old tank syndrome

[troutman11111]

i don't get it, how could you not look at your tank every day like christmas morning? it's been 16 years and i still love to look, test, and tinker around my baby-tank. this artical is sad, http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html i add nothing to my tank now,with alot of $ spent a good ro.do,with a t.d.s.monitor. my auto top off system gives me pure water only. food is not a problem in an old tank my purple tang,percular clowns,yellow wasse have not been fed in over 2 years. all are fine. any other thoughts on old tank syndrom?

 

[lando]

Interesting article...thanks for sharing. I guess it helps point out the differences bewtween a true hobbiest and a fad hobbiest. Everyone's time is limited it seems, especialy these days. You can look at your tank maintainace as just another "chore" that will eventually get done or look forward to it as it is a very important part of your hobby.

 

[neilster1]

I see something new or different in my tank everyday.. my wife accuses me of spending too much time in front of it. I'm sure that "old tank syndrome" occurs but probably not for a real hobbyist.

 

[pkremer]

That is an excellent article, it really makes me think. I have a freshwater aquarium that I definitely don't maintain the way I did initially. I definitely take care of it, and I love the fish in it, but my weekly water changes have turned into every other week, and in really busy months, once every 3 weeks. This gives me something to think about, maybe I'll need to budget in 10 to 15 minutes every week to go back to my weekly water change schedule...

Paul

 

[jasno999]

I have both a freshwater tank and a salt water tank. Saltwater definitly requires a lot more maintnance and attention. YOu have to watch levels and monitor things. YO uhave to do water changes to get nutrients where they should be. There is a lot too it.

As for the freshwater tank it is a lot less difficult. I know many wil lget angry at this but I will say it anyway. On my freswater tan kI do little to no maintanance at all. Maybe I do a water change and gravle vac every 2-3 months. But that is abotu all I do. The fish are healthy and the water is clear. I have a HOB filter and a Ehlim canister filter on the tank so my filtration is over and above what is needed for a 29gallon tank. But other than that I let it be and I keep my fish fed. I think doing good maintance and keeping a schedule is great and will be benificial to your freshwater tank. But I jsut don't think a weekly water change is nessassary.

 

[MYTY1705]

I agree with Jasno999. I only do a waterchange on my salty when the tests say I need to. I have actually gone three months without one. Yet my rbta is thriving and has split. My acropora is getting huge and actually think it spawned I had hundreds of little things on the glass that looked like little acros. Then again I only have a clown and gramma in a 29 with an emperor 400 and a ps for a 55 gal. tank. Way more filtration than needed. But with this I am able to enjoy looking at the fish and not having to work so hard to control things. I think if you over do the filtration and let the tank mature, you will eventually have a more stable system than changing the water constantly. The only thing I have to do on a regular basis is top off the water. That gives me the nutrients that the corals need to grow, and they are rapidly growing. I am soon to be adding a few more corals and we will see how they fare in my system. Right now all I have is mushrooms, leathers, acros and a colt.