When did YOU stop SPENDING so much TIME on YOUR Tank?

[Ocean’s Piece]

When would you say you could notice that you stopped spending so much time working on your tank? I have recently got this feeling now that my tank is maturing and is starting to be able to take care of itself more. I don’t spend as many hours as I did and I have had good results. This may also be because I have gotten in a rhythm. Let me know what it was like for you?

 

[LRT]

When would you say you could notice that you stopped spending so much time working on your tank? I have recently got this feeling now that my tank is maturing and is starting to be able to take care of itself more. I don’t spend as many hours as I did and I have had good results. This may also be because I have gotten in a rhythm. Let me know what it was like for you?

Sounds like you just need another tank or time for upgrade?
I know the feeling though. Once my last system hit a year and got the wrinkles worked out it was a breeze. This new tank was a challenge with full system swap/upgrade.
Good thing I have another one waiting to be set up haha

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Sounds like you just need another tank or time for upgrade?
I know the feeling though. Once my last system hit a year and got the wrinkles worked out it was a breeze. This new tank was a challenge with full system swap/upgrade.
Good thing I have another one waiting to be set up haha

I don’t have a lot in my tank yet even though its 6 months. I have 5 corals and one fish. Probably get about 20 corals or so who knows and by that time I’ll be too broke to upgrade lol

 

[LRT]

I don’t have a lot in my tank yet even though its 6 months. I have 5 corals and one fish. Probably get about 20 corals or so who knows and by that time I’ll be too broke to upgrade lol

Lol you will figure it out. Your upgrade will end up being a breeze and you will end up upgrading or adding another again. Its a vicious circle and all this site does is enable hahaha.
I work for corals now. Food is 2nd hahaha

 

[Klyle]

Approaching the 2 year mark with my 40 breeder, mixed reef. I added an algae reactor 3 months back, began dosing trace elements, and I am now experimenting with drastically reduced water changes. So far so good. I don't think going to zero water changes will be my strategy... maybe 4 times / year. I clean my glass maybe once a month and it isn't even that bad when I do! Now I'm just sitting back, waiting for my heater to go bad.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Approaching the 2 year mark with my 40 breeder, mixed reef. I added an algae reactor 3 months back, began dosing trace elements, and I am now experimenting with drastically reduced water changes. So far so good. I don't think going to zero water changes will be my strategy... maybe 4 times / year. I clean my glass maybe once a month and it isn't even that bad when I do! Now I'm just sitting back, waiting for my heater to go bad.

That’s where I wanna be in the next year or two

 

[blaxsun]

When I set it up with a Neptune system to control everything.

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

There's always testing to be done. One of the 3 tanks is getting tested several times per week, but that's because I'm going all in wall-to-wall sps on the rockwork. Nitrates and phosphates are 0 unless I intervene and dose, which is how I prefer to run this kind of tank. I have my filter roller to thank for that. I haven't done a water change in about a month and a half or longer. Icp test incoming.

The other 2 are rarely tested. One is a fowlr that I do 40% water changes when the glass needs to be cleaned off too often or there's too much detritus. My other tank is my first saltwater tank I set up 3.5 years ago. I tested the salinity, alk and nitrates for the first time in months recently and it's still doing fine. In fact, I ran out of 2 part for who knows how long and I didn't see it lose a beat. There's no sump or any other nutrient export method, so water changes are my only way to lower nutrients. Nitrates were at 11 after a couple of months with 1 water change. I feed heavily, so that's just what mature tanks do. I mean, my scraper got disconnected from the magnet and has been wedged between 2 rocks for the last couple of weeks. The panels were getting pretty nasty there, but of course magically the algae is going away in it's own. I regularly have my clowns and trochus snails spawn in the tank. After awhile, you don't need to do anything. I let the corals fight for space. It's as close to real reef warfare as it gets (minus coral eating fish, but not aefw;Vomit)

 

[ZoWhat]

After my wife threatened divorce.... now I just stay outside the home working longer.

"Be home soon"

I win

 

[Klyle]

Even though I'm "sitting back" and enjoying my tank, I'm always testing. Now I just test alk a couple or few times a week, calcium and mag maybe once a month... but having adding an algae reactor a few months back, I'm now testing po4 and no3 every other day until I get in the groove. No3 hanging around 5 but I'm having to dose nitrates to keep it there. Super scared about zeroing out my levels!

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

There's always testing to be done. One of the 3 tanks is getting tested several times per week, but that's because I'm going all in wall-to-wall sps on the rockwork. Nitrates and phosphates are 0 unless I intervene and dose, which is how I prefer to run this kind of tank. I have my filter roller to thank for that. I haven't done a water change in about a month and a half or longer. Icp test incoming.

The other 2 are rarely tested. One is a fowlr that I do 40% water changes when the glass needs to be cleaned off too often or there's too much detritus. My other tank is my first saltwater tank I set up 3.5 years ago. I tested the salinity, alk and nitrates for the first time in months recently and it's still doing fine. In fact, I ran out of 2 part for who knows how long and I didn't see it lose a beat. There's no sump or any other nutrient export method, so water changes are my only way to lower nutrients. Nitrates were at 11 after a couple of months with 1 water change. I feed heavily, so that's just what mature tanks do. I mean, my scraper got disconnected from the magnet and has been wedged between 2 rocks for the last couple of weeks. The panels were getting pretty nasty there, but of course magically the algae is going away in it's own. I regularly have my clowns and trochus snails spawn in the tank. After awhile, you don't need to do anything. I let the corals fight for space. It's as close to real reef warfare as it gets (minus coral eating fish, but not aefw;Vomit)

My tank is not there yet but I hope it will be there around this time next year

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ive always had multiple tanks and have always balanced out the time spent on them which I consider minimal

 

[G Santana]

Almost 7 months in, I sleep next to the tank, is that alot of time???

 

[flyfisher2]

Who stopped spending time with the tank? Who touched the thermostat? They go hand in hand...

The tank is the first thing I check when I get up and the last thing I check when I go to sleep and if I wake during the night I take a walk in the dark and LISTEN.... It sounds okay...

Now you can ask, WHICH tank do you spend the MOST time with. Thats a whole different question

 

[PennyB]

You didn't have 15-18 Months as an option. When my system really came into it's own and I had all my equipment running automatic. My system was very stable and coral just grew.. It was nice to be able to just watch SPS grow and fish swim. I would open my phone daily, check measurements and smile.