Record Keeping

[Back in the fold]

I use to have 40 tanks but none now.

OK, there's a tank of the month contest. How about an out of control fish room contest. I have personally seen two fish rooms in my time that could have been shops. All they lacked was price stickers on the tanks. I am fairly certain that there must be someone here who has gone past all reason with their hobby. Who is it ?

 

[Colin_T]

I am fairly certain that there must be someone here who has gone past all reason with their hobby. Who is it ?

A friend of mine from fish club had 200 tanks in a fish room and ran out of space, so he added 10 large ponds and a lake with a row boat. He started using the council wheelie bins and still ran out of space so built another fish room and started stocking that.

 

[The Lumpfish Guy]

A friend of mine from fish club had 200 tanks in a fish room ...

As much as i would love that many tanks, I think I would never have the time to look after them properly.

 

[AbbeysDad]

I use to have 40 tanks but none now.

Colin - you spend all this time on a fish forum and don't have any tanks now?

 

[Bettapuppy]

I keep little notebook in the cupboard where all of my supplies are. I have written down details about my tank, filter, and heater, and I record all my water parameters and the date each time I test.

 

[Colin_T]

Colin - you spend all this time on a fish forum and don't have any tanks now?

no tanks for me. I lost everything in 2016 when I got thrown out of my home and left to die on the street because of an incompetent judicial system. I currently rent a crappy place that leaks like a sieve and doesn't comply with various government laws and should be condemned even tho it's only 7 years old, and can't keep pets here. And I have nothing else to do while I sit here waiting to die because of an stupid corrupt incompetent council that poisoned me in 2006.

 

[Fishmanic]

Can't you at least have a small 10 gallon tank? It would have a calming effect for you.

 

[Colin_T]

I can't even have a fish bowl. In addition to that, the tap water here is toxic and does weird things to alcohol. I use alcohol to clean things and mix water with the alcohol to dilute it. If I use tap water the alcohol solution turns green. If I use bottled water, the alcohol solution stays clear. The water company says there is nothing in the water except chlorine and fluoride. If I leave the water to evaporate it leaves a white residue behind that is not calcium and does not affect pH.

 

[Back in the fold]

Colin, I've been down. It sucks scissors. I don't like hearing that about your situation and there isn't anything anybody can say to make it better. Nothing at all. I was out of work for a long time and when I finally found work it was the worst job ever but at least it was work and after a long time things very slowly started to improve. Imperceptibly. I hope that happens for you. They can kill you but they can't eat you. Keep your head up man.

 

[AKfish]

Hmmm never even considered it hahahaha. I could see useful for medication. But I would need to have a lot of tanks to be necessary. I like the idea of it. But don't know if I personally would fallow through. I have not had too many problems with tanks over the years. Like what was said before at some point it becomes so routine. When I had tanks all over the house it was just on auto pilot type of thing for maintenance. Water changes o don't believe in as weekly bi-weekly whatever. Water should in my humble opinion be changed as needed when the water quality tells you to change it. Every single tank is different so everyone has its own unique needs and time table. But again my humble belief.

 

[Colin_T]

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.​

 

[AbbeysDad]

Nature frequently freshens fresh water with rain, snow melt etc. Within the confined glass box of an aquarium, the only fresh water comes from the routine partial water change. Plants and beneficial bacteria can only do so much to purify the water. Hobbyists that think they can get away with few(er) partial water changes are only having their fish live in more polluted water longer....which very likely threatens their health and shortens their life span.
'The solution to pollution is dilution' and the very best medicine in the FRESH water tank is FRESH water.
Now having written the above, I believe there is such a thing as too much is a bad thing. In overstocked or neglected tanks, a large water change(s) can create a shock to the fish. I tend to do 25-50% every week without fail. Fry and grow out tanks will see similar volume water changes even more often.

 

[AbbeysDad]

@Colin - I hope things turn around for you and you can once again truly enjoy the hobby you obviously care so much about.
'Life sucks and then we die"...but it's up to us to make the most of it that we can...while we still can.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Colin - you spend all this time on a fish forum and don't have any tanks now?

I thought the same thing. I hope things work out for you.

 

[AbbeysDad]

As far as record keeping....I used to keep detailed records in a spreadsheet but in time I found it to be pretty much a waste of time...info I rarely looked back on for any useful purpose. Once you establish a routine for tank maintenance, even with multiple tanks, recording most events has little value over time. Exceptions include birth date(s) of fry and tracking an inline carbon filter I use for pre-filtering water as it's rated for 2000 gallons. As far as most other events, they'd be outdated before the ink dried (so to speak).