How To Make Tank Maintnence Less Boring

Help! Any ideas to make it more enjoyable?

 

Automate it. I use a pump to take out water and run a hose all the way from my yard into the fish tanks. Extracting water and introducing new one into a box of glass is never gonna be fun but you can make the suffering les.s

 

Do you know of a cheep pump?

 

Umm, put on some good music?

 

I really don't mind water changes.

 

Maybe I'm weird, but I enjoy tank maintenance? I can't exactly pet my fish or take them for a walk, so outside of feeding time it's when I spend the most time interacting with them. All my tanks are planted and fairly small, though, so I spend a lot more time trimming plants and cleaning glass than I do siphoning water.

 

I agree. I do enjoy maintenance. Yes, there are times I may not want to, mostly because it can be time consuming. Someone else mentioned listening to music. I like to turn on some jazz.

 

I turn it into a dance party, me, my girlfriend, my fish, and my cat. The cat normally just sleeps, but it still makes it less tedious

 

I agree with the above. Turn on some good music and it really makes it more enjoyable. I also take the opportunity to talk to my fish and ask them how their day is going but that might just be the crazy fish lady in me. Lol

 

I listen to podcasts or audiobooks.

 

I enjoy it. Takes like 20-30m to do.

I think about other things...like will the Blazers get past the first round of the NBA playoffs.

 

I make a contest out of it.

On my big water change night I change 15 out of my 36 and 8-10 gallons out of 4 20s depending on nitrates the night before .

I try to change 40-50 gallons in less than 45 minutes.

Once I get the temperature right in the shower head, it’s siphon while filling. Not an issue to overfill the new water in the shower but don’t let the siphon bucket overflow onto the living room carpet.

Just got a python but not sure if i’ll Use it until I get my 90 going.

 

I enjoy siphoning the water out, cleaning decorations & gravel vac. but adding buckets back in is a challenge & slightly stressful.

we have an older home with a rainwater pump. so the temperature changes vastly once the pump kicks in. I aI'm for under & have the kettle boiled if I need to adjust up.

then I hafta get out a calculator to add exactly the right amount of buffer as our rainwater is 0kH 0gH which otherwise would mean our pH is unstable & inconsistent. then I need to divide that amount by the number of buckets I'm adding so each bucket is exactly the same.

so I basically blast good electro swing or a podcast & do maths the entire time lolz

 

Cool! Lol I wasn't expecting this many answers thx for your ideas

 

I enjoy siphoning the water out, cleaning decorations & gravel vac. but adding buckets back in is a challenge & slightly stressful.

we have an older home with a rainwater pump. so the temperature changes vastly once the pump kicks in. I aI'm for under & have the kettle boiled if I need to adjust up.

then I hafta get out a calculator to add exactly the right amount of buffer as our rainwater is 0kH 0gH which otherwise would mean our pH is unstable & inconsistent. then I need to divide that amount by the number of buckets I'm adding so each bucket is exactly the same.

so I basically blast good electro swing or a podcast & do maths the entire time lolz

Math?

Sounds like calculus.

 

I'm actually gonna try putting on my headphones and making a water change playlist!

 

I'm actually gonna try putting on my headphones and making a water change playlist!

Lol cool!

 

Biggest recommendation - Welcome to Night Vale. Great podcast, not for everyone it's a bit odd, but great. Also, if you're just starting out water changes, don't want to assume but jic, it gets a lot faster and easier over time. Even just getting a new tank takes some getting used to for maintenance and how to do it. Music and podcasts are the way to go, make it a party!

 

Biggest recommendation - Welcome to Night Vale. Great podcast, not for everyone it's a bit odd, but great. Also, if you're just starting out water changes, don't want to assume but jic, it gets a lot faster and easier over time. Even just getting a new tank takes some getting used to for maintenance and how to do it. Music and podcasts are the way to go, make it a party!

I will defenintly look at that. Thx!

 

Do you know of a cheep pump?

You can look at Ebay for cheap pump I got a 400gph pump for 11 bucks and it makes my water changes faster for my 80 gallon.

 

You can look at Ebay for cheap pump I got a 400gph pump for 11 bucks and it makes my water changes faster for my 80 gallon.

Cool thx

 

Do you know of a cheep pump?

Ebay sounds like a good place. Buy the chinese stuff, its actually good IME. I have a cheap Chinese filter that has been working for a year with no problems. Using pumps makes it much more faster. Takes me like 15 min to change 60% of the water in my 30 gal. You can probably make it faster even in bigger tanks. I'm just lazy and slow lol.

 

I drink brandy, run the stereo.

Automating things ... buying pumps to pump water in and out. Need three hands because you're tending the hose going to the tank while the pump needs to be turned on at the other side of the room where the water is? But a "smart" outlet and have Alexa turn it on via your home wi-fi.

But drinking brandy will mostly handle it!

 

Bring a friend?

 

Maybe I'm weird, but I enjoy tank maintenance? I can't exactly pet my fish or take them for a walk, so outside of feeding time it's when I spend the most time interacting with them. All my tanks are planted and fairly small, though, so I spend a lot more time trimming plants and cleaning glass than I do siphoning water.

I pet my fish.....

 

I drink brandy, run the stereo.

Automating things ... buying pumps to pump water in and out. Need three hands because you're tending the hose going to the tank while the pump needs to be turned on at the other side of the room where the water is? But a "smart" outlet and have Alexa turn it on via your home wi-fi.

But drinking brandy will mostly handle it!

I am more of a wine drinker myself. So the last change, I nixed the music and tried wine and reading Fishlore. I use my barn well water so need to heat it before adding it to the tanks. So I use a bucket heater in a 5 gallon bucket with a digital thermometer and probe.
All was going well until I got to a good thread on FL and forgot about watching the temp in the bucket! May have had something to do with the wine also!

And of course, this method is not for our underage FL gang!

 

I do like to enjoy a glass of scotch or bourbon while listening to some jazz and doing tank maintenance. I’m not into brandy at all. I tried to get more involved with wine, more for the health benefits, but I usually end up drinking the entire bottle. Portion control just isn’t recorded in my DNA.