How do you keep track of your maintainence?

Water change and gravel vac weekly, plus or minus a day. If I'm a day or so over one week I get in another change eithin 4 or 5 days as opposed to going a full week. Filter maintenance (rinse out pads, replace Polyfilter Media) about monthly, alternating each filter every two weeks. I don't keep a log.

About every 12 weeks I haul everything out and vac very thoroughly. I hate doing this. Durn rocks.
 
I wing it as my schedule doesn't allow me to pick "a day". Keep up with a 30 - 40% weekly water change in my head - sometime after 5 days, sometimes it stretches to 10 depending on life. Will do the occasional 10% quicky as needed.

I keep a post-it note on all my filters and write down the date each time I change the media as a reference.
 
If anyone is using these posts for ideas on their own maintenance, be sure to also remember to change your bulbs routinely, every six months for planted and one year for non-planted seems to be the general consensus for fluorescent (most widely used).
 
Because I feel like my 55 is bordering on overstocked, I try to do frequent but small water changes. As long as the rest of my life doesn't get too busy, I tend to change just a few gallons every day. I jot down how much I change on a calendar hanging in my kitchen, and if by Saturday my changes don't add up to a total of at least 30%, I make up for it then.
 
Wow I don't keep track of a darned thing. I just do water changes on Tuesdays and maintenance the filters whenever I feel like it's time. I rarely test for anything anymore as my tanks are all cycled, planted, peat or crushed coral filtered and simply stable as hell.

All has been well on this method for many years. No reason to change now.
 
Ditto...it's all about observation and awareness of time for me. Everything is stored in my head.
 
:eek: When first starting out, it can seem a bit overwhelming especially w/ multiple tanks. The log is the simplest way for you to be able to set a routine both you & the fish can live with. Once you're fully cycled & stocked, take a series of nitrate readings & chart the increase till you get to 20/30ppm. Do a 20/40% w/c & then start over testing to see how many days it takes for the increase to the same point. After a couple of times you'll know you need to do a w/c every -XX- days, based on how fast your nitrates climb. You'll also learn quickly if you need to increase tank size (water) or decrease inhabitants (fish) when you find yourself doing 2 or more w/c's in a week to maintain 20ppm.
Filter maintainance log will be similar. Run till output begins to noticeably decrease. Clean filter & note how many days till same decrease. This will also give you an indication if it's time to upgrade to a larger filter. Once you've got the stats, you can construct a schedule & stick to it give or take a day or two with no harm. More water & larger filter(s) = more time between maint. in general.
All that being said, you could always do like me & rb
I wing it.....
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I keep spiral notebooks for keeping track of the eight tanks I have. It's good for keeping notes on any fish behavior, temps, water changes, filter cleanings, glass cleanings and when you've added ferts or anything else to the tank...Plus my memory isn't what it used to be!:confused:
 
I religiously tracked parameters on Filemaker Pro Mobile on my Palm Pilot, it helped me through some problems I was having a few years ago. Now I have an iPhone so I'm looking for a new solution. Anyone know of n awesome spreadsheet someone wants to share? Actually, why hasn't someone made an iPhone app for aquariums?
 
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