guys with larger tanks (55+ gallons)

I have a 55g. Usually once a week I change one third to one half of the water using my gravel vac, while also cleaning the junk out of my gravel. I also rinse off the filter inserts for my HOBs. Once a month I replace the filter insert as it is the disposable kind. That's usually all I have to do and it doesn't take long, although I must admit that I can clean my 10g faster. Right now I keep getting algae growing on the stuff in the tank so it's taking longer to clean b/c I insist on scrubbing it off.
 
well with any any size tank time is not key its the gratification you get once its all done. well the time frames all depends on what you are all doing. i spend about
30 min on water changes every 2 weeks
1-2 hours(depending on my speed) of cleaning gravel via siphon and filter maintance.
15 minutes water testing every 2 weeks
30 seconds feeding

are you planing on setting one up or just curios?
 
I have a 10 gallon now but i would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get a bigger one semi soon. But I dont want to have to test the water ALL the time, or anything like that (ive heard testing the water once a DAY for SW tanks!)

Just seeing if its much harder/longer then my 10 gal.
 
oh well in that case its all good it took me about mmm 2 hours to set up the stand, and maybe 2 hours to fullly wash up the tank and filters, gravel washing varies depending on how you go about it and how much you using, use a garden hoes(spelling) to fill it up, add your chemicals, and filter media, setting up to tank goes faster if you install in order like undergravel filter, gravel, the filters, water, chemicals. let the filters run after adding chemicals, let the tank get up to temp, and start you cycling via being cruel with 2 or three fish, or with raw shrimp. not to sound retarded and neglecting anything else but with fresh all i test for is nitrate, since that is the last cycling stage, but i would recommend tesing often during the initial cycling and when adding fish to watch for peaks in ammonia and nitrite to know when to change to water out to keep or fish healthy and only do 1/3rd water changes at a time, other than that once the tack in establised and you don't plan on adding any more fish for a while just test nitrate every 2 weeks. i have been doing this process for 5 years for fresh and never had any problems.

now for salt all that daily testing is done for high maintance tanks or when they are cycling other than that i only hear of weekly testing for sw. i take my information for experiance and what my guru tells. this guy is a pro, i think he has a degree or something and is of the asian, korean whatever culture and i know they know their stuff.

so basically if you want to take your time setting it up just to one or two things a day and do some more the next untill you get to the final stage of cycling and your on your way.
 
I would say that the time you spend tending to a larger tank is not much different from the time spent with a smaller one. It usually takes me more time to get everything set up then it does to actually remove the water/gravel vac, and refill. The real time difference will be the difference in the amount of water you remove and refill...
 
I have an 80 gallon setup that I spend about half an hour changing about 25% of the water weekly (every Sunday). I remove the water, and replace it with aged water that has been sitting in a reservoir for about a week. I've been thinking about adding a submersible filter to this reservoir with carbon to keep the water as pristine as possible...good idea? Anways, I also rinse out the media of 1 of 3 Aquaclear filters (I alternately rinse the media on a weekly basis). I also check the water paramters a couple of days after the water change. Occasionally, I will do a 10%-20% water change mid-week to stay on top of algea problems or to maintain optimal water conditions.

On a daily basis, I spend about 10 minutes feeding the fish once, maybe twice a day, and observing the fish for strange behaviours or disease.
 
Once a month:
I throughly clean out both filters,witch means i scrub the filter housing,impellor,ect.....That takes about 30 min.

Every two weeks:
I take out all decor and and do a through gravel vac and 50% water change.
That takes about 1.5 hrs.

So,all in all i spend about 3.5 hours of tank maintance a month,not a bad deal eh?
 
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