If money wasnt an issue. Would you hire an reef/aquarium maintenance service?

[jmichaelh7]

so paying someone takes 50% of your reward away

 

[D-Rod]

I would hire someone for the water changes.

 

[lagnew904]

If money wasn't an option I would plumb in auto water changes. However I definitely would like to have someone come by and learn from every now and then.

 

[JLynn]

Not for anything except vacations. Doing the maintenance keeps me in tune with my tank. I don't like to do it, but I feel that it's very important that I do it, in order to stay in tune with my tank.

 

[jassermd]

Wait, $500 a visit for that terrible service? It honestly sounds like they’re fraudulent or something. The first time the water changes happened like that I would have fired them and found someone new. I get super mad about bad companies like that ripping off consumers and making everyone else look bad. I know ppl are more likely to leave a bad review, but these days I check everything online and if I see even one review that is especially egregious like this story I steer clear — I hope you left them an honest (bad) review…

Of course I did. I wouldn't want anyone to experience what I went through.
I will say that it gave me the initiative to take on myself... As I mentioned, R2R was invaluable in my learning!
I learned what not to do first hand and fact checking is what saved me and my tank.

 

[Flame2hawk]

No way. I enjoy the ups and downs to much! I’m in the hobby for the passion of doing it myself. I have the time and of course when away, someone does come in and do basic maintenance stuff.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

I wouldn’t hire anyone to do it. Part of it is learning and doing yourself. For me at least. I did aquarium maintenance for years and can understand some people just don’t enjoy or have time.

 

[rhostam]

Not for regular maintenance. If I was dismantling and moving, perhaps. If was on am extended away mission - most certainly.

 

[Cina05]

I started keeping tropical fish about 4 years ago, but I've only kept saltwater for a year. I enjoy learning the biology and chemistry involved, but after losing some fish and a lot of corals, I started having a guy in one of my local reefing forums come once a month to service my 90 gallon tank, and I do a waterchange between visits. I'm learning a lot now, as he takes time to explain everything and make recommendations and my tank is a lot healthier for it. If money weren't an issue, I'd have all the high tech gadgets professionally set up, including a waterchange station in my garage and auto water changer on the tank. I would probably do the cleaning and maintenance myself though because it is a part of the hobby. Except maybe once in a While, because I have MTS (Multiple tank syndrome) and cleaning and doing waterchanges on all of my tanks takes up most of my day. Lol

 

[MrTPlush]

No, while I enjoy looking at it the challenge and the reward watching it grow and getting through struggles is what I enjoy. Even if I had endless money I would be like the infamous reefer most know from Facebook that lives in NY (his name is not coming to me at the moment). Maybe I would have a ton of help etc, but I would still be very invested in the process.

 

[NigelRichardson]

Maintenance, testing, fixing and improving things in the tank is what this hobby is all about for me…

Having said that - if there’s anyone that can come over to my house as many times as it takes to guarantee I can finally win my seemingly never ending battle with Aiptasia - Name your price - happy to pay !!

 

[tigre44]

I voted other because, If money were no issue, I'd be retired so I wouldn't have obligations keeping me from the tank!

I would enjoy it and everything else a lot more!

I am retired for for now 10 yrs and pretty much do testing and water changes on a regular schedule, but when I was working I would sometimes miss testing and water changes with the resulting loss coral and failing to see other problems like a leaking tank and bad plumbing that caused a fire so I can’t emphasize enough to try to set up a schedule and take a couple of minutes each day just to check things out

 

[tigre44]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...it takes the fun out of taking care of and learning about the entire reef system...so NO...its like self driving vehicles... (Tangent)...but it takes the fun out of driving

As the owner of a 61 corvette and 65 chevelle ss ihear you bro on self driving cars

 

[Solga]

I voted "other"
I didnt read through all of these responses, but I am sure many others have the same train of thought as I do.
If money wasn't an issue, my tank would be a whole lot bigger, and my new "job" would include a wet suit, and some oxygen tanks so I could take care of my reef inhabitants !

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

As the owner of a 61 corvette and 65 chevelle ss ihear you bro on self driving cars

That's a money pit, lol.

 

[flyfisher2]

I too enjoy doing all the maintenance myself. However I worry about un foreseen absences, vacations, illnesses. In the event of something like that I would need someone knowledgable and responsible to take care of my tanks.

