Paul, I have a question. I know you are now retired but how did you maintain your tank all those years when you were working? I work full time and do alot of the maintenance on my home as I am like you in the way that I hate paying someone to do something that I can do better.[emoji4] I also collect nsw for my water changes and try to feed my fish as healthy and fresh food as possible. It really gets overwhelming some days and I wonder how you managed with a much larger tank all those years...
Remember I rarely do water changes or test anything. My maintenance is cleaning the front glass and feeding. That's about it. I didn't have a skimmer that I remember in the early days and if I did it was a small DIY one that didn't require maintenance. Even today with my 125 gallon tank I do almost nothing but feed. What else is there to do?
Of course I may have to pick up a coral that fell but I can't think of anything else to do. When I have my algae scrubber I need to clean it once a month or so. That takes about 10 minutes. I still don't have my UG filter running so no Ozone. I don't clean my powerheads for a very long time and most of them are not Korelas which you need to clean constantly because of the grill that is exposed to light so they grow algae.
Yesterday I fed my worms some bread and yogurt for the first time since I have moved almost 5 weeks ago. That takes about 8 minutes. I know people spend all sorts of time on this, but I don't know what they are doing.
You throw fish in, they eat, grow and poop, then 15 or so years later croak of old age and I buy another one.
Now I have no time at all. I am building my garage and workshop along with the light fixtures, shelves, painting, my workbench and all sorts of things besides helping my wife and cleaning the house. Sometimes my fish don't get to eat. They get over it as I did in Viet Nam when I sometimes didn't have time to eat. Fish are not delicate creatures and don't need coddling. :D
Brew, Godzilla Larvae can take care of themselves. They are very resourceful but only speak Japanese so I am not sure if they need anything.
Floyd. The UG filter is there but it is just collecting Social Security as it is not connected to anything. Eventually I will find that pump and install it. Right now I have a ton of gravel and rocks sitting in bleach because it turned to hydrogen sulfide in a bucket. Eventually, Hopefully in my lifetime, I will rinse it and throw it in my tank so I can use the UG filter. :rolleyes:
