Is your tank a joy or a chore? How to keep it fun!

[NowGlazeIT]

It becomes a chore... or worse... when something unexpected happens. Like a pump that quits working, or even worse, a tank springs a leak.

Sometimes it's even a chore when you have to do regular maintenance and you really have something else you would love to be doing, but can't because you have to do maintenance.

But sometimes maintenance is OK... maybe even fun. When you have the time and you get into giving the tank a serious look. Especially if you find something unusual that's good, like a sea cucumber comes out that you haven't seen in 2 months. In my case it was lifting up a rock to find a huge Chiton that I had added to the tank a year ago and haven't seen since!

I know I'm lucky, but part of what keeps the hobby fun for me is that my wife and I get to go snorkeling, photographing and collecting in the Florida Keys 2 to 4 times a year. I don't collect much, and a lot of what we see and photograph are things that couldn't possible go in any of out tanks.

You can read about it and see photos here. And I encourage anybody who wants to share, to join in. Comments and questions are always welcome.

Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

Hello and welcome to what I hope will be an interesting and useful forum for talking about snorkeling and collecting of wild marine animals. I live in Florida and I’m able to go snorkeling in the Florida Keys several times a year. But I by no means want to limit this to just my snorkeling here...

www.reef2reef.com

This is exactly how I feel about it. The unexpected, turns this hobby into a job pretty quickly. And if it wasn’t for the helpful people at R2R I would be spinning my heels, going no where trying to find a fix half the time

 

[reefinnewb]

At times it's all fun, other times it is work. My current tank has been set up for 3+ years. I went through a time at the start of Covid where I no longer had time as I was home with my son and no money as I was furloughed so the tank took a major back seat. During those few months I barely had time to clean the glass let alone a water change. Up until about 2 months ago, it was work; alot of it. It took a lot of time to get it back to a point where it wasn't over run with hair and bubble algae. Once that was cleaned up, I couldn't get anything to grow, then worked to get my nutrients up and ended up with dinos, fought that and still didn't have something right. Finally I did a 70ish percent water change, have been feeding more / dosing no3 and po4 and running the Red Sea colors program and finally starting to see things take off again. I'm back to mostly fun now. This hobby ebbs and flows. Ride out the ebbs and you'll be greatly rewarded. 16 years in this hobby and don't know if I can stop again. It satisfies my need to tinker, calms my ADD, and allows me to converse with a smart and fun group of people. Welp, that was a bit long winded...

 

[burningmime]

I'm still less than <5 months in, so it's a lot of up and down. Really just trying to find a better way to do water changes & figuring each hurdle out. My pH & alk keep dropping, so I'm going to start experimenting with Kalkwasser now that I'm back from my 10 day vacation.

For water changes, I'm really glad I tossed together a mixing station. Water changes consist of plugging some stuff in, turning a couple valves, and adding a dash of salt until it tastes right.

 

[LSU-reefer]

The "chore" is part of the fun. One of the reasons I have my reef is because the maintenance rhythm has benefits in itself and I like the equipment!

 

[M Stein]

It becomes a chore when
1) it becomes too repetitive. (frequent water changes)
2) it involves cleaning something that won't have any impact on the tanks appearance. (cleaning pumps, powerheads and the sump)

The best way to keep the hobby enjoyable is to grow coral and get dosing pumps.
Watching coral grow is the best way of marking progress. Fish will just live and get bigger, until they die. You're keeping it because it's pretty but you don't get the same joy of nurturing and growing coral.
And dosing pumps will replace tedious water changes with fun chemistry. You'll want to dose some sort of carbon source to deal with nitrates and phosphates. Adding calcium and alkalinity and depending on your uptake magnesium will help you grow your corals quickly. And then there are the trace elements that will noticeably improve your corals coloration (I have yet to dose trace elements).

 

[Paul B]

To me it is all fun. As soon as it is a chore, I have a dumpster 50 yards from my front door and it will go in there.

I don't really have problems and do very little maintenance.

My fish don't get sick so I don't have to quarantine or medicate.

I may not change water in 6 or 8 months if I don't have time. I think the fish like it if I can't clean the glass because they have no desire to see me. Sometimes I can't feed them for a day or two. They send out for take out and never complained.

I forget to dose all the time, never had a problem. If I don't clean the pumps in a while, months, they just go slower, no one cares. If my skimmer clogs, it just doesn't work..

If there are dino's, algae or cyano, it will go away just as it came with no help from me.

If I can't clean my algae scrubber, the seaweed will just fall back in the tank. Better there than my bed as my wife frowns on that sort of thing.

There is no maintenance on a tank that is crucial to it running correctly if it is delayed.

Of course if I am knee deep in salt water in my Man Cave, I would have to see what the problem is.

 

[dvgyfresh]

It’s a bit of both! Seeing Dino’s in the display is probly my # 1 hate lol but need to ride it out. Currently haven’t cleaned the glass all week / only topping off / feeding.

 

[jiffyjhn]

Not a chore. Even when doing tank maintenance is a form of relaxation from work.
Saturday mornings: smoke up, put on some Pink Floyd, tank maintenance

 

[Tundra Cuttle]

1. It becomes a chore when I have a problem I'm having a lot of trouble fixing. Like when my corals aren't looking good and I'm trying this and not getting them to look healthy again.

2. I don't know really...maybe adjust your expectation and slow way down, realize corals live in slow motion, slower than steering a massive oil tanker in the ocean.

 

[Just John]

The only time my reef tank ever feels like a chore is when I'm trying to glue frags underwater- it's soooo annoying and frustrating.

Me when the frags don't stick

---

oh I know that feeling

 

[Guy714]

It can be a big chore sometimes like the night before you go on a trip, your pump stopped working!!!

 

[LPS Bum]

I have a 90 gal reef (with a fair amount of automation) and a 180 gal FOWLR, and I can say with absolute confidence that I spend 5x as much time on the reef aquarium as I do on the FOWLR.

Having an ATO is very helpful. The dosing pump helps too. Other than that, the weekly water changes that I feel are necessary for the reef system make it a lot more labor intensive than my fish-only. And with the finicky nature of corals, there are many times when I'm tempted to scrap the reef after all these years and just keep the big fish only tank.

 

[Juanito.malo]

It can be difficult for me because the nearest store that has supplies for a reef tank is a 6 hour drive each way..and I'm in Mexico so I cannot order anything living from other countries...I have to go with what I can get on mercadolibre.com...and it is limited....ordering any medicines, etc from amazon can take days to get here

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

I responded all is fun, but all takes time as well. My challenge is to find the time.

 

[ClownWrangler]

I responded all is fun, but all takes time as well. My challenge is to find the time.

Exactly. I don't dread doing any sort of chore. Washing dishes, mowing the lawn, cleaning out a skimmer, I only dread not having enough time in a day to do those things and everything else. When it becomes more about time and less about boredom, its a sign you have reached adulthood.

 

[sp1187]

it's only a chore when "no rhyme or reason" strikes.

 

[elcapitan1993]

It was becoming a chore for me and not fun at all, until I started automating my tank as much as possible, it was and is very expensive to automate but it’s worth it in my opinion.

 

[ClownWrangler]

The only thing that concerns me about the "chores" is the stress of not knowing anyone I can trust to do them if I am away. Automation may be the only answer.

 

[Jax15]

It's all fun, even dumb things like changing the RODI filters and mixing new salt water I enjoy. HOWEVER - things are going well. My tank is 2 years old and thriving. I remember back when I had my nano and I kept killing SPS, it started to feel like a chore. You need to make sure you keep learning and find small wins to keep that from happening!

 

[dieselkeeper]

It's seems like a chore to me. I'm a stick guy. I can't seem to keep SPS alive. I buy 6 frags and 4 die. I test water every weekend to make sure everything is stable and no fluctuations. I'm thinking fish only is next.