What is your idea of a low maintenance tank? A tank that can be left alone for months without turning into an algae farm? A tank that only needs a filter cleaning once a year? Feedings once a week? No added ferts? Or just something that doesn't need a trim every three days?
When my 90 was up a running properly, I had it to where I could do a 50% WC once a month and everything still tested good. (The fish had an auto feeder, I was traveling a lot for work.)
Lately, this. I dont mind weekly water changes, monthly filter maintenance, and dropping a few ferts in every day. I mean if you dont enjoy a certain degree of upkeep this probably isnt the hobby for you. My main gripe since delving into the high-tech realm of things is stem plants that need constant topping/re-planting to remain in check. It's causing me to seriously re-think what plants I keep.
Exactly that — low maintenance. Maintenance that is at a small level. I'd define that, in essence, as the once-a-week model.
Basically, lights on a timer, food given daily or every other day and any type of in-tank maintenance (water changes, plant trimming/removal) happening once a week. CO2, fert dosing, etc. increase maintenance, and don't qualify for "low" tech for me.
Yes, that is the correct definition of low maintenance. And I don't test water parameters under my definition of low maintenance either. It feels like cheating.
Comfortable leaving tank completely unattended for 2 weeks+.
Monthly water changes.
I suppose if you have enough automation even a high tech tank could classify as low maintenance, although you would need to be very comfortable that it is reliable.
low maintenance for me is scary cuz i'll just forget about it! on that note, i enjoy fertilizing everyday via ei dosing... weekly water changes.. fliter cleaning every other h20 change.. wiping dwn the glass, etc.
Low maint for me, would be a planted tank where plants define the system,a few fish per volume of water,and water changes perhaps once or twice a year.
Fish foods and waste would feed the plants with perhaps a little boost in fertz such as Nitrogen.
Have seen such tanks but I have too many fish,too much food,and too much waste to pull it off.
I spend about an hour a week on maint in my low tech affairs and it is easily manageable for me.
When I had many more tanks, it became too much like work.
Low maint for me, would be a planted tank where plants define the system,a few fish per volume of water,and water changes perhaps once or twice a year.
Fish foods and waste would feed the plants with perhaps a little boost in fertz such as Nitrogen.
Trimming, feeding, toping up, adjusting lightning conditions, I consider preventive mainteance. Nothing demanding here.
Measuring water parameters, by mean of glassware or gut feel, I consider monitoring. Not demanding either.
Having a good grasp of the above minimize demanding corrective maintenance or complete overhaul.
Plant species can influence the labor, as well as light, and CO2, but they are in no way exclusive to more or less work.
Bump: This is a more labor based tank, but mostly gardening and more water changes, cleaning leaves up and pre filter sponge.
So I get a lot out of each tank for the added labor............but they are different tanks with different species and different goals. I do not mind trimming this tank because I get a lot out of that and that's what I wanted to do with it to begin with(my stated goal was to garden with a lot of colorful stem plants).
But even with this tank, I use A reineckii mini, Erios, MC, Crypts, hardscape materials and stems that are less trouble. A few like the red pantanal are bad....but most of the others are not so bad. So this has a trade off balance also.
Contrary as it may sound, I've upped my lights/ferts and invested in some faster growing stems in order to decrease the amount of unpleasant work there is to do on my tanks.
"Maintenance", to me, is the stuff you do because you *have* to and I can only count the number of leaves on my new buces so many times before my hands get itchy and I end up doing big layout tweaks or entire rescapes resulting in massive time and energy consumption just to get the satisfaction of seeing significant changes in my tanks. A move to daily ferts and a half dozen plant varieties that need regular attention will let me get my hands wet and see progress with no additional load of the things I don't like doing--cleaning filters, big/repeated water changes and spending an entire day flooding my living room with buckets and bins of materials.
And shipping. I *hate* shipping. So I purposefully set up my tanks with lines of predation so I can have stock healthy and happy enough to reproduce in my tanks, but not have an excess of anything.
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