Does anyone else periodically get burned out on tank maintenance?

[Gwad]

Wrapped up my AGA submittal a few weeks ago, and I just can't seem to bring myself to take care of my tank right now I think I'm experiencing burnout. I go through these cycles where my tank is all I can think about for a few weeks/months, and then I need a break, and I can't bring myself to do my usual water change and trim schedule. The good news is my tank has so much healthy plant mass that algae doesnt grow even after a few weeks of neglect.

Any tips on fighting this tendency? I think my first idea is to slow everything down, lower my nitrate to more of a zero-bound system and try to reduce my stem trimming frequency. My second idea is making my water change easier. Right now the hardest part is siphoning detritus into buckets that I walk to the toilet. After that I pump the tank down the rest of the way. How do you guys do this? I would siphon straight to the toilet but I'm bound to accidently send a shrimp to their doom that way.

 

[Koan]

Right now the hardest part is siphoning detritus into buckets that I walk to the toilet

Have room for one of these? The roller dolly is awesome

Post in thread 'Non-Python bucketless water change ideas'

Feb 19, 2026

lugging the buckets to the toilet got old immediately, and I am trying to think of alternative options

I'm using the Brute 20 gallon route currently for the smaller tanks

​

Drain / clean into can, roll out onto porch, drop in submersible pump, drain into the yard

For the bigger tanks the plan is either Jehmco rig, or drain hose > inline pond pump / smart plug > yard, I believe @Kwyet uses a similar system

​

• Koan

• 

I'm bound to accidently send a shrimp to their doom that way

You can siphon the water thru a shrimp net

 

[Mr. Silly Goose]

You can siphon the water thru a shrimp net

I feel silly asking this, but what's a shrimp net?

 

[JayP]

For removing old water from larger tanks, I use a 40+gallon Brute and dolly like @Koan linked. For everything under 30g, I use the below setup. It could be used to refill as well by simply filling the bin near your clean water source and reversing which hose gets stuck where ( I have long hoses connected directly to my RODI storage tank for refilling though). I have two wands, one for if I need to get down to the substrate, and a hooked wand for when I just need to empty half the tank. Both have ss mesh screens to prevent livestock from getting sucked up. The mesh screen on the straight wand, will allow sand and some fine soil to get sucked up which is OK. That is what the extra inline strainer is for mounted to the cart. If the strainer gets too full, I can stop and empty it. I do have to be a bit careful with this though because the suction is strong enough that it will pull up plants if you get the wand too close to them.

 

[Gwad]

For removing old water from larger tanks, I use a 40+gallon Brute and dolly like @Koan linked. For everything under 30g, I use the below setup. It could be used to refill as well by simply filling the bin near your clean water source and reversing which hose gets stuck where ( I have long hoses connected directly to my RODI storage tank for refilling though). I have two wands, one for if I need to get down to the substrate, and a hooked wand for when I just need to empty half the tank. Both have ss mesh screens to prevent livestock from getting sucked up. The mesh screen on the straight wand, will allow sand and some fine soil to get sucked up which is OK. That is what the extra inline strainer is for mounted to the cart. If the strainer gets too full, I can stop and empty it. I do have to be a bit careful with it this though because the suction is strong enough that it will pull up plants if you get the wand to close to them.

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This is fantastic. I love your wand design. I'm going to have do something very similar.

Right now I have a 44 gallon Brute I use to store my RODI water. I have a submersible pump in there with a long enough hose to go to the tank. I use a similar submersible pump to pump water from my tank to the toilet when Im ready to do my 60% change. The main thing I am hurting on is a good setup for siphoning waste. Right now I am putting it into 5 gallon buckets which is a mess and annoying. A larger wheeled setup like this is perfect.

 

[Koan]

For everything under 30g, I use the below setup

Wow!

Can you post a parts list?

 

[JayP]

Wow!

Can you post a parts list?

I'll put a list together. It can be built at a lower cost than what my build was though.

 

[JacksonL]

Wrapped up my AGA submittal a few weeks ago, and I just can't seem to bring myself to take care of my tank right now I think I'm experiencing burnout. I go through these cycles where my tank is all I can think about for a few weeks/months, and then I need a break, and I can't bring myself to do my usual water change and trim schedule. The good news is my tank has so much healthy plant mass that algae doesnt grow even after a few weeks of neglect.

Any tips on fighting this tendency? I think my first idea is to slow everything down, lower my nitrate to more of a zero-bound system and try to reduce my stem trimming frequency. My second idea is making my water change easier. Right now the hardest part is siphoning detritus into buckets that I walk to the toilet. After that I pump the tank down the rest of the way. How do you guys do this? I would siphon straight to the toilet but I'm bound to accidently send a shrimp to their doom that way.

Do you have a filter with a decent pre-filter on it? I have teed off my filter outlet and use that to pump out water straight to the lawn. I lose out on a bit of gravel vacuuming when I do it, but it’s great for a quick change. I still use a turkey baster to stir it up into the water column to be sucked into the filter, and then clean the pre-filters afterwards. It gets a lot out, but obviously not as complete as a proper vacuum.

 

[JacksonL]

For removing old water from larger tanks, I use a 40+gallon Brute and dolly like @Koan linked. For everything under 30g, I use the below setup. It could be used to refill as well by simply filling the bin near your clean water source and reversing which hose gets stuck where ( I have long hoses connected directly to my RODI storage tank for refilling though). I have two wands, one for if I need to get down to the substrate, and a hooked wand for when I just need to empty half the tank. Both have ss mesh screens to prevent livestock from getting sucked up. The mesh screen on the straight wand, will allow sand and some fine soil to get sucked up which is OK. That is what the extra inline strainer is for mounted to the cart. If the strainer gets too full, I can stop and empty it. I do have to be a bit careful with it this though because the suction is strong enough that it will pull up plants if you get the wand to close to them.

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That is elite!

 

[CincyScaper]

Question: when you have plant mass covering all part of the aquasoil that you don’t have any aquasoil visible, how do you guys remove detritus ? I tried the turkey baster method but there is literally nothing. Now all I do is just hook up a long siphon python and drain it to the lawn saves lot of effort.

The only time I get to remove the detritus is when I go through a replanting cycle when the turkey baster method works great on the aquasoil.

Curious what others do with high plant mass that the substrate is not visible

 

[JacksonL]

Question: when you have plant mass covering all part of the aquasoil that you don’t have any aquasoil visible, how do you guys remove detritus ? I tried the turkey baster method but there is literally nothing. Now all I do is just hook up a long siphon python and drain it to the lawn saves lot of effort.

The only time I get to remove the detritus is when I go through a replanting cycle when the turkey baster method works great on the aquasoil.

Curious what others do with high plant mass that the substrate is not visible

I find if you kind of put the tip of the baster into the top layer of aquasoil and stir it up gently as you go it gets some of the gunk into the water column.

 

[CincyScaper]

I find if you kind of put the tip of the baster into the top layer of aquasoil and stir it up gently as you go it gets some of the gunk into the water column.

I find that if i poke into the aquasoil on top of the plants i either uproot thinly rooted ones or damage leaves of deeper rooted plants or push the carpeting plants into the aquasoil.

 

[Dennis Wong]

Question: when you have plant mass covering all part of the aquasoil that you don’t have any aquasoil visible, how do you guys remove detritus ? I tried the turkey baster method but there is literally nothing. Now all I do is just hook up a long siphon python and drain it to the lawn saves lot of effort.

The only time I get to remove the detritus is when I go through a replanting cycle when the turkey baster method works great on the aquasoil.

Curious what others do with high plant mass that the substrate is not visible

Detritus usually deposit in the same spots of your tank depending on your flow pattern/layout. Sometimes if the pattern is good most are directed towards filter intake. However, most tanks will have some quiet spots where detritus will gather more than other areas.

I think the glass and bigger hardscape pieces are like walls where detritus hits and fall under. They don't gather as much under dense stem plant canopies, but fall in between shorter plants in open areas.

For this tank for example, I spend most of the cleaning time on the foreground along the front glass, and some detritus I find hides below the red Lysimachia parvifolia. Not so much stuff gathers under the taller stem plant bushes , so I clean those only during replanting sessions.


I think having maintenance equipment easy to access/nearby makes a huge difference to ease of maintenance. I use a long hose to drain directly into drainage points, and use a garden hose setup like below to fill the tanks directly. So I avoid buckets. I prefer to cut/prune small bits daily, then do replanting only weekly together with water changes.



Another big angle on maintenance is to set up the tank to require less of it. I think this is primarily through choosing plant mixes that are a bit more slow growing, or using species that can be trimmed in place without frequent replanting. I think replanting is the task that takes up the most effort. Even though I grow a lot of stems, I try to use slower growing species (like the Creeping jenny) or species that can be trimmed in place many times without requiring replanting (most of the plants in the tank above except the mini macrandra). Rotala blood red can be trimmed for 4-6 months without requiring replanting for example, same as Rotala florida.

 

[Koan]

but what's a shrimp net?

A super-fine mesh net that doesn't trap shrimp legs, and small enough for tiny shrimp babies

A small one like this is stiff enough to stand up square on its own. Shrimp will actually swim in and hide in it, makes moving them from the acclimation bucket easy



This bigger one could work with water changes

 

[Gwad]

Detritus usually deposit in the same spots of your tank depending on your flow pattern/layout. Sometimes if the pattern is good most are directed towards filter intake. However, most tanks will have some quiet spots where detritus will gather more than other areas.

I think the glass and bigger hardscape pieces are like walls where detritus hits and fall under. They don't gather as much under dense stem plant canopies, but fall in between shorter plants in open areas.

For this tank for example, I spend most of the cleaning time on the foreground along the front glass, and some detritus I find hides below the red Lysimachia parvifolia. Not so much stuff gathers under the taller stem plant bushes , so I clean those only during replanting sessions.
View attachment 20844

I think having maintenance equipment easy to access/nearby makes a huge difference to ease of maintenance. I use a long hose to drain directly into drainage points, and use a garden hose setup like below to fill the tanks directly. So I avoid buckets. I prefer to cut/prune small bits daily, then do replanting only weekly together with water changes.

View attachment 20845

Another big angle on maintenance is to set up the tank to require less of it. I think this is primarily through choosing plant mixes that are a bit more slow growing, or using species that can be trimmed in place without frequent replanting. I think replanting is the task that takes up the most effort. Even though I grow a lot of stems, I try to use slower growing species (like the Creeping jenny) or species that can be trimmed in place many times without requiring replanting (most of the plants in the tank above except the mini macrandra). Rotala blood red can be trimmed for 4-6 months without requiring replanting for example, same as Rotala florida.

Thanks, Dennis. I'm very envious that you can fill your tanks directly with soft water from your tap. Unfortunately my local tap water is awfully hard and it changes a lot between summer and winter months. Great advice on the plant selections, I've started moving towards some of the stems like Arcuata that can be trimmed many times before replanting, and I will continue to look for those.

I have had the same experience with detritus accumulating in specific dead zones, especially against the front glass or front corners. That's also where it is most visible, so it gets the most attention from me when siphoning.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Wrapped up my AGA submittal a few weeks ago, and I just can't seem to bring myself to take care of my tank right now I think I'm experiencing burnout. I go through these cycles where my tank is all I can think about for a few weeks/months, and then I need a break, and I can't bring myself to do my usual water change and trim schedule. The good news is my tank has so much healthy plant mass that algae doesnt grow even after a few weeks of neglect.

First, this hobby is brutal. I genuinely don't believe aquariums are an "easy" hobby, especially not high-energy tanks. Knitting? Pickleball? Houseplants? Those are easy hobbies! Ours is hard, so burnout is totally normal.

Any tips on fighting this tendency?

Put in a ton of effort upfront to remove as many annoying obstacles as possible. That's been my #1 focus with this hobby for years now. Years ago I decided that I would refuse to carry buckets of water ever again, unless I had to.

For example, get an auto topoff system or build your own. yes they cost money, yes they're a bit nervewracking to set up the first time... but if it helps reduce the effort required, especially the annoying stuff, it's worth it.

Same with auto dosing. I usually dose micros every day, and a high quality autodoser has been 100% worth it.

Other tips to make things easy:

Measure a true specific amount of water removed from your tank on water changes days and mark that line with a sharpie.

To make water changes easier, I once plumbed a drain line into the wall behind my tank. IT WAS AMAZING for large weekly water changes. But if that's not possible, get enough 5/8" vinyl tubing from Ace Hardware or similar, that you can drain your tank into your yard/garden or nearby bathtub. It's really easy to just coil 30-40 feet of vinyl tubing once a week, rather than carry 5 gallon buckets.

For the record, when detritus gets high, I'll sometimes break the bucket out and siphon into that. I've been also using a custom "water vacuum", which is just a mini setup with a Netlea Prefilter and a return pump, to circulate the water but catch the detritus in a sponge so there's no water removed. That's been amazing, too.

For weekly water changes: Set up your removal-siphon with an extra lily pipe inflow and rim clip, where you can adjust this "removal lily pipe" height so that the siphon stops removing water right at your line. Lily pipes are cheap on amazon, and usually come with clips. With this setup, you can just start the siphon into your bathtub/garden, and let it drain until the siphon is broken by the desired water line.

This also makes dosing remineralizers and fertilizers super easy.

For adding water to your tank: I really like to use Brute trash cans and a float valve with my RO setup. It takes 1-2 days to fill at 50GPD. Drop a return pump and 5/8" tubing into this trash can (it'll live there permanently) and set it up on a wifi outlet you can control with your voice (alexa) or phone app. Get your tubing setup, tell the speaker to start the "water pump", and sit back and watch. If water changes take more than 30 minutes, even on big tanks, you're causing yourself so much time-related stress.

Prefilters are far superior to canister filters IMO. It takes me so little effort to remove and clean a Netlea Prefilter, versus cleaning an entire oase biomaster. Buy multiple sponges, throw a new one in, and clean the old one whenever you get around to it. Make it easy.

We gotta make this hobby easy for it to be enjoyable. A lot of effort to create a setup/environment up front will pay off massively later down the road.

 

[Gwad]

First, this hobby is brutal. I genuinely don't believe aquariums are an "easy" hobby, especially not high-energy tanks. Knitting? Pickleball? Houseplants? Those are easy hobbies! Ours is hard, so burnout is totally normal.

Put in a ton of effort upfront to remove as many annoying obstacles as possible. That's been my #1 focus with this hobby for years now. Years ago I decided that I would refuse to carry buckets of water ever again, unless I had to.

For example, get an auto topoff system or build your own. yes they cost money, yes they're a bit nervewracking to set up the first time... but if it helps reduce the effort required, especially the annoying stuff, it's worth it.

Same with auto dosing. I usually dose micros every day, and a high quality autodoser has been 100% worth it.

Other tips to make things easy:

Measure a true specific amount of water removed from your tank on water changes days and mark that line with a sharpie.

To make water changes easier, I once plumbed a drain line into the wall behind my tank. IT WAS AMAZING for large weekly water changes. But if that's not possible, get enough 5/8" vinyl tubing from Ace Hardware or similar, that you can drain your tank into your yard/garden or nearby bathtub. It's really easy to just coil 30-40 feet of vinyl tubing once a week, rather than carry 5 gallon buckets.

For the record, when detritus gets high, I'll sometimes break the bucket out and siphon into that. I've been also using a custom "water vacuum", which is just a mini setup with a Netlea Prefilter and a return pump, to circulate the water but catch the detritus in a sponge so there's no water removed. That's been amazing, too.

For weekly water changes: Set up your removal-siphon with an extra lily pipe inflow and rim clip, where you can adjust this "removal lily pipe" height so that the siphon stops removing water right at your line. Lily pipes are cheap on amazon, and usually come with clips. With this setup, you can just start the siphon into your bathtub/garden, and let it drain until the siphon is broken by the desired water line.

This also makes dosing remineralizers and fertilizers super easy.

For adding water to your tank: I really like to use Brute trash cans and a float valve with my RO setup. It takes 1-2 days to fill at 50GPD. Drop a return pump and 5/8" tubing into this trash can (it'll live there permanently) and set it up on a wifi outlet you can control with your voice (alexa) or phone app. Get your tubing setup, tell the speaker to start the "water pump", and sit back and watch. If water changes take more than 30 minutes, even on big tanks, you're causing yourself so much time-related stress.

Prefilters are far superior to canister filters IMO. It takes me so little effort to remove and clean a Netlea Prefilter, versus cleaning an entire oase biomaster. Buy multiple sponges, throw a new one in, and clean the old one whenever you get around to it. Make it easy.

We gotta make this hobby easy for it to be enjoyable. A lot of effort to create a setup/environment up front will pay off massively later down the road.

Awesome stuff and fully agree about how brutal this "hobby" can be . I've started some of this but have a long way to go.

I have a RODI Brute setup very similar to what your describe but need to improve every other aspect of my system. I am very intrigued about adding a prefilter onto my canister. I didnt know those Netlea prefilters were a thing.

I have also seen an ad for a recirculating gravel vac pump like you're describing. I do like the idea of that for doing unlimited vacuuming without having to worry about sending that water somewhere. Have you had a good experience with yours? I could see myself doing a lot of detritus vacuuming with that and then having the water change system be an entirely different loop that is more easily automated. Hmm that is sounding really nice.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

I have also seen an ad for a recirculating gravel vac pump like you're describing. I do like the idea of that for doing unlimited vacuuming without having to worry about sending that water somewhere. Have you had a good experience with yours? I could see myself doing a lot of detritus vacuuming with that and then having the water change system be an entirely different loop that is more easily automated. Hmm that is sounding really nice.

I've commented about this off and on for a while now, I should make a post on it soon!

It's just a Netlea Prefilter (Large G2 size), with a lily pipe outflow for hooking the return hose on to the rim of my tank, and and inflow is just an open 5/8" vinyl tubing into the prefilter. I connect tubing from the prefilter to an Oase Optimax inline pump.

Sucking up shrimp or fish? no worries, they just end up in the prefilter with tons of space!

It's amazing, and very satisfying, to just sit there for an hour literally vacuuming your substrate clean. I use my other hand to "waft" the detritus up (rather than using a turkey baster). The prefilter sponge is FILTHY when I'm done, and the water is a bit murky from the tiny tiny particles the sponge can't catch. But, if you do one of these vacuuming sessions followed by a large water change, your water will be crystal clear, your filter clean, your substrate free of DOCs, and your plants will usually show quite a bit of health boost. Fish usually go into crazy breeding behavior, too!

 

[Gwad]

I've commented about this off and on for a while now, I should make a post on it soon!

It's just a Netlea Prefilter (Large G2 size), with a lily pipe outflow for hooking the return hose on to the rim of my tank, and and inflow is just an open 5/8" vinyl tubing into the prefilter. I connect tubing from the prefilter to an Oase Optimax inline pump.

Sucking up shrimp or fish? no worries, they just end up in the prefilter with tons of space!

It's amazing, and very satisfying, to just sit there for an hour literally vacuuming your substrate clean. I use my other hand to "waft" the detritus up (rather than using a turkey baster). The prefilter sponge is FILTHY when I'm done, and the water is a bit murky from the tiny tiny particles the sponge can't catch. But, if you do one of these vacuuming sessions followed by a large water change, your water will be crystal clear, your filter clean, your substrate free of DOCs, and your plants will usually show quite a bit of health boost. Fish usually go into crazy breeding behavior, too!

I'm sold. This is my next project for sure.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Make sure to make a post about it, I think lots of people could use a tool like it!