Well, this one is only a ten gallon low tech, so its pretty simple. basically my schedule consists of dosing flourish sundays and thursdays, replacing the diy co2 generator every week and a half, and performing water changes whenever i want to. But if you are talking about my 40 gallon planted tank.... thats a different story. That's a lot of work. Stay small on your first planted tank, so you can get the hang of it, then move up. Beard algae is your worst enemy.