That includes everything from maintenance, feeding, and redecorating. I average around 4-5hrs a week in water changes and filter maintenance, 1 hour feeding, and another 1-2hrs or so tweaking which totals around 8 hours per week in actual work. I went to Home Depot today to start looking at tankless water heaters which can heat water continuesly for hours, my biggest challenge now is waiting the hot water tank to refill. I change around 500g weekly and this new system would be a great help. I'm interested in hear from everyone else.

I think I average about 2 hours a week on tank maintenance. I change the 180G and 30G together which takes about an hour and then I do the 65G which takes about an hour. Although, with the 65 Gallon, I start the siphon and will do other things while it runs, since it takes about 30 minutes to drain to the halfway point. For feeding, I spend about an hour a week.

I never gave the hot water heater any thought, since I can change the water without noticing any loss of hot water in the house. I have a 40G hot water heater.

I would say about 3 hours at most to take care of my fish per week. However, I probably spend about 5 hours a week viewing them. So, when I think about how many hours a week do I devote to my fish, its about 8.

How many hours do you actually watch the fish, separate from maintenance tasks?

For maintainence, probably an hour or two a week for water changes, readjustment, feeding, etc. Last night i worked on it for about 2-3 hours, cleaning my filters and such. I've also been working on cleaning out a new tank for my bed side, a little 6 gallon fluval edge i got off craigslist.
If fish store visits count, then that probably adds another 5 hours to my total haha
I watch my fish tank for several hours a week.

Most of my viewing time is during maintenance in the fish room, otherwise the big tank and bowfront are located in the family rooms and recieve alot of attention.

I'm considering having the fish room tanks drilled with ball valves, this allow me to drain the tanks very quickly which will cut maintenance time by 1-2 hours. That or I'm going to break down all the small tanks and just keep the 40B's up. I'm missing out on to much activities that I enjoy in the summer.

HUIKT - I know you just did a decent size reduction. I'd be curious to hear how much time you end up spending per week based on the 6 breeders and your larger tanks.

Would be good to know before i enter the world of 40B's.

I'm only running 5 40 breeders after last night with a couple of 20 longs, I'm down to around a hour and half weekly in the fish room.

The 150g takes around a hour or so weekly.

The 72B and Fluval Chi takes around a hour as well since it's upstairs and the water pressure is lower and drains slower.

Total is around three and half hours weekly which is where I wanted to be.

Well I'd say around 4 hours a week with the 143g and the 90g taking the most time.Much better though since I invested in a hose adaptor for my mixer tap.Really was a bind using buckets.4 tanks running at the moment one of which is a quarantine/holding tank.Looking for a 7 footer at the moment so maintenance time will go up.

I spend about 6 hrs a week doing water changes and filter maintenance and about 2 hours feeding and trimming plants in my planted tank. My 110g takes up most of the cleaning time because it is so tall. I have to break out the ladder cause its on a 4' tall stand. Getting to the bottom when needed is a pain in the rear. I recently bought 2 6' tanks and I'm thinking one will replace the tall tank.

Well I'm up to around 4-5 hours a week again since I added a few more tank in the fish room, now I have 8 40 breeders and 4 20 longs running. This plus the 150g and 72 bowfront keeps me busy.

HUKIT - I knew your downsizing efforts wouldn't last. Your next text will probably be a picture of a 300G being carried in!