I am back! How often should you have to break down a tank?

[red devil]

Sorry for posting this in the wrong place - please move if you can :)

I am back after a long absence...I have been living in china for the past 8 years and have not been in a stable environment all that time. I will move in a couple of weeks and will hopefullly be in a stable environment where I can return to my aquatic hobby.

I want to start with a simple question. Is it reasonable to expect to never have to tear a tank down?

My general rules of thumb:

- Over filter: I prefer to use reverse UG and some kind of mechanical system
- under populate: I buy baby fish and weed them out as they grow up
- Use auto feeders to carefully control the food.

However...i have never worked with plants before, which is something I would like to do this time.

Any ideas? I am looking at a 6 foot tank - possible high if I can find one.

[Soulcoffr]

With weekly maintenance, you could theoretically never have to tear a tank down. I think there are some folks here with tanks upwards of 5 years old or better.

Fish keeping is all about partial water changes and gravel vacuuming these days. We're really not fishkeepers, we're water maintenance engineers. :-)

Of course, that's an oversimplification. But you get the idea.

[J double R]

the goal of course is to never have to tear it down. i have only torn a tank down once other than for moving, and that was because BBA had infested itself so bad into a tank that i had no recourse and the amount of remedial treatment would have not been worth it, so i scrapped all the gravel and decos, and started over.

that was before i knew what BBA was. ;)

[H3D]

We're really not fishkeepers, we're water maintenance engineers. :-)

ROFL! That is so true. :clap:

[tanker]

My 100gal planted tank has been running in its location (relatively unchanged) for 27+ years. Well I did start my C02 about 12+ years ago.

[Mgamer20o0]

i am always changing something in my tank never happy. never really tore it down before. just depends what you put in your set up and if you like it or not. many factors.

[wesknox]

Sorry for posting this in the wrong place - please move if you can :)

I am back after a long absence...I have been living in china for the past 8 years and have not been in a stable environment all that time. I will move in a couple of weeks and will hopefullly be in a stable environment where I can return to my aquatic hobby.

I want to start with a simple question. Is it reasonable to expect to never have to tear a tank down?

My general rules of thumb:

- Over filter: I prefer to use reverse UG and some kind of mechanical system
- under populate: I buy baby fish and weed them out as they grow up
- Use auto feeders to carefully control the food.

However...i have never worked with plants before, which is something I would like to do this time.

Any ideas? I am looking at a 6 foot tank - possible high if I can find one.
I have only torn down a tank twice, and for two reasons...1) I was moving the tank and 2) I was throwing the tank away because it leaked and wasn't repairable. Other possibilities have almost been a) because of algal infestation and b) because of virulent disease that was eventually controlled.

"torn down" to me means gutting plants, fish (not literally!), removing gravel entirely, washing tank (w/chlorine), starting over.