How Much Work Is An Aquarium?

[snowflake311]

How much time do you spend on maintaining your aquarium? My larg tanks take extra time but I use a hose to drain and fill the tank so it's really easy I can do other stuff while I clean my tank.

People I work with think a fish tank is so much work. To me it's nothing drain and fill done. Cleaning the filter is a pain in the butt. But I don't do it every week.

I say 4 hours a week is what it takes for me to do a wc on all 6 of my tanks. That to me is not too much time but it is my hobby. I guess average people just rather spend time doing other stuff.

Do you think it's a lot of work to have a fish tank?

 

[zoopkamol]

nope not alot of work....doesnt seem like any work at all if you love the hobby.
currently have a 180 community and in process of setting up another 160 w/100gal sump
even with all that fully setup ..might be 3-5hrs a week. dependent on filter maintence weeks
clean my fx5 maybe 6 times a year.
I would add more tanks however my mancave will be full with these tanks and my 75gal hermit crab setup

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Not a lot of work at all.  A lot of hobbies requires time.  But, time doesn't have to equal 'work'.  I can think of plenty of 'hobbies' that require more 'work'.
 
Woodworking/Cabinet making
Restoring old cars, electronics, etc.
Knitting
Gardening/Landscaping
Pottery
 
 
Then there are others that involve (in my opinion) ridiculous behaviors:
Fly fishing (standing hip deep in a mountain stream)
Hunting (spraying myself with deer urine)
Spelunking (squeezing my body through tight spaces in caves)
Skydiving (need I say more)
Ironman Triathlons (recent research indicates it may actually be detrimental to ones health, rather than beneficial)
 
 
There are more, certainly.  The point is that the people who engage in these activities ENJOY doing it and so it isn't 'work'.  The same is true of the fishkeeper.  The non-fishkeeper sees it as work - and it would be work to them, just like some of the above activities can be viewed as too much work to some of us.  There's no need to evangelize the non-fish keepers.  The ones who are called to it will come, the rest will just never understand.

 

[stanleo]

For my FW, not much at all. I spend about an hour each week for wc and even cleaning the filters only takes an hour or 2.
 
For the SW its a little more work. every couple days I scrub the glass and empty the protien skimmer. The filters on that take a little more time and the water change takes a couple hours.
 
But none of this is work. I actually look forward to maintenance times, I really enjoy this hobby. It's the expense I hate.

 

[Chris0422]

Its not work just an investment of time. Like any hobby it takes time or it would not be worth doing.

 

[SamB]

Right now I spend at least four hours a day on my tanks, but that is purely because i want to / partly need to on wc. And it's a labour of love!

 

[Blondielovesfish]

I enjoy cleaning my tank, I wish I could clean more of them
It only takes me about 10 minutes-unless I'm doing a grav vac where it takes me about 30 minutes.

 

[HAMBONE]

four to six beers... sometimes more if i drink them quicker..
 
 
that's a 50% change on two tanks, and a 20% on another..

 

[snowflake311]

So to us fish nerds it just fun playing with our fish tanks and not seen as work.

Most people don't get it I guess. It's a fish thing.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yup. 
 
 
A friend of mine actually enjoys mowing his lawn.  I'd rather do almost anything than that!

 

[Baccus]

As already said the "work" part of owning one or many fish tanks is in the eye of the owner, and just how fancy and indepth they choose to be. I have quite a few tanks, all low tech, and if my husband helps I can get all the tanks dropped topped and filters done in just a couple of hours. If how ever this standard maintenance also requires rescaping and plant trimming etc the whole process can take longer. Which isn't bad if you can stay motivated and not get bored with the fiddly bits

 .
I find the most time consuming and back breaking part of keeping fish is having to catch and sort shrimp, bristlnose fry and endlers. But as annoying as it can be I don't see it as "work", I see house work as work because it is of no interest to me and just keeps needing to be done. And it only gives you a warm feeling inside when you finally complete the house work, but then its you and only you who appreciates how much effort you put into cleaning the house.
Oh and the best part of doing work with a fish tank is the observing the tanks inhabitants when your all done, or even better discovering new babies of different fish species that you keep.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Well said. 

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Well said. 

 
Agreed.