Do you keep your own tank journal?

[Sharpchick]

I do for each of my tanks - when I did water changes, my test readings, what plants went in, which ones came out, when I added or moved fish.

Since all my tanks (29 high, 20 long, 10 and two 4 gallon nanos) are planted, I also log when and how much I fertilized, along with notes about how the plants responded (like when most all my anacharis melted after adding the label dose of carbon booster).

My journals are the old fashioned kind - hand written with charts at the top of them. I tried keeping them on my laptop, but water and bits of plants don't mix well with a keyboard...

Curious to know if I am just way too Type A, or if others do this also.

 

[jhawk__]

I do this with my 3 tanks also

 

[Mlani]

I do it too. I find it helps to show if there's any variance in my testing and then I know even if its slight when and what. I think the journal has saved a few of my fish to be honest. If I didn't write it down I'd forget it.

 

[Alyxx]

During a burst of organization at the beginning of a semester like two years ago I made one. Never ended up filling it in, though. Had everything written out nicely, spaces for all parameters of each tank and places to take notes. I wrote out like five entries worth of blanks for everything I wanted to keep track of, and did the first one because I made it out right before tank maintenance. The notebook is still around somewhere, it just never was right there when I was doing testing and such, or it was there but I didn't have a pen ready and didn't feel like stopping what I was doing to find one. Essentially it's something I would like to do, but just haven't managed to do religiously.

 

[Tetra1990]

I only made a chart when I'm cycling a tank. But I think this is a great idea.

 

[Aqualady40]

Yes I been doing it since Aug-2012 when I set tanks back up...it really is a nice organized way of keeping track of things....Me and a friend were looking today for a template that we could also have on our pc's but nothing yet

 

[Athaocity]

waiting to get all settled down and this is defintely on the to do list.going to take notes too.

 

[fort384]

I keep a running tab of all tests on my reef and chart the results over time to identify trends. I test each weekend. If I need to make adjustment doses to my Ca or Alk dosing (I.e. autodosers didn't keep up)'I make a note of it in the log on the day I test. I also put pics over time of my coral frags in the log to compare growth. Along with that I put basic info about each coral I.e. where I got it and what date it went in.

I track it all in an excel file.

 

[brennae]

I keep written notes in a journal.

 

[54seaweed]

I do for each of my tanks - when I did water changes, my test readings, what plants went in, which ones came out, when I added or moved fish.

Since all my tanks (29 high, 20 long, 10 and two 4 gallon nanos) are planted, I also log when and how much I fertilized, along with notes about how the plants responded (like when most all my anacharis melted after adding the label dose of carbon booster).

My journals are the old fashioned kind - hand written with charts at the top of them. I tried keeping them on my laptop, but water and bits of plants don't mix well with a keyboard...

Curious to know if I am just way too Type A, or if others do this also.

you are not alone I keep logs on my salt water tanks
I can tell you as far back as a year of what I did to my tanks and can compare parameters

 

[Ella_e]

My journal (aka fish book) has all the notes about tank parameters, notes about interesting species that I stumble upon, care sheets, diagrams of various equipment, etc. It lists current set-up and what I would like in the future.
It's nice to have a book of semi-organized information.

 

[Nimo]

When I first started fish keeping I logged everything. I have gotten lazy about the logs now I wish I had kept up with them. Any problems or just basic info logged in a book can be a great help. Especialy if you have more than one tank!