How old is your reef tank? and how much time a day goes into

[Tanu]

THIS tank running 1,5 years now, but most of its inhabitants and tech is about 5 years old.

About 10 mins a day: 7 mins feeding (sun coral..), 3 minutes checkup and cleaning skimmer. About 3 times a week: cleaning glass with a magnet.
Top-off and trace elements automated, calcium reactor, so, not very much to do

I like to watch the tank instead of cleaning and maintaining it...


Tanu
www.tanu.nl

 

[esmithiii]

My tank is 4 months old, but was upgraded from a 2 year old 55 Gal. Here is how I would classify my workload:

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr> travel a lot, and my wife takes care of the tank during the week. It is not that big of a deal, but plan on spending more time at first until you get the hang of it. I have a tank sitter that feeds my fish once a day when my wife and I go out of town together, but I could probably have someone come over every other day or less.

Here is a breakdown of my maintenance time for my 180G:

Daily- Feed twice daily, 5 min/day
Twice Weekly- Add water to top off- 4 min/week
Weekly- Mix kalkwasser, scrub glass, 10 min
Monthly- clean skimmer, test water parameters, 20% water change- 90 minutes

This adds up to about 5 hours total/month. I am being very conservative here. In reality it is much less than this.

I did not include "fiddling time" which I don't count as maintenance. This is moving things around, etc. I do this for fun, but it isn't necessary.

All in all, the tank is easier (less time) to care for than the easiest of dogs, but more work than a cat (unless the cat is indoors only... litterboxes are no fun !)

<hr></blockquote>

Ernie