, frogs, and ponds take more than the few minutes to feed
everyone and clean any obvious algae off the glass. But water changes
require an hour per three weeks for the 120 gallon turtle tank and
progressively less for the other four tanks. The sw, being only 29
gallons, takes only a few minutes every 2 weeks. I'm finding that some
inhabitants of my sw tank are happy and require no attention and others
don't like it all. It's easier for me to accept that than try to figure
why in the world is my tank uninhabitable to mushrooms of all things and
why in the same world is a brain growing daily? Fretting about such
stuff and looking for chemical clues was the most time-consuming and
least enjoyable.

rtk

[John D. Maag]

I agree with you Scott. I am guessing waterr paranoia is common to
beginners. I have been in the hobby for 5 months and am just now figuring
things out.

Jeff,

I was just like you when I began. I wanted a big tank but wondered if I
was going to "bite of fmore than I could chew". I recommend you get yourself
a small tank (20-30G) You will need a quarantine tank anyway for the big
tank and you can try it out on a small scale. This way if you decide you do
not like it, your financial loss is less ( I will not use the word minimal
:) )

good luck.

"Scott Bennett" > wrote in message
...
> I have a 75G that's been running for 8 months. I spend much more time
than
> everyone else has said, doing tests, checking chemistry for reef, etc.
I'd
> guess when I get going, I spend 1 hour/day, plus 4-5 hours on weekends. I
> have other days that are 10 minutes. I expect it to drop as I figure out
> the right dosing regimens.without having to check caclcium and alk every
> day.
>
>
> (Jeff Bello) wrote in
news:dad2f12c.0407072019.c94c590
> @posting.google.com:
>
> > I am a newbie who wants to start a large sal****er mixed fish/coral
> > aquarium. How much time per week does it take to maintain a large
> > aquarium of this type?
>