More Time = Better Reef? Does more time reefing equal a better reef tank?

[Dburr1014]

Off topic but what is the coral in the center with dark purple tentacles and bright white/yellowish tips...torch or some sort??

That is an sps but it's hard to tell cuz the pic is blurry

 

[Reefs and Geeks]

I'm guessing I average around 9-10 hours a week. I spend about an hour every night working on tank related things after the kids and wife go to bed, and a few hours on top of that during the day weekly. The work does seem to pay off through. My setup does look very nice. Most of the time I enjoy the work I'm doing on the tank. It only loses it's fun when life is getting just a bit too busy and I could use that time for some extra sleep or getting other stuff done, or if there's a large problem going on that's eating up alot of extra time and money.

 

[725196]

I put 11+ hrs per week. Most weeks it is on the plus side. Some weeks less due to work and family but does the most part I get in more than 11. I do this because is it my hobby and I would rather work/play with my aquarium than watch TV. This may include reading or watching videos but that would be less time then actually what I do with the aquarium directly.

I know not everyone can dedicate this much time but for me it’s the one hobby I have and I make the Conscious choice to spend time working on it. I love this hobby.

enjoy the hobby!

 

[Paul B]

I am retired and can spend all the time I want on anything I want. But I don't spend much time actually working on my tank. It is in my Man cave so I am near it for many hours but except for cleaning the glass every 2 days and throwing some food in there, I don't do much on a daily basis.

Of course maybe 4 times a year I collect and change some water and every few months I will clean the power heads.

Yesterday I changed the resins, RO membrane and pre filters but they were almost three years old and it only took about 15 minutes.

I dose by hand but I do that while I am waiting for the food to thaw out and it only takes maybe 10 seconds.

 

[mucky1957]

I only work part time so I have the option to spend hours on the tank..I don't..but the time is there..daily I clean the glass a bit, top up if need be, feed..so clearly no time at all is needed..more time to spend looking..
I do a water change monthly..so 20 minutes.
I clean the 2 power heads every 3 or 4 weeks so another 30 minutes
I clean the light unit monthly so another 15 minutes.

Thats it for me

 

[KrisReef]

scientists say that the number of hours spent on tank is directly proportional to wife's mood,
they did not find a correlation with tank health.

With older couples the Time spent equation becomes inversely proportional to the spouse’ mood.

 

[TriggerFinger]

Great question! I find the tank relaxing, the fish shenanigans hilarious at times. My Tang gang drama is just funny. It never fails day after day. Three tangs battle for ownership of two tunnels in the rocks. They realize they can't guard both at the same time, so a new tang takes ownership of the second one, then the original tang switches tries to fight off the second tunnel, then they just keep exchanging places, flaring their fins, tails, and even going so far as to place themselves crosswise in the tunnels to block fish from swimming through. What's funnier is I have a dragon wrasse that lives in the sand under one of the tunnels. He comes out and fights all the tangs off...

So, does time watching, "As the tangs swap" count as tank time? heh. That said, I recently removed my skimmer due to over maintenance... I had pulled the whole thing to clean it thoroughly and couldn't get a union cap to loosen, ended up breaking the whole pipe of the skimmer. However, the side effect of this was simplifying my sump setup... I haven't put the skimmer back and haven't noticed only minimal negative consequences (on a 350 gallon system.). In fact some of my corals have since gotten more color and look healthier and are growing faster now. No algae outbreaks either!

The only negative outbreak is increased algae growth on the glass. That part is annoying. but, otherwise nothing else, My ATS seems to keep up with any increased nutrients. I'll take it!

I feed twice a day now instead of once before, I do more water changes. 2-3 times a week instead of once. Only 20 gallons at a time. Semi Manual AWC???

Monitoring Alk more than usual probably, but, that's about it. I find I spend more on stuff... This week ordered some bacteria supplements to see if I can get rid of some diatoms I have. Put more powerheads on the tank, and now with the skimmer gone I have more room in my sump to put in a filter sock or two, so, I am going to try to build custom filter sock holders to see if I can get that to work. Just constant tinkering to try to improve things. Probably make some things worse in the process.

Please take video of your tang/dragon wrasse property wars, share the laughs!!

 

[Treefer32]

Please take video of your tang/dragon wrasse property wars, share the laughs!!

I can certainly do that.

 

[Anchor]

I have 5 tanks currently, mostly smaller, 75 and under. I spend a lot of time in front of each tank daily and make adjustments and top offs, one requires every other day getting the bubble out or siphon tubes. I cant wait to remove this one.. It has some red slime algae problems I dont want to transfer to other tanks. Hoping for the best. So I spend at least and hour on weekdays and usually several on weekends. 11+ for me but it varies..

Eventually I hope to get down to 3 tanks.. But the 120 fatboy needs to show up in my room.

All in all, I like the time I spend on these. so more the merrier, right?