Time spent on tank maintenance

[ricoishere]

I would like to know what is the average amount of time spent on tank maintenance from others. Since a great deal of members here have families/household to maintain, myself included, I am curious. I've been able to carve out a block of time daily for maintenance. The domestic CEO is OK with it as well. I prefer to do a little bit consistently over time, which adds up to a lot, rather than neglect and then try to catch up/damage control in one big swoop. Here's my routine:
Tanks: 3
Daily Dosing: 2-3 minutes (5:00am) I'm a very early riser!
Daily maintenance: 15 minutes 8:30 pm
Weekly WC: 2 hours over weekend.

[krisw]

Mine is largely the same.

Tanks: 5
Daily Dosing: 2-3 minutes (5:45am)
Feed Fish/Minor Adjustments: 5 mins (5:00pm)
Weekly WC: 1 hour

Weekend trimming as needed: Depending on scape, could be an hour, could be 5 mins. Lately it's been non-existent!

[ricoishere]

Mine is largely the same.

Tanks: 5
Daily Dosing: 2-3 minutes (5:45am)
Feed Fish/Minor Adjustments: 5 mins (5:00pm)
Weekly WC: 1 hour

Weekend trimming as needed: Depending on scape, could be an hour, could be 5 mins. Lately it's been non-existent!

Kris, I'm trying to get into a routine on trimming. Since I have so many stem plants, they're growing incredibly fast! I've started to reduce my dosing just a liitle, and will trim each tank every 4 weeks. My goal is trim/maintain 1 tank on each weekend, then skip 1 weekend a month. Then each would get a little maiantenance every 4 weeks, and I can consider this more pleasure than chore.

[krisw]

I try to do only 1 tank with heavy stems, not counting a farm tank. The rest of my scapes have the wonderfully maintainable bolbitis, java fern, Blyxa aubertii, and the like as background plants.

[John G]

I have four tanks, but only one of them is high tech. Other than daily feedings, I spend about 5 minutes every three or four days topping off the water and adding ferts; an hour or hour and a half every two weeks doing water changes; and every four to six weeks I spend about an hour on trimming, cleaning, replanting, etc.

[ricoishere]

I try to do only 1 tank with heavy stems, not counting a farm tank. The rest of my scapes have the wonderfully maintainable bolbitis, java fern, Blyxa aubertii, and the like as background plants.

I would love to see those setups. Anything low maintenance is a major plus for me.

[ricoishere]

I have four tanks, but only one of them is high tech. Other than daily feedings, I spend about 5 minutes every three or four days topping off the water and adding ferts; an hour or hour and a half every two weeks doing water changes; and every four to six weeks I spend about an hour on trimming, cleaning, replanting, etc.

That's really cool. Question:You mentioned adding watter every 3-4 days. Do you have any fish in your tanks? I guess since I do have a healthy amount of angelfish in 2 of my tanks, I should consider that as well when panning in the future. They do require a little bit of maintenance

[krisw]

Here's my 75G... No stems: (unless you count the glosso)

[John G]

Question:You mentioned adding watter every 3-4 days. Do you have any fish in your tanks? I guess since I do have a healthy amount of angelfish in 2 of my tanks, I should consider that as well when panning in the future. They do require a little bit of maintenance

I have fish in all of my tanks. Evaporation is a real problem for me, especially in the winter when the humidity is so low. I really should invest some money and time in a system to automatically top-off the tanks, like so many GWAPA members have.

[ricoishere]

[

I have fish in all of my tanks. Evaporation is a real problem for me, especially in the winter when the humidity is so low. I really should invest some money and time in a system to automatically top-off the tanks, like so many GWAPA members have.[/quote]

I had that problem only in one small rimless tank without a lid. I purchased a 1/4" thick glass pane from laurel glass and have it overlapping 3 sides. That helped me out alot. Do you think one might help? Since I've lost quite a few fish due to their jumping out at night, I keep them covered. I dont like how it looks, but I don't want to step on a stiff fish again