Maintenance issues - help please!

[ACBlinky]

I'm having a pretty major problem with my wrists and right shoulder ATM (severe tendonitis that has REALLY flared up over the last few weeks) and it's affecting my ability to look after my tanks. I could use some ideas from everyone on how to deal with this.

I usually use a large powerhead to move water from tank to bucket, bucket to sink in order to do water changes, and have my hubby lug the buckets around. Right now, that's too much to ask of my hands. Even pushing the Mag-Float across the glass is extremely painful. To be honest, just sitting her looking at the screen is painful.

I don't want my tank(s) to slide downhill - I'm normally pretty fastidious about maintenance, but it's been six weeks since the last water change (we replaced over 50% of the water in both tanks when we moved house September 1st) and though levels are great, I'm worried about things like trace nutrients and Ca/alk/Mg getting out of balance.

Right now only the front glass of the 90g is getting cleaned about every three days - I'm not bothering with the back and sides, and they're getting greener by the day (powdery green algae). The filter sock is being changed every 24-48h because no matter how much pain I'm in, one of us HAS to do that and empty the skimmer; I insist on that much. The tank has gone through a small GHA bloom, and has some cyano in the sump right now; moving house caused it to re-cycle and it's just settling down. Now we've got a lot of powdery stuff on the glass. The 30g is less of a problem (lighter bioload) but still gets green without a good sweep of the magnet every few days.

We dose 1g of kalk every other day (it amounts to about 1/6 of the make-up water), and levels are good - NH3, NO2, NO3 & PO4 are all 0, KH was about 13dKH last time I checked it (though I had recently added buffer), Ca about 400ppm. The fish look great.

So is it okay to leave things be for a while, should I tough it through a water change (my hubby can't do it by himself), should I reduce feedings? Any other creative ideas? Unfortunately hiring someone isn't really an option - we can't really afford it, and there may not even be anyone in this (small) city that I'd trust messing with my tanks anyway It's too bad - I can get a program on my computer to type most of the words for me when I talk; if only I could use this technology to do a water change!

TIA for any ideas guys, this is driving me nuts.

[2crazyreefers]

I would suggest to do one more 25 percent water change and use a sharpy to mark the water level. Once this level is marked you could use it for a referance point for future easier water changes and hook a hose to a small pump leading to your house drain so your not lugging buckets. Next step would be to have a large container next to your RO so you could fill enough for your water change and mix it right there then use the pump and hose to refill your tank.

[tinmanny]

I like to think I am thinking up better ways to do work and my tank is the same thing

I have a 90g in my foyer 1st floor
I make ro water in the basement down stairs
so I use a pump on a hose
to move the ro water to the mixing tank 35 gal trash can
then I vacume the maine tank to where 35 gallons is marked on the tank
next I take the pump and hose and pump the water I made several days ago and is stable at 1.026 and pump it in to the sump of my display
#1 all the pump and hose is new and clean
#2 when I mix the salt I use the pump to stir the salt
I just throw it in the barrel with the hose on it and let it
run for several days and done
#3 move the hose to the display or the sump and turn it on and it
will fillup the tank for you no carrying buckets no work for
the hands or minimul work any way and no spills to clean
up later

Good luck
Manny


hope this will help your hands My wife has to take alive every 6 hrs or she actually has swolen hands and can not use them at all

[SlowCobra]

Why not just instruct your husband, with your guidance and support, on how to perform the water change. Removing water and mixing salt are not difficult procedures to instruct someone on how to do them, especially if you are right there offering guidance and encouragement.

He may not be interested in the tank at all, but he already knows the tank makes you happy and it is much easier on both of you(RE: pain usually turns into crabbiness) both physically and financially. Physically due to your current mobility limitations, financially if the tank starts crashing or does crash odds are you will still want it and have to start from scratch.

The pump and hose suggestions are strong suggestions as well.

[ACBlinky]

Thank you guys very much.

Manny - I feel for your wife, it's no fun. You never realize just how much you use your hands/arms until you can't. Right now I have to take painkillers (codeine) as well as an anti-inflammatory drug just to function so I know how she feels. The kicker is I work with my hands for a living: my job is basically real-time transcription of university and college lectures - as the professor lectures, I type what s/he is saying while a deaf (or hard of hearing) student reads the words off the screen. The job is what injured me, and keeps the injury from healing, but it pays well and it's hard to find something to replace it, especially since at this point it really wouldn't make much difference what I do - try to think of a job where you don't use your hands, it's nearly impossible!

Thanks for the ideas guys, and SlowCobra, I'm going to pitch the idea to my hubby and tell him it was your idea

[Craig Lambert]

You could use a small plastic pitcher (The type people use around the kitchen) and remove water from the tank a half gallon at a time. If you removed about 5 gallons this way, and replaced it with freshly mixed you would have a 5% WC. Maybe do that 3 times over the a period of a week, and you'll have a pretty good sized water change without having to lift anything very heavy.