Tropical Fish Tank. How hard it is to maintain in your opinion/experience?

Answer 1

If you're keeping fish only & no live plants, its really easy. You just do a partial water change every other week & scrape the glass once a week. Beyond that, you change the filter cartridge every 2-4 weeks.

If you're keeping piggy fish like oscars, or trying to use live plants then its a lot more work.

I keep 3 tanks.

20g guppie tank
36g convict tank
55g planted tank with green terrors.

The guppie & convict tanks are super easy & require bi-weekly maintenance. All I do is change 20% of the water & change the pillow stuffing in their filters.

The planted tank consumes a couple hours a week. I need to change its filter pads at least every week on it, prune the plants, recharge the co2, and balance its chemistry and lighting. I have to monitor it more closely for ph & kh levels with chemistry tests, since they can fluctuate.

The first month or two is the hardest because the tank must colonize with beneficial bactera that eat ammonia and nitrites from the tank. It requires additional water changes and water quality testing. After you pass through that phase, you're pretty much free & clear.

Answer 2

If a tropical tank is set up correctly in the first place they are very easy to maintain,just make sure you change about a third of the water at least once a month to keep the ph in tip top condition and do not over feed( as this makes the water go cloudy) if the fish dont eat it all.If you gat a mixture of fish eg; bottom feeders as well as some thing that will keep the algae clear,apart from that best of luck I enjoy mine immensely

Answer 3

It isn't hard, you just have to be willing to invest a certain amount of time and money.
It is by no means a cheap hobby, and it's hard to get everything right the first time because petstore clerks are so full of BS, but there's no reason for it to be difficult, if you go in with eyes open, do your research, and are prepared to buy the items and products you need and not cut too many corners.
As far as time goes, it certainly does not take as much time as, say, a dog; but you should be prepared to invest maybe 10 minutes a day for feeding, maybe cleaning the glass, whatever, and then 30 minutes once a week to do a 30% water change.
Obviously, it depends on your expectations. If you want a 10 gallon tank with a few guppies it won't be expensive or time consuming. If you want a high tech planted tank with discus, it will be expensive and time consuming.

On the whole, larger tanks are easier to maintain because they are more stable.

Answer 4

It depends on size.
The smaller the tank, the harder to maintain. You should never attempt to maintain a tropical tank of 20 gallons or less. The best way to start is about a 50 gallon tank. it will require more work than a fresh water, but it is well worth the color, plant / fish, and activity.

Answer 5

In my experience, its not hard at all. It does take up a lot of time when you first start out, for instance checking water is safe before putting fish in. But once the tank is settled, maintaining it monthly is fine.

Ideally, the bigger the tank, the quicker and easier it is to maintain

If you test your water and do small water changes regulary, you will notice problems sooner, which makes them easier to solve.

I used to get customers come into my shop moaning because their fish were dying, once i tested the water, it showed serious problems which took months to sort out, if they had tested the water every 2 weeks, they would have noticed the levels starting to change and could have done something about it

Answer 6

I have 3 gold fish there easy but it all depends on what type of fish you get. Like beta fish a neat but you can't put them with other fish beta fish are fighter fish and will fight to the death. Gold fish are easy all you need is a tank, a filter, rocks, and maybe some plant life. I will tell you to get a tank that has a filter because you don't have to clean is almost every 3 weeks with a filter all you have to do is change the filter every 4-5 weeks. And make sure not to over feed the fish. Also remember that fish will live a long time if treated the right way.

Answer 7

There are 2 sorts of tropical fish tanks - freshwater and saltwater. Freshwater is a lot much less annoying to maintain and expenses much less to run. The filters used (which includes a canister clear out) are fairly capability-powerful and the only element you opt for for for the water is water conditioner. Being tropical, the tank of direction needs a heater. Freshwater fish are often extra forgiving of errors than saltwater simply by fact they're made to handle diverse water situations. nevertheless, you may desire to attempt the water regularily and make sure there is not any development up of 'pollutants' in the water, which includes ammonia and nitrate. Saltwater fish are extra durable to maintain. they do no longer seem to be use to differences in water situations and for this reason are much less forgiving of errors and choose on very extreme water high quality. The water needs to be examined regularly. The water calls for salt. in case you opt for for to maintain corals and different invertabrites in a saltwater tank, this turns into extra costly and perplexing to maintain. They require halogen lights which makes use of up capability and you ought to use opposite osmosis water. do no longer enable that scare you far off from tropical fish however - with lots of study and a choose to have a tropical tank, you're able to have a large one set up. as quickly as you recognize what to try this is not any longer as "impossible" because it sounds. additionally notice that some fish are hardier than others. One tip is that a small tank is properly extra durable to maintain than a larger tank. It expenses extra to establish in the initiating yet as quickly as you have have been given each and every thing this is often all stable.

Answer 8

Once the tank is up and running its fairly easy to maintain it. Once a week do a 10-20% water change and every other month vaccuum the bottom of the tank, and clean the glass. Maintaining the tank is easy, its getting the motivation up to clean it thats the hard part.

Answer 9

Once you get the tank set up and it is established theres not much maintainance required - just checking the water every so often and doing your water changes - be careful not to overfeed cos that can not only kill off some fish but bad for the water too

Answer 10

Very easy to maintain. While its true larger tanks are more stable, I wouldnt say small tanks are harder. I run 3-10g,3-40g,2-55g,1-75g,3-125g tanks and it takes about 2 hours of maintenece a week. Once you get the hang of it, its easy as pie. I change 50% H2O in all my tanks once a week.