Making tank maintenance easier

[sairving]

Last week Wednesday I had an accident outside, fell and broke my left shoulder. Its a serious fracture that's skirting surgery. I tore the bone off that the rotator cuff attached to. The sling will be on for 5 more weeks at least. 

I syphoned the tank earlier in the week and a family member added the water. There is a hob and sponge filter. I'm considering unplugging the hob until I'm recovered. That way someone just has to clean the sponge filter. 

Any other ideas? My goal at this point is to keep my Betta healthy. Live plants can be replaced.

 

[AnimalNerd98]

How big is your tank? What are the parameters in terms of nitrogenous wastes (ammonia, nitrates, nitrites)? As long as those values don’t get too high, you might not even need to have someone change water depending on the amount of live plants you have. I think unplugging the hob was a good idea but you might not need anything else 👍🏻 Wishing you a speedy recovery 😊

[lefty o]

just leave the HOB running. if the cartridge or sponge in it gets clogged, then just pull it out and leave it run empty.

[sairving]

On 8/18/2022 at 10:41 AM, AnimalNerd98 said:

How big is your tank? What are the parameters in terms of nitrogenous wastes (ammonia, nitrates, nitrites)? As long as those values don’t get too high, you might not even need to have someone change water depending on the amount of live plants you have. I think unplugging the hob was a good idea but you might not need anything else 👍🏻 Wishing you a speedy recovery 😊

It's only 10 gallons and the sponge has always been a backup filter. Currently, I'm only lightly planted with crypts, anubias, and a dwarf aquarium lily. Ammonia, nitrites are zero. Nitrates were at 10 ppm last I checked. 

On 8/18/2022 at 10:46 AM, lefty o said:

just leave the HOB running. if the cartridge or sponge in it gets clogged, then just pull it out and leave it run empty.

It's a Seachem tidal. I mostly don't want to force someone to have to service it.

[FLFishChik]

You could  do just small daily water changes (like a pitcher full) and cut back on feeding, that way your nitrates wont climb as quickly and your filters won’t buildup as quickly?

[Cawafuoshi]

I second the pitcher. This is how I add water to my 10G after a change. You could do 1 pitcher a day water changes or what ever amounts to your preferred % of wc by the end of a week if you change weekly.

[PotatoFish]

On 8/19/2022 at 12:54 AM, FLFishChik said:

You could  do just small daily water changes (like a pitcher full) and cut back on feeding, that way your nitrates wont climb as quickly and your filters won’t buildup as quickly?

Definitely try this.

Also, do you have a sponge around the HOB intake? It would make for a "bigger trash can" for maintenence, and it's betta-safe.

Having a couple floating plants like dwarf water lettuce or frogbit would help decrease the amount of waste.

I'm not sure what you're feeding. But, live foods tend to leave less waste than flakes and pellets.

Most of all, I hope you recover faster than danios dash during dinner!!!

[Wrencher_Scott]

On 8/18/2022 at 8:32 AM, sairving said:

Last week Wednesday I had an accident outside, fell and broke my left shoulder. Its a serious fracture that's skirting surgery. I tore the bone off that the rotator cuff attached to. The sling will be on for 5 more weeks at least. 

I syphoned the tank earlier in the week and a family member added the water. There is a hob and sponge filter. I'm considering unplugging the hob until I'm recovered. That way someone just has to clean the sponge filter. 

Any other ideas? My goal at this point is to keep my Betta healthy. Live plants can be replaced.

 

Take any floss out of the hang on back and just let the bio work, don't shut it down. This way it will go a very long time without needing anything and you still keep your BB going. 

Like mentioned, pot scrubbers are excellent bio media that don't need cleaning for months. Very similar to course foam like 20 ppi.

I don't run any floss just foam, but I have lots of it, 2 canisters. This way I can go many months without any cleaning and I don't have to buy all that exspensive replacement floss stuff. Oh so easy!

As for water changes I think the lots of small ones is a great idea. Say a pitcher a day or so and it only takes one arm. 🙂

If the nitrate is below say 40 or so, (depending on critters you keep) just don't worry about changing. 

Edited August 18, 2022 by Wrencher_Scott

[Pete H]

If it’s a 10 gallon tank the sponge filter should be plenty depending on the number of fish (bio load). Just keep an eye on nitrates, nitrites and ammonia.

[sairving]

On 8/18/2022 at 12:55 PM, Wrencher_Scott said:

Take any floss out of the hang on back and just let the bio work, don't shut it down. This way it will go a very long time without needing anything and you still keep your BB going. 

 

That's a good idea. I have the sponge and biomedia that originally came with the filter in it. It's hard enough with all the extra help I need right now "Can you take apart my HOB filter and service it?" might be pushing it lol. Sponge filters are easy to clean at least.

