Topic of the Week August 21 - tank maintenance!

[iluvzigz]

Originally Posted by Woodstock

Tank maintenance? What is that? LOL....

I actually like doing tank maintenance. I can almost hear the corals and fish saying "thank you" I like to keep a clean tank..or as clean as possible given that I feed my fish several times per day and also spot feed all LPS and anemones on a regular basis.

Here is my routine for my 90 gal and 30 gal:

Daily:
Check temp & PH monitors
Check sump's water level
Check auto top off reservoir

Twice weekly:
Clean skimmer riser tube and collection cup
Clean overflow's prefilter sponge
Clean front glass IF necessary with magfloat

Weekly:
Replace carbon IF in use
Blow off rocks in 90 gal
30% water change on my 30 gal cube, blow off rocks, scrape coralline algae from all sides
Test both tanks for alk, ca, mg, and nitrAtes (more often if needed)

Biweekly:
20% water change on my 90 gal Reef, blow off rocks, scrape coralline algae from all sides

Monthly:
Nothing

Every three months:
Change phosban media
Clean out sump & overflow during water change

Every 8 months:
Replace all PC bulbs

Every year:
Replace all MH bulbs

To clean out the overflow and sump area, every 3 months or so, I siphon out all the detritus during a water change.

i need to follow in your foot steps woodstock...but witty seems more on my pace ..haha im gonna print this out to try and get a good schedule going ...

ive got the coraline growing on the rocks but cant seem to get it to grow on the back glass...so i dont need a scraper just a mag float for the front and sides every other day..but i do it once a week~shame shame

[Woodstock]

LOL.. we all get slack every now and then. I seem to get in a slump once a year

The rewards of keeping a clean tank are many, many times over the energy it takes to do it. I have no algae issues at all, my sand is pristine and white, my fish are fat and sassy, and my corals/anemones are uber healthy. That makes me very happy

Let's calculate the time envolved.. it won't be much at all and you slackers will feel guilty

Daily: = < one minute
Twice weekly: = < 6 minutes
Weekly: = < 1 hour
Biweekly: = < 30 minutes
Monthly: = zero
Every three months: < 20 minutes
Every 8 months: < 5 minutes
Every year: = < 5 minutes

The average is right at 1.5 hours per week. Not bad at all for 2 tanks!

[iluvzigz]

yeah yeah yeah...well ive actually been pretty fortunate lately ive got no algae issues (in my reef) and my levels are all goood (knock knock) and im just trying to get my ca dosing down tricky stuff..my fish are fine ive been trying not to over feed with a water ~10 gal ~change every two weeks ..i aslso get to save time from not having to scrape the corraline