do larger fish tanks require less maintenance than smaller tanks?

I currently have 3 fish tanks in my house, a 30-gallon, a 20-gallon long, and a 5 gallon. My parents won't let me bring any new fish tanks into the house.

I do weekly water changes on my fish tanks. I read an article in Aquarium Fish Magazine that smaller tanks require smaller more frequent water changes than larger fish tanks. Is this true?

I work in a LFS, and my manager has 15 fish tanks, only one is a salt tank. When I started at this store, hired as a cashier, I only had one fish tank. I've been there slightly over a year, I bought the second tank for my boyfriend, and he brought the third one over for use as a quarantine tank.

My boyfriend does not want me to turn into my manager, having 15 fish tanks. When we get a place (house) of our own, he'd rather I have two large fish tanks (hypothetically two 100 gallon fish tanks) than many small fish tanks (hypothetically ten 20 gallon tanks).

If larger tanks require less frequent water changes, even if they were larger percentage changes, he would be okay with that. But he'd rather only have to assist with the maintenance as little as possible. He's not really into fish tanks.

Also, is there a way that I can recycle the water? Obviously I have to remove water during a water change, but can I re-use the water... say if I run it through a filter, or reverse osmosis, or something. I'm open to ideas, sumps, Fluvals, canister filters, and multiple filters.

My boyfriend is going to school to be an electrician, and he's worked construction. He's capable of building the stand and the canopy. He could probably manage to build do-it-yourself things. I guess he just doesn't want to dump all the water down the drain, if it can be acceptably purified. And he'd rather me use a kerosene (sp) pump to siphon and fill the tank (from say large buckets), this is a kero pump that would obviously be dedicated for fish only and thus never has kero in it...

I want to at least work with him to get him more involved, even if that be years from now. We're willing to do non-conventional things, like do-it-yourself projects, or buying similar things at a hardware store. For example, we made a siphon like the python siphons using a 50-foot hose from the hardware store, a switch to allow me to stop the water (like the python has), and the gravel vacuum I already had (having only to buy a hose repair end with threads to attach it to the hose). The only python part we bought was the unit that attaches to the faucet threads (that has drain and fill modes). So we spent maximum of $20, for something that functioned like the 50-foot python, which my store sells for $84.99.

I was told I could have a 'natural tank,' that would require minimal hardware (i.e. a sponge filter, and some powerheads), and that I could do less maintenance this way if I kept fewer fish in the tank (didn't overstock it). I know ponds don't require lots of maintenance, if set up properly, unless something goes wrong. I want to try to convert this functional concept of low maintenance ponds to fish tanks, even if it means a higher initial investment.

Any suggestions on how to re-use water would be greatly appreciated. I guess he just doesn't want a high water bill. Or any other way to "waste" less too would be great.

nerdyguy83 said:

Any size tank should get a 25% change once a week as a set in stone rule. I don't say this because your fish will die instantly if you leave the changes go every two weeks, but there is a higher risk of this if your water changes are infrequent. It is often said that larger tanks are easier to take care of. This is not because they should have water changes less often, but because if you are not religious in your tank maintenance, an imbalance will take longer to become serious in 50 gallons as opposed to 10 gallons. Newbs are often told to get a tank of at least 20 gallons for this reason. In an established tank, a lack of water maintenance will result in "old-tank syndrome" which can be just as deadly as "new-tank syndrome" (although it will take longer).

Another possible solution if you want a large tank with easier maintenance is to add plants which will balance the water chemistry somewhat (although if you aren't familiar with plants, getting set up to have them may be more trouble than it is worth) or use a sump filtration system to allow for easier water changes.

Click to expand...

I'm okay with over-filtering. I have plants in all of my tanks, I feed them with SeaChem products. I'm very religious about my maintenance, 25% weekly water changes every Sunday, new filter cartridge every 28 days, cleaning of the filter every 60 days.

Once every other week, or even every three weeks would be okay. I don't want to cause any harm to the future fish.

I just want to know more work less often can be done, and about the water re-cycling.

I've never heard of 'old tank syndrome.'