On 8/18/2022 at 1:08 PM, Pete H said:

If it’s a 10 gallon tank the sponge filter should be plenty depending on the number of fish (bio load). Just keep an eye on nitrates, nitrites and ammonia.

I have a betta, pygmy cory, nerite snail, and pest snails.

On 8/18/2022 at 12:34 PM, Cawafuoshi said:

I second the pitcher. This is how I add water to my 10G after a change. You could do 1 pitcher a day water changes or what ever amounts to your preferred % of wc by the end of a week if you change weekly.

We'll have an empty half gallon container soon. I could use that to add and remove water each day. 

[sairving]

On 8/18/2022 at 12:40 PM, PotatoFish said:

Definitely try this.

Also, do you have a sponge around the HOB intake? It would make for a "bigger trash can" for maintenence, and it's betta-safe.

Having a couple floating plants like dwarf water lettuce or frogbit would help decrease the amount of waste.

I'm not sure what you're feeding. But, live foods tend to leave less waste than flakes and pellets.

Most of all, I hope you recover faster than danios dash during dinner!!!

Unfortunately, the tidal 35 does not have an intake like most HOB filters. I think it has something to do with the surface skimmer. I have cut back feeding to every other. 

 

Thanks! I too hope I recover faster than danios dashing for dinner. On the plus side my rotator cuff didn't tear, that is automatic surgery. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/18/2022 at 11:32 AM, sairving said:

Last week Wednesday I had an accident outside, fell and broke my left shoulder. Its a serious fracture that's skirting surgery. I tore the bone off that the rotator cuff attached to. The sling will be on for 5 more weeks at least. 

Oh no!  Are you ok?  Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Adding some more plants (ie: hornwort, water sprite, anacharis, etc) - just toss them in and let them float around in there - they will help with water quality as you recover.

[anitstuk]

On 8/19/2022 at 1:32 AM, sairving said:

Last week Wednesday I had an accident outside, fell and broke my left shoulder. Its a serious fracture that's skirting surgery. I tore the bone off that the rotator cuff attached to. The sling will be on for 5 more weeks at least. 

I syphoned the tank earlier in the week and a family member added the water. There is a hob and sponge filter. I'm considering unplugging the hob until I'm recovered. That way someone just has to clean the sponge filter. 

Any other ideas? My goal at this point is to keep my Betta healthy. Live plants can be replaced.

 

That's definitely not good. Get better soon!

Try water lettuce, hornwort, water wisteria or duckweed. They should keep the nitrates low and you should only need to do a water change every now and again. Also try more fast growing plants like Java Fern. 

Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Edited August 18, 2022 by anitstuk

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/18/2022 at 8:48 AM, sairving said:

It's a Seachem tidal. I mostly don't want to force someone to have to service it.

Use filter floss / filter pad, the media that you have in there, the bag of stuff, just toss that into the tank itself.  All you have to do, every week, replace the floss. All done.  The tank will stay cycled because the media is still in the tank.  I was removing a HoB in one of my tanks and I just take the media itself and set it on the top of the sponge filter. (large size)

That should work well for the situation and you will keep the tank clean, maint. extremely easy and you can do it one handed 🙂 .

On 8/18/2022 at 11:21 AM, sairving said:

Unfortunately, the tidal 35 does not have an intake like most HOB filters. I think it has something to do with the surface skimmer. I have cut back feeding to every other. 

The skimmer on the Tidal 35 doesn't work or do anything.  Think of it as just more intake holes.  No big deal. 

On 8/18/2022 at 10:40 AM, PotatoFish said:

Also, do you have a sponge around the HOB intake?

This would be how you do it with the Tidal 35.  You'd use aquaclear  rectangular shape sponge.

Edited August 18, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[sairving]

Update time! I was able to do some tank maintenance today. My tank is currently a hot mess. Some days, my sling was driving me crazy, plus being up and about hurt. I actually did a small water change today (by myself), syphoned out gunk, removed some algae, and managed to clean the sponge filter and media. 

My doctor is really happy with where my shoulder is right now. If everything goes well, I should be out of the sling in 2 weeks.

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by sairving

[Flumpweesel]

Don't push your luck and let that shoulder heal. The fish love a messy tank you might not be able to see them but they'll be up to all their fish business behind that algae.

[sairving]

On 9/8/2022 at 6:25 PM, Flumpweesel said:

Don't push your luck and let that shoulder heal. The fish love a messy tank you might not be able to see them but they'll be up to all their fish business behind that algae.

This is the first bit of water I've changed in a few weeks. I was going to remove a bit each day and replace but my shoulder hurt. I topped up my tank instead. 

I think the worst thing today was letting my arm out of the sling to hang. The doctor wants to get my elbow mobile. That hurt felt worse than my shoulder.

 

 

 

[lefty o]

you'll get good at doing it one armed. make sure to do your PT, its important. i had my shoulder done in 2021, and figured it all out, im sure you can too.