Poll: How much time does your tank take?

Just curious since I'm still new at this. How much time do you think you spend on average caring for and maintaining your tank?

I'd say my 4 gallon tank gets about 2 minutes of my time daily for feeding, about 10 minutes to test the water 2 to 4 times a week and takes me about 20 minutes to do a PWC twice a week on average.

The 36 gallon tank takes about 5 minutes daily for feeding and roll call. About 45 minutes to do a Pwc once or twice a week and about 15 minutes to teat water 2 or 3 times a week.

Not including daydreaming about what else I can put in there and hanging out in the forum learning more how much time do your tanks take you to care for?

Also am I nuts to want 3 or 4 tanks? Lol.

 

Not nuts to want more than one or two tanks - just have Multiple Tank Syndrome.....just like most of us, lol. My tanks don't tank long, although I have never actually timed it or anything. And, I enjoy caring for them and getting everything "just right". Most of that time is actually spent just watching them. Ya know - checking for new plant growth, observing the behavior and appearance of fish or shrimp, checking the glass and plants for algae growth....things like that. Water changes and feeding don't occupy much of my time spent on them.

 

If I had wonderful water I'd probably have more than my regular tank and my betta tank but I have to use RO so that makes it too time consuming. There is nothing wrong with wanting lots of tanks. Some people here have like 5 or 6 very large tanks!

I spend a couple hours during water change time on my 33g, probably 20 minutes a week doing filter maintenance and yeah, 10 minutes a day feeding, head count etc. On top of that I test the water a couple times a week for nitrates, alkalinity and GH and spend time doing plant maintenance, maybe a total of an hour a week.

I also really enjoy the puttering around with it all, I find it relaxing. No one in my family understands it because it does take up time. I try and them, no you don't understand I like doing all of this

 

Not nuts to want more than one or two tanks - just have Multiple Tank Syndrome.....just like most of us, lol. My tanks don't tank long, although I have never actually timed it or anything. And, I enjoy caring for them and getting everything "just right". Most of that time is actually spent just watching them. Ya know - checking for new plant growth, observing the behavior and appearance of fish or shrimp, checking the glass and plants for algae growth....things like that. Water changes and feeding don't occupy much of my time spent on them.

I agree same with me. I am new to aquariums too. I have a 29 gallon tank and just finished the cycle a couple days ago. I have 4 cories and 8 rasboras at the moment, still in process of stocking. but id say PWC take 30 to 45 mins start to finish once or twice a week, probably will switch to once a week or every two weeks. testing 5 mins. feeding 5 mins. spent a lot of time during the cycle reaquascaping, changinging layout, adding plants and driftwood, ect.

 

Yea I consider most of my messing with the tank playing with it. You know rearranging the decor playing find the snail etc. Just trying to gage how much working time not play time they will take once they are more settled. I enjoy watching them so much!

 

My tank has taken my whole life xD It mostly always has a problem, if it doesn't have a problem then it probably needs rearranging.

At the moment I have brown slI'm on some of my plants and one of my tiger barbs has an eaten tail!

But I spend maybe, an hour or more on a PWC, 2 minutes a day feeding (I feed my tigers a little mix of sinking and floating food so everyone gets a chance to eat and then I have to target feed my butterfly fish as he won't eat unless the food is like in his face.) I take ages testing the water, even though I only do it monthly.

Also I probably spend a huge amount of time staring at it.

 

I have 4 tanks. 10, 20,56,90. It takes me about an hour and half per week to do 30% water changes/vacuuming on all of them.

When I'm playing around and rearranging plants etc... Who knows. Hours probably.
I used to spend hours on water changes before I got my Python. Best buy ever.

Feeding takes about 5 minutes for all my tanks, and then I probably spend 1-3 hours a day staring and checking on everyone.

 

30m a day for my 40 gallon Breeder with a pair of Discus. This includes feedings, water changes, and refilling brute trash can with ro/tap water to age.

