Big or Small Tank: which eats more time?

[Jmass015]

For me this is not time wasted.I love spending time with my tank.It's a great stress reliever and helps me unwind for a few minutes.
But to answer your question a well planed larger tank is not that time consuming.

 

[fragapple]

That's hallmark nutrient planning with the bare bottom full export ability and the no huge fish bioload + good volume ratio that's about ideal wow.

Yes planning out nutrients control, coral and fish load was a big factor when setting up my tank, the draw backs from this are pretty much the same as having to remove nutrients like with having a sand bed. 2 1/2 yrs after setting up, my sps frags have grown into large nutrients eating machines and keeping nutrients up to them has been a real challenge! Feeding and raising nutrients isn't an easy task in a high flow bb tank!

 

[DBR_Reef]

So by the looks of the voting, most tanks take about the same amount of time, with smaller tanks possibly taking just a bit longer. I wonder if this has more to do more with a tendency of smaller tanks to employ less automation, or with smaller tanks inherently less stable nature?

 

[DBR_Reef]

For me this is not time wasted.I love spending time with my tank.It's a great stress reliever and helps me unwind for a few minutes.

I think everyone who treats their reef tank as a hobby would agree with you. But for me and the member who brought this up (he has kids), the less time we have to spend with our tanks, the less stress they produce, and the more enjoyable they become. I have never had a lack of things I want to do on my tank, but I have often had no time to do anything on my tank :)

 

[sil40sx]

Hmm. I thought the thread/poll was originally asking if which one is faster to "build", not maintain.

Maintaining a tank would get mixed answers, because every tank have different needs. Like many posters already mentioned, they have automated gadgets, some do everything manually. So it's hard to get consistent votes, unless the poll is very clear.