Would You Pay Someone To Maintain Your Tank?

[star4]

I was nosing through some classifieds today when I spotted an advert for a company that will come and maintain your tank for you. Doing water changes, glass cleaning, checking the health of your fish and checking water stats. Costs £20/hour. For me maintaining the tanks is part of the pleasure of keeping fish, just wondered if anyone here would consider paying someone to maintain their tank for them?

 

[vinylman]

The only time I'd pay someone to do maintenance is if I physically couldn't do it myself, but wanted to keep my tank. Maintenance is half the pleasure for me, too. However clean and healthy your tank and inhabitants look before you start, you can always see the improvement afterwards.

 

[three-fingers]

Most people here, including me, will be interested enough in the running/maintenance/ecology of an aquarium to derive most of the pleasure from maintaining it.

But take a trip to the lfs and listen to the customers there, and it will soon become apparent to you that for at least half of aquarium owners think of the aquarium+inhabitants as mere household decorations. So a small aquarium maintenance business is probably a great idea for younger aquarists without jobs, or anyone else on the side for extra cash.

 

[bagu]

for someone to do mine, no.

for me to do theirs, i would

thats what i enjoy

 

[helterskelter]

I do this for a living, but their is not enough work in a small area.
I have contracts with celeb's, waterstones, heathrow airport and several other companies.

have a look at

http/www.aquaticdesign.co.uk

to look after some's tank is not enough as it may only be once in a blue moon, or you need loads of then

 

[pippoodle]

if i didnt have my hubby here then i would have to get someone in to do the tank maintenance on my tanks as i wouldn't wish to give them up - being disabled i can see that it's a good idea not just for large companys but for individuals who would enjoy fish keeping but cant manage the maintenance

we have 11 tanks , 400 , 300 , 125 , 60 , 50 , 18 litres + 5x 30 litres for bettas
which works out to a lot of maintenance

I'm certainly not paying hubby £20 an hour maybe 20p a month for our 11 tanks - havent told him i've just purchased 2 more 30 litre tanks for 4 more bettas - ppor man good job he loves me lol

 

[saltynay]

Whip the horse until his back breaks glad your happy pip and have a good partner even if he does knock over the amano shrimplets. As a paper boy type of job I think it would work well but to be actually financially viable as helter says it would be a hard job to network with plenty of travelling involved.

 

[pippoodle]

Whip the horse until his back breaks glad your happy pip and have a good partner even if he does knock over the amano shrimplets.

i forgave him only after he got me some new bettas lol

 

[Liam50]

tbh everyone here says they enjoy maintaining fish tanks is fun, yes i enjoy maintaining MY tanks but i have a saturday job at world of water which has a small tropical section, and we have 125 fish tanks, and when i look at the job list and my name is down for de algaing, wiping down and topping up i shudder its takes the whole day and its really tedious.

 

[Gav935]

If I was waking up on a Sunday with a severe hangover, they could charge me whatever they wanted and I would still pay them to do it...

 

[timmystood]

This is currently my job-on-the-side!
I do a lot of residental homes in the Peterborough and East Midlands area of England.
I do the odd bit of commercial work but it is very rare due to the cost of public liability insurance in a commerical setting.
I do tank design, installation, rental and maintanence and yes there is a market there but it's very difficult to find. I spend a fortune advertising and rely solely on word-of-mouth.
I was running this business full on about 7 years ago but had to run it down after 3 years due to moving location. In the last year I have re-started this passion.
I do have to have a proper job aswell though! Just 4 days a week to keep the money topped up as Aquatic Inspirations doesn't pay enough to live off.
I've recently started a new website: www.aquatic-inspirations.co.uk - it's still a tiny egg of a website though!

 

[lewis burnett]

I was nosing through some classifieds today when I spotted an advert for a company that will come and maintain your tank for you. Doing water changes, glass cleaning, checking the health of your fish and checking water stats. Costs £20/hour. For me maintaining the tanks is part of the pleasure of keeping fish, just wondered if anyone here would consider paying someone to maintain their tank for them?

I wouldent pay someone to do my tank. I think that cleaning your tank and looking after your fish is part of why you do the hobby. And by looking after them you get rewarded. SO i dont really like the idea.

 

[hensonc4098]

I think it is a good idea for people who can't manage to do maintenance themselves through disability or age or whatever else as then they have the pleasure of watching, breeding and feeding their fish which they wouldn't be able to have otherwise. It's also a good idea I think for companies like restaurants, airports etc. who want to have big display tanks but don't neccesseraly have the time or knowledge to maintain them properly.
However, if it's just your little tank at home and there is no reason why you couldn't do it yourself then I think getting someone else to do it for you is just plain lazy.