How do you maintain a monster tank?

[sashimimaster]

Ok, I've been reading and reading the old posts trying to figure out what type of maintenance is needed for a monster tank. I'm still at a loss.

Right now I have a 150g that I do gravel vacuuming and water change every week. With a monster tank how do you do vacuuming when it's 30" deep or more? I've read where people use sand so the waste doesn't fall in between and if you have a good current it won't accumulate. That makes sense but so does that mean no more vacuuming? Therefore maintenance is only water changes?

 

[BadOleRoss]

Even with deeper tank there is still vacuuming to do, it just mean you get a little wet and you have a very long vacuum tube. The bigger issue for me with deeper and larger tanks is decorating and fixing issues where you need to reach the bottom and avoiding illness so you dont have to treat a large tank.

 

[redtailshark1]

^

 

[zennzzo]

what does it take?!!? lolol...
Why just your every spare minute, and dollar, forget your social life, and everything else you do in your spare time...and if you have everything automated, then you have spent even more time yet to get it built and 2x the time tweeking it...

If you are thinking Monster Tanks are anything other than total commitment look elsewhere to spend your time and money...anything in life that you do Monster will require the same passion...
IMHO of course~...

Let me add;
If you get half as much enjoyment from it, than I do,
YES it is worth it!!

 

[killerfahaka]

I find cleaning the tank pleasing as it my alone time, it takes me 1.5 hours very two weeks to clean my 240 and 20-30 min for my 75. I always vacum the gravel and for a monster tank you have so much water that you can take your time to get all the poop. My 75 gallon i have to work faster because i don't like change more then 50% of my water.

 

[jcardona1]

i have a 400g 6x3x3. this is what my maintenance routine consists of:

- walk out into the garage every morning and make sure everything is ok
- repeat above when i get home from work
- feed fish at night before bed
- change filter sock every 2 weeks.
- thats it

i literally do zero maintenance on this tank every since i set up a 24/7 drip system. nitrates are < 10ppm and the water is crystal clear thanks to a 50 micron filter sock. i do less maintenance on this thing than any other tank ive owned!

 

[flipstylex]

it takes me 30 min. a week to clean 3 fish tanks. i have 2 python vacuum that i use. i start with the 125g and vacum, when refilling it, i then start on the 75g. when the 125g is filled up with water, i vacum the 55g with it. then the 75g is ready to be filled up by then. i actually time myself when doing this. my record so far is 28 min and 7 seconds loL.

ps. long tube with phyton is amazing

 

[EvilKid]

i have sand bottom and two koralia 4s in my 125 gal set up and it basically dissolves or filters all the fish waste for me their are a few spots that get a bit messy at times but i just siphon them by hovering the hose close during draining and thats it. regular water change is about 30 min, filter cleaning 45 min done every 6 months or so and once a year every thing comes out including fish for a good sand stirring to reales any gas build up that takes about 2 hours and gets stinky for a few hours after. dosn't seem like any big deal to me i enjoy doing it

Remember the real hobby your taking up when keeping fish is water changing/maintenance lol the simpler it is to do them the more often it gets done im sure anyone would hate to have to run back from sink to aquarium with buckets of water. so invest in a gravel vac/python with a really long hose lol

 

[zennzzo]

i have a 400g 6x3x3. this is what my maintenance routine consists of:

- walk out into the garage every morning and make sure everything is ok
- repeat above when i get home from work
- feed fish at night before bed
- change filter sock every 2 weeks.
- thats it

i literally do zero maintenance on this tank every since i set up a 24/7 drip system. nitrates are < 10ppm and the water is crystal clear thanks to a 50 micron filter sock. i do less maintenance on this thing than any other tank ive owned!

Of which this mere mortal fishkeeper, could spend his lifetime trying to design, set-up, and tweek to run like this...

KUDOS BTW jcardona1

I opted for the weekly W/C's, gravel vaccing, and manual maintainance. It is proving to be less expensive, and I take a whole lot less Prozac...

 

[greenterra]

I don't have the auto water changer or a constant drip system but I still find water changes and maintenance a breeze, even with the 800 at 40" deep. I keep the tank bare bottom, it still has driftwood and rocks etc just no substrate. I have the filtration set up so the water current always brings the debris back to the left hand side. What doesn't get picked up by the filter intakes is easily removed when doing a water change. I use two 3/4" hoses to drain it. I change 50% weekly. Even with the old school system, I would only spend 3hrs a week total maintenance. All of which I enjoy thoroughly.