How do you keep up with all the maintenance for your tank?

[Gumbies R Us]

When it comes to reef tanks, I feel like there is a lot that can be done to them regarding maintenance. Maybe it's cleaning certain parts of it, dosing, or simply feeding the fish in our tanks. I am wondering, how do you keep up with all of these tasks? Curious to see what everyone says!

 

[Nano_Man]

It used to be just remembering or writing in a book. But now I use Pocket Marine app you can look at everything and record it best for manually dosing/Water changes helps me a lot and I can look back months about care of my tank . My memory is getting worse as I get older .Old age sucks

 

[RichReef]

When it comes to reef tanks, I feel like there is a lot that can be done to them regarding maintenance. Maybe it's cleaning certain parts of it, dosing, or simply feeding the fish in our tanks. I am wondering, how do you keep up with all of these tasks? Curious to see what everyone says!

Having the reef tank and my 2 cats are both easier and way less demanding than my wife's 2 dogs.

 

[rhitee93]

I'm new so I'm still in a "Honeymoon" period with tank maintenance and sort of look forward to playing with the tank.

However, I know myself very well and have set my system up so that it is very simple to do water changes so they don't become a big dread. I also set the system up so that all the components are easy to get to and clean.

 

[DaneGer21]

Sunday mornings are my water change day while my daughter eats breakfast, takes me about 15mins.

Testing and such I do randomly in the evenings while we relax and watch our shows.

The deep cleaning of other things are when I actually remember, but definitely in the later evenings when my kid is in bed.

 

[Dbichler]

I don’t keep up and that’s why I decided on soft corals only with fish. A lot less demanding and only have to do waterchanges every couple of months. I started my first tank in 2006 and it was a mixed reef but I only had one kid. Then went to a biocube mixed reef and did waterchanges weekly. Now I have three kids and it’s much simpler even with a 210 gallon tank with just softies. Find your reef style and comfort zone and stick with that. If you have the time and commitment then anything can work but for me I know I’m too busy to keep up so I don’t even try.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

 

[shakacuz]

i don't. sadly, it sometimes does get pushed back or overlooked. especially the light fans and sump chambers (detritus buildup)

the silver lining of it all is that aside from my ALK/NO3/PO4 issues (keeping up with dosing manually), my tank is essentially on auto pilot, so really all i do is just dose ALK/NO3/PO4 daily

 

[Uncle99]

I use the Google To-Do list breaking everything into daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly tasks.

 

[blecki]

Simple really, I don't.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I carbon dose with NP Balance and use all for reef so I rarely have the need for water changes. Unless I see anything off with the coral in my tank I don’t feel the need to do much else. I have a trident so I know where alkalinity, calcium and magnesium are as well as pH and temp. I check my phosphates and nitrates regularly since this is a fairly new tank but won’t once it’s been established for a while and only do so on a monthly basis or so like I have for other tanks in the past. I love letting bacteria do most of the heavy lifting in my tanks.

 

[MarsReefer]

Automation on as much as possible.

I clean my filter floss once a week and empty my skimmer.

Water changes: automated
Feeding: automated
Dosing: automated

I have to make salt water once a month which I get a reminder on my phone for.

I scrape the glass whenever I walk by.

That’s pretty much it. I tried a while ago without automation and just didn’t have the discipline.

 

[Troylee]

A couple minutes a day makes it painless… clean glass, feed fish and shake my zeolites… daily. once every 2 weeks fill my top off and doser containers and change water and clean skimmer out. Takes less than a hour.

 

[SPS2020]

For me, it's a struggle with two tanks (100g, 60g). However, reminders via Apex are crucial for me and ReefDose4 has reminders to replenish the 'Big 4'.

Today, clean the quartz sleeve on the UV sterilizers (one done, one to go) and clean out the ATO\Salt mixing station and circulation pump (accomplished). This is done about every six months (Apex reminder). I clean the protein skimmers about every 2-3 days when I change filter socks. Front glass is cleaned every two days. The back glass, gyres and bottom of the tank are cleaned every 10-14 days. Fridays are auto water change days. Clean the chillers once per 6-12 months. I'm just touching the high level stuff, but there's always, always, always something to do to keep up with the tanks. Both are Acropora dominant and bare bottom

 

[Project]

Someone once said that our reef tank is like a spaceship and “we” the owners has to keep that spaceship running properly. So I do whatever it need to keep it alive. Having a reef tank is a commitment. It crashes if you don’t take care of it. <><

 

[tzabor10]

I have been going through the wire, cord and hoses to neaten things up. It like combing a child’s hair. Besides all the water changes, glass cleaning, and using citric acid to descale equipment.

 

[Narideth]

I keep small mixed tanks, and that has been the most helpful part in keeping up. I can mix my salt water in 5 gallon batches and that's a water change for two tanks.

Still working on balancing when to do them all on a rotating schedule but it's coming along. I was the one who decided I wanted three marine tanks after all (on top of my freshies)

 

[flashsmith]

I went from 2 systems down to one. Sold my SR80 a couple months ago. I'm gearing up to take down my reefer 625xxl soon and sell it. It was like having another full time job just to maintain them both. Not to mention the never ending expense. I'm going the other way and recently acquired a 26 gal. Max nano Peninsula. Going from 2 large systems to a nano should be a breeze as far as maintenance goes. Less everything..

 

[VintageReefer]

I have changed from sps reefs to LPS - I like the colors, the motion, and that I don’t need a magnifying glass to see the polyps and patterns. Alk and Ca aren’t as crucial to maintain and I have some more flex room for swings. Some single polyp corals can be a massive 3-4” polyp. I find LPS very rewarding

And, I reduced to eliminated almost all maintenance. I would estimate my tank takes less than 15 min a month from me

1 minute - Every 10-14 days - grab handful of algae from the scrubber (2 min total)

1 minute - every 5 days add some top off water with all for reef (6 min total)

1 minute - clean glass weekly (4 min total)

That’s it

 

[vlangel]

I, like a couple other reefers have learned what sort of reef tank fits my life at this time.
I have had biggish tanks (125g with a 70g sump, and a 90g with 15g sump,) but after a family member needed full time care from me I downsized my reef. Even though I am no longer in a caregiver role, I am content with my medium size display, (56g with 30g sump). The system is entering it's 8th year, which contributes to it's stability, plus it has hardy fish and hardy coral. Lastly it has a lot of ornamental macroalgae which takes up a lot of the nutrients.

I do a 5g water change once a month, add 1g to my ATO reservoir once a week, clean the glass with a magcleaner 2Xs a week and feed my fish daily. It's the easiest tank I have ever had but the prettiest.