Reef Task Frequency

[NeonRabbit221B]

At what frequency does every do their tank maintenance upkeep tasks? I often find that I tend to dedicate a whole day (4 tanks) each month to knock out bigger tasks, test everything ect and I am interested in how other reefers keep up with the weekly/monthly tasks. I have been going through some depression recently and have gotten into a bad habit of puttng off things like testing and have a good burst of energy every so often.

How often do you:
Test Chemistry (does anybody else test Mag monthly and Alk much more frequently? Does anyone ever actually test for ammonia?)
PM Pumps
Water change
Scrape algae off the glass
Calibrate pH and refractometer
Vacuum sand bed

How do you manage your tasks so that you keep up with them?

Test: I test phosphate, alk and nitrate weekly, calcium every other week and magnesium monthly
PM pumps: 180 days or so
WC: About every 10-14 days
Glass cleaning: When my GF complains she can't see the corals
Calibrations: When I think a probe or a reading is off....
Vacuum: During WC typically but with AWC on my nano I got very lazy

 

[laverda]

How often do you:
Test Chemistry - ALK monthly generally, if it gets to far off weekly or daily until dialed in again.
Does anyone ever actually test for ammonia?- no never
PM Pumps - approximately every 2 years, or as needed.
Water change - 1 gallon a day of a 360 gallon system most days
Scrape algae off the glass every 2-3 days. I don’t let it get to where I have to scrape it off.
Calibrate pH and refractometer - 12-18 months
Vacuum sand bed - never!

 

[Hydrored]

I went from 3 tanks to one large tank and I’m glad I did. Work made it tough and 2 of the 3 was getting neglected at any given time.

I use a trident for mag,alk,calc.

Test alk, phosphates, nitrates every Saturday with Hanna/red sea

Change filter socks every 3 days before I leave in the morning

Went to auto water change but I do vacuum detritus up every 2 weeks

Scrape the glass every Saturday morning

I will say going to one large tank and automating has made the hobby much more enjoyable. Even adding a calcium reactor has been a set it and forget it. Leaves me with much more time to enjoy it than worrying about maintenance after a 50-70 hour work week.