Wow Beverly, I've only cleaned my mini a couple times a year. I clean the foam with my water change though if I am going to use foam.

In the 6 month old 7 gal, we have two fish, a grey brittle star, a tiny orange starfish, a cleaner shrimp, an astrea snail and a pale green featherduster. As for hitchhikers that I know about, we have a one inch orange lobster, a quarter inch white crab and a huge bristleworm, all hiding in various porous rock cavities. So I feed the tank quite heavily, and because of the large feedings, it only seems prudent to clean up their crