Quote Originally Posted by Fengzi
Here's a few pics of my tank taken over a several year period.

I had the tank pretty well automated so a lot of the daily tasks like water replacement were taken care of. I probably put 30 or so minutes a day doing things like feeding, cleaning off the front glass, random water quality tests, etc. I'd have to give the skimmer a cleaning every 4-5 days. Every two weeks I'd do a 20% water change which would take an hour or two.

I figured out that all together I was spending about 30hrs a month on the tank. Not an overwhelming amount of time for sure. At least not until my daughter was born. Once she came finding a spare hour to deal witht he tank, not to mention 30, was tough. Even so I probably would have kept it if not for the fact that we moved to a new house and moving one of these things is a seriously fucked thing t have to do.
If you want to get back into the hobby but dont want to spend as much time or money, just get fish only with live rock. You dont need strong lighting. Also there are some cool lookin corals that are cheap and dont need strong lighting. Thats what i have and i spend about 10 minutes a day on it and maybe like once or twice a week i spend an entire hour out of a day on it. It no big deal to me. I think its pretty cool. You basically have a small ocean in your house. I love the ocean so it works for me.