More Time = Better Reef? Does more time reefing equal a better reef tank?

[Nhjmc]

4-5 hours weekly here!

 

[reef4now]

New to reef tank hobby. I have a 29 gallon which I run with hob filter,do weekly 10% water change,biweekly poly filter change,feed the 4 fish daily,feed my corals twice a week,gfo monthly ,chemipure biweekly.I test salinity and alkalinity every other day and dose kalk ,and iodine once a week All in all I spend about 4 hours a week.

 

[reef4now]

New to reef tank hobby. I have a 29 gallon which I run with hob filter,do weekly 10% water change,biweekly poly filter change,feed the 4 fish daily,feed my corals twice a week,gfo monthly ,chemipure biweekly.I test salinity and alkalinity every other day and dose kalk ,and iodine once a week All in all I spend about 4 hours a week.

 

[Bacon505]

I think its not about how much time you spend on your reef, but how much time you take to learn and understand about your reef.

 

[takitaj]

Oh yea, the amount of time reading and learning...won't even go there. lol

 

[Dburr1014]

My vote was 6-8.but not really.
Sometimes more sometimes less. I think it averages out to that over a course of a year. I have aptasia so I spent time killing that, but then some weeks I just fed the fish.
Then the time just watching the tank as a whole... That is time with the tank even tho you are not tinkering.

 

[Robinreefs94]

In just pure maintenance then it's around 2-3 hrs per week (clean skimmer cup, water testing, feeding, clean glass etc). In viewing the tank and reading online on both this and native forums, articles, scientific reports and so on, then there's no great answer. A simple guess would be somewhere between 5 - 10 hrs.

 

[Mark Bradley]

My Saturday morning is cleaning the glass, changing water with hoovering the substrate, ensuring all corals look happy, changing my filter sock/calcium, checking phosphate and changing reactor media if necessary. Individually feed corals twice a week. Check calcium, phosphate and alkalinity twice a week. Clean skimmer daily and check ATO. Review all stock daily. Put down 6-8 hours a week and I find them amongst the most enjoyable!

 

[ricksmithsdca]

We've all seen them! AMAZING REEF TANKS! Not at my house of course! We've talked about the equipment, the chemistry, the practices to achieve one of these "amazing" reef tanks but how does time factor into it all? I mean if you have it mostly automated wouldn't you spend less time? But if you have more time are you constantly tinkering and just keeping things a little out of whack? Let's talk about it today!

Do you think that if you had more time to spend with your aquarium that you would have a better reef?

@Reefer350Lighting 's beautiful reef!

My tank is pretty new so I would say I probably spend about 5-6 hours a week on it. Tweaking the overflow, cleaning the algea that's growing, doing my water changes, playing with my GHL, and testing the water parameters. On top of the actual tank work, I spend another few hours researching the corals and fish I want. It's a great past time.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Do you think that if you had more time to spend with your aquarium that you would have a better reef?

They get the time they need. If I did not have time, I would not have three tanks. With the three, the demand is maybe a little over an hour as they are all well established.

 

[GuppyHJD]

I am spending alot of time a day but I am working on setting up a new system. Two hours today building a skimmer stand, two hours researching my light settings, made water, etc

 

[SHNICI]

I see a big difference in the question you asked, "How much time do you HAVE to spend..." vs how much time I like to spend.

If this hobby is more work that you have to do, rather than work that you do because you enjoy it, you may be in the wrong hobby!

That's completely correct!!!
I love the time spended on my tank
-probably 25-30 minutes daily at the morning feeding and dosing (manually at the moment)
- 2-3 hours weekly maintaining (sorry, probably 5+ )
-If I have to count the time I spend in the forum reading and learning ..., it go over 20-30+ hours weekly
If something happen and I have to adjust it..., probably it will take 15+ hours per week only the tank maintaining

I think its not about how much time you spend on your reef, but how much time you take to learn and understand about your reef.

Perfect sense

Oh yea, the amount of time reading and learning...won't even go there. lol

Can't say too much about..., before I start to do anything about reefing..., I spend over half year of reading only (at least couple of hours of reading daily).
Really I was a bit over the new reefer with most of the useful information to build my reef properly (and with the exp of FW for over 20-25+ years), the job was done properly

 

[HJ99]

We are just getting started. I'm retired and spend uncounted hours searching, reading, watching Youtube and generally getting more confused by the day. This is worse than my first girl friend. LOL

 

[SHNICI]

We are just getting started. I'm retired and spend uncounted hours searching, reading, watching Youtube and generally getting more confused by the day. This is worse than my first girl friend. LOL

You can get it done, just don't worry too much, and the patience, that's the main, slowly getting everything done amd patience is the key. If you keep going you are closer to the success, don't give up and you will see the beauty of the hobby.
Good Luck
And WELCOME TO R2R, wish you all best in the hobby.

 

[BigSkyRich]

We've all seen them! AMAZING REEF TANKS! Not at my house of course! We've talked about the equipment, the chemistry, the practices to achieve one of these "amazing" reef tanks but how does time factor into it all? I mean if you have it mostly automated wouldn't you spend less time? But if you have more time are you constantly tinkering and just keeping things a little out of whack? Let's talk about it today!

Do you think that if you had more time to spend with your aquarium that you would have a better reef?

@Reefer350Lighting 's beautiful reef!

Maybe the better question is the over under how many times a day you look at your tank? I work at home and my tank is in MT office so it's safe to say 20+ daily. Does that make me a little obsessive? Proud to say yes

 

[arussellnsg]

scientists say that the number of hours spent on tank is directly proportional to wife's mood,
they did not find a correlation with tank health.

Or husband's , yes

 

[tinhorse]

Off topic but what is the coral in the center with dark purple tentacles and bright white/yellowish tips...torch or some sort??

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I generally spend less than one hour per week on the tank, except every two weeks I spend maybe an hour on the WC making up the water and changing it....,

 

[ReefBeta]

I think on average I'm spending 2 hours a day around the tank and stuff. I also counting looking at fish and corals, checking if all corals are showing happy, all fish are actually eating, etc. If not counting that then maybe 1 hour a day in average.

Most of the stuff are automated. The real maintenance I do is change filter floss, clean skimmer cup, refill ATO, weekly water change, and making RO and saltwater. I think those take like 2~3 hours a week in total? It's all small thunk, 5 mins here 10 minutes there.

Then the rest are dosing something on the corals. Gluing new corals on rock took the longest. I always spend so much time deciding where should each new piece go so that it generate the best color contrast. My tank is relatively new, so almost every other weeks there will be something new. Then I feed the corals almost every night because I have quite some NPS corals as well.

I think the point of automation is that it give me more time to do the fun stuff. Bonsai with coral is fun. I'd rather spend an hour glueing coral down than doing water change. Also I do it on my schedule, not on the tanks. There couple easily be several days straight that I don't feel like minding the tank at all, so I just feed the fish and don't even look at it much. Then when the mood come I can easily work on it the whole day from breakfast to dinner. The tank don't need me to run because of the automations.

 

[Dburr1014]

You can get it done, just don't worry too much, and the patience, that's the main, slowly getting everything done amd patience is the key. If you keep going you are closer to the success, don't give up and you will see the beauty of the hobby.
Good Luck
And WELCOME TO R2R, wish you all best in the hobby.

He's talking about your first girlfriend