 

Ok, so I definitely have MTS really bad. 10 tanks with fish including QTs with new fish plus 3 more cycling. Sizes in gallons are 5, four 10's, three 20's, 26, 30, 45, 55, 120.
I have to keep a chart in excel to remember the last date I changed out filter cartridges, media, cleaned piping, propellers, etc. which I do once a month with serious vacuum. In between the full scale pwc, I just do a quick pwc and rinse of sponges and media in tank water. The level of cleaning is alternated so about two to three tanks get a full scale cleaning each week while the rest get the light touch. I have never timed it, but my guess is the weekly maintenance takes about 4 - 5 hours and a little more when a big canister is involved.
I also have the hose equivalent to the python that hooks up to my sink for siphon/vacuum and re-filling so the actual take out and replace water is fairly quick.
On a just feed the fish day, maybe 30 minutes, BUT I will notice stuff and play around a lot of days with my eheim submersible vacuum that I use in between and right before water changes. And there is always testing to take up another five to ten minutes. So realistically maybe up to an hour a day. It would be more if I did not work, lol.
With so many tanks, I have made it a point to under stock and over filtrate. With my 55 and 120, I have installed an under substrate jet system with power heads and pvc pipe that keeps the water moving on the bottom keeping the bottom much cleaner and more clear of waste moving it into the water column and more apt to be sucked into one of the two filter intakes or the sponges on the power head intakes.
Add to that my time on these forums and research of current or desired fish, looking at and making sure all fish are accounted for, etc., I would say it consumes a great deal of my time and I very much enjoy it. Now it's time to go blanch some zucchinI and cut up some cucumber for tonight's feeding.....

 

2 hours weekly water change and gravel vacuum. Mabee another 5 minute total for feeding every week.

We're all nuts

 

I have only one 20 gallon tank, and its care is probably about and 2 hours each week including feeding because I have to carry a bucket that's a quarter of a gallon from my sink to my tank. Other than that I have a view of it from everywhere in my living/dinning/kitchen. So I look at it constantly.

 

Takes us around an hour or longer to do 2 tanks, 29 and 55 gallons. Most time is spent cleaning algae and trimming the plants. It takes a while to fill that 55, but I love watching all the fish when they are done! They are all over the tanks like they are happy with the fresh water.

 

Right now I have 3 tanks, two 10 gallons and a 5.5 gallon. A second 5.5 will be added to the mix by the end of the month.

Individually, the tanks take very little time. Together, it can take quite a bit of my time depending.

10 gallons (bettas)
Feeding takes less than a minute. They see me coming with the plastic syringe and the little white jar and they wait at the top to snag a mouthful.
Water changes take only 10-15 minutes per tank, but if I get my hands in there and start rearranging or pruning plants, then it can take 30-40 minutes per tank.

My 5.5 gallon takes even less time for water changes, but waaay longer for feeding. I have 1 scarlet badis in there who is so so so so picky. He will eat the food I make, but only of he's in the mood and only if I wiggle it or drop is around the tank for 15 or 20 minutes and make a mess of it first. He's lucky I love him...

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It's hard to quantify. Every minute I am observing my fish I am checking for signs of distress, excess algae, anything else wrong, etc.

But if you FORCE me to quantify my 3 tanks (29 gal planted display, 7.5 gal shrimp cube and 10 gal quarantine)...

Daily: 3 minute feeding, an extra 5 when frozen treats are involved
Twice weekly: 20 minutes water change and water testing in smaller tanks (including time for rinsing filter)
Once weekly: 35-45 minutes water change and water testing in larger tank (including time for cleaning tank and filters)

And because I'm lazy and wait until the end of the week: once weekly, clean all my test tubes for 20 minutes (I bought a to make it easier to test all my tanks at once).

Add in at least 30 minutes observing the tanks daily.

Also, my signature speaks for itself.

EDIT: I almost forgot. I also spend about an hour a week at different fish stores looking for stock, new equipment/plants/decorations and getting ideas. And another 27 hours a day or so on FishLore and other websites researching my next projects, getting information on how to make my current tanks better, and learning how to solve potential problems if they arise.

 

My best guess would be about 3 hours a week for a 65 and a 10. I do 50% changes every three days.