 

[flyfisher2]

Speaking from experience here... Had a full service company for 5 months and will NEVER do it again. (and yes, money is not an issue. I was paying $500 every 2 weeks for service) I have a 280g DT...

Some of the issues w/ a service company I personally experienced on a regular basis:
Tank salinity - 1.025; water they used to do water changes - 1.019
Tank temp - 78; water they used was 65
No matching alk or even testing the salt mix (I asked several times) My alk swings would be 1+ with every water change and it would take me a week + to stabilize again, just in time for the next water change.
RO they used was 15 TDS (didn't realize this until I tested the RO they were using with my own TDS meter)
Salt mix: "what ever we have on hand"

They never checked nitrates or phosphates and when I asked, they would use a dip stick test and say "all looks good".
So, I decided to take it on myself...
Had to build a mixing station, buy the maintenance stuff, and take over the maintenance. Once I purchased the Hanna testers (nitrate/phos) and started testing myself, I quickly realized why my coral kept dying... Nitrates were at 50+ and phos was at .5
The straw that broke the camels back... In Feb last yr, they came out to service. It was cold... They wanted to use water that was 1.018 and 55 degrees. They don't heat the water in the van and it was 30 outside. I asked what the salinity was and he told me. I said that's not gonna work, and he said, no worries, I'll just throw some extra salt in the tank and all will be good... I asked them to leave and not do a water change. I was done.
Thanks to R2R, I quickly learned the ropes and took on the maintenance myself. And it's been the best thing for me and for the tank.
There were many other issues that happened. Let's just say, no one will ever care for your tank the way we would do so ourselves. Money aside, it's just not gonna happen... It's just a job to them and they don't have the vested interest in your personal tank and livestock. Sad, but true...
That was my experience... can't speak for others.

Find a fellow hobbyist. Get to know the person and either hire him or work a mutual deal out.

 

[KYnewbee42103]

I will throw in my 2 cents I did this on my own a long time ago and swore I would never do it again till I got older and could afford to pay someone to do it right!
The older I got I realized It costs me more money to mow my own lawn than to pay someone to do it meaning if I Averaged what I make per hour/minute it actually costs me more to do it myself. But you can’t put a price on missing out on time with your family!

I love this hobby and I grew up poor cleaning rich peoples boat hulls from barnacles but I never forgot how beautiful & free the fish were swimming around me eating free food. I have to be honest if money wasn’t an issue this wouldn’t be a topic!

money is always an issue! I have a maintenance company because I like saltwater reefs they are beautiful and so is a Ferrari ! If you can accept the reality it costs money to maintain either one and you aren’t a mechanic then have it done!

If your a purist and this is your zen and only hobby by all means clean your own fish poo! If you understand money is not real it’s only a way to keep score then it’s not an issue to begin with! We are all born naked and we all die naked!

Have fun and do what makes you happy!! We all get one life make the most of it!!

 

[Pattys]

I just started having someone come to my house. I am having someone come once a meeting nth. For these reasons knowledge, opinion and to help Install or clean my pumps or stuff like that

I enjoy doing my water changes and am always doing something to my tank. I went from a 36 gallon bow front to a Waterbox 180. The 180 is awesome. Big difference in tanks lol. Been reefing for about 6 years
Plus I have 2 freshwater tanks that take up my time as well. Enjoy the hobby

 

[UK softy bloke]

When I started reefing and I can only assume this applies to many of us, It was because the tanks I saw were spectacular and I wanted to have one in my home! However, once you get in to the hobby you begin to learn you must be a biologist, chemist, plumber, structural engineer and have enough patience to witness the evolution of a tank. Which is very fun and educational but sometimes I feel I just want my tank to be perfect without having to think critically (which I do daily while at work lol)

That being said, there are times I wish someone could come over and just take care of my tank in terms of deep cleaning, testing, maintenance and solve any issues (I don't mind cleaning the glass and feeding the fish, that's the fun part for me lol)

How many of you have had similar thought?

No, if money were no object I probably wouldn't be working so would enjoy tinkering in my fish room that I would have had built to fill my days. I think if you love the hobby you don't mind getting your hands dirty, if you just want something pretty but that's all then you would want someone else to look after it.