My Maintenance Routine

[carfac]

Hi:

First off, I am now over a year on my Nano. A few losses over that time- an Elegance that never quite adjusted, a couple fish that just disappeared (jumpers?), and the dreaded bouts with Aspitia and Red Slime. But on the whole, it has been quite rewarding, and a lot of fun. A great teaching project for my 6 year old, too.

So I have gotten into a maintenance routine, and I wanted to see what you all thought. First off, it is a 24 Gal Nano. I now have a 175 watt Sunpro MH, and I keep cheato in the middle filter area in the back. I have upped the stock pump in the third bay to a Maxijet 1200, and have another in the tank, below the intake, pointed slightly up... so I have pretty good circulation.

Contents: 2 (paired) Clowns, 1 Six Line (both now 1 year with me!), a sand-sifting goby (yellow head), Plenty of Zoos, a Clam, a Green Tip Anenome, Frog Spawn, Kenya Tree, Fungia (Purple), etc. So itis pretty.

So here is what I do. I would appreciate your comments on how I might do this better, or pointing out mistakes I am making.

I do 5 gal water change weekly (today, as a matter of fact!). I bring in my water, and salt it to the same sg as the tank (usually 1.026). I get that stirring (and, in the winter, heating, but that is not a problem today!). While that stirs, I take my Amex and run down all the glass, and get the algae off. As I run my water 2-3 hours, I figure that gives plenty of time to get that stuff out.

After about 2 hours, I cut the main pump (leaving the circ pump ON in the tank), and pull the first bay. That contains, top to bottom:

Course sponge
Floss
Purigen
Chemi-Pure/Charcoal

I rinse these thoroughly in tap water. I replace the sponge- I have 3 I rotate through. If needed, I replace the Purigen, and clorox soak the old one so it can be used again.

Then I pull 5 gals. By now, I am at about 3 hours since I started making water, so I load up bay 1 with fresh filters, put the new water in, and I am good to go.

I do some additional maintenance about monthly... doing ONE of the following every week:

1) Tear down and clean all pumps
2) Pull the cheato, rinse in the old water I have just pulled, suck out debris in the cheato bay, put cheato back in
3) run the circ pump over all rocks to stir up debris in the tank EARLY in the cleaning process to hopefully pull that out over 2-3 hours.
4) Look at the tank, look for problems or just enjoy it with no distractions

Since I have an anenome, I use a sponge on the intake of the circ pump. I pull that twice a week and clean.

Seems to me I have a good handle on this, but I would appreciate any comments- especially improvements!- to my routine!

Thanks!

Dave

[gfk]

porbably better than most my friend.

i used to do all that. now i do a 5 gallon change every 2 weeks, scrape the glass once a month and that is about it lol.

i do need to clean my pumps etc etc but it just doesn't really get done.

so kudos to you

[ek9vboi]

sounds like your on the right track.

me, i do 5g weekly WC. cut my cheato up once a month... test weekly. lol... clean the tank whenever i feel like it. u make me look bad! lol

[carfac]

Originally posted by ek9vboi
u make me look bad! lol

Sorry- not trying to! Just trying to make efficient use of my time. In winter, I need the 2-3 hours to get my water from 60 to 80... so I did all this to fill the time. Just got into that habit. Plus, I almost HAVE to scrape the algae at least... the magfloat works OK, but the corners and such NEED personal attention.

Originally posted by gfk
so kudos to you

Cool- so can I loose the Newbie in my sig yet????