Interesting results! Most votes land in the 1-2 hours a month range, which seems like a reasonable amount of time to spend. But folks were all over the map. Some observations and takeaways from the following discussion might be these:
- Alk checking probably gets more attention than the rest of the testing combined.
- Red Sea products seem to be most common and a favorite to some, though Hannah products seem preferable for their ease of use.
- Slackers are slow to speak up, while the go-getters speak up right away. Could be that there are many more slackers out there who didn't want to out themselves?
I realize too that I was not clear about whether water changes should be factored into the "time spent on water chemistry per month." I can see how folks understood it both ways. I didn't mean to factor in WC's, but for what it's worth, I do a 10% WC every two weeks. That probably adds 20minx2 to my time per month. And I'm probably a bad reefer by some folks' accounting because I don't check all the parameters of the freshly mixed water to match it with my tank water.
My attitude (which I see reflected in some of the comments above) is that reefing should be fun, and that the "chores" involved detract from the fun factor for me. So I spend as little time on the chores as I can without giving up fish health and coral growth. When I see a problem, I take steps to test and address it. I think the lesson for me from this thread is that if I'm going to test just one thing, I'll make it Alk. And I might pick up the Hannah checker to make that easier.
- Alk checking probably gets more attention than the rest of the testing combined.
- Red Sea products seem to be most common and a favorite to some, though Hannah products seem preferable for their ease of use.
- Slackers are slow to speak up, while the go-getters speak up right away. Could be that there are many more slackers out there who didn't want to out themselves?
I realize too that I was not clear about whether water changes should be factored into the "time spent on water chemistry per month." I can see how folks understood it both ways. I didn't mean to factor in WC's, but for what it's worth, I do a 10% WC every two weeks. That probably adds 20minx2 to my time per month. And I'm probably a bad reefer by some folks' accounting because I don't check all the parameters of the freshly mixed water to match it with my tank water.
My attitude (which I see reflected in some of the comments above) is that reefing should be fun, and that the "chores" involved detract from the fun factor for me. So I spend as little time on the chores as I can without giving up fish health and coral growth. When I see a problem, I take steps to test and address it. I think the lesson for me from this thread is that if I'm going to test just one thing, I'll make it Alk. And I might pick up the Hannah checker to make that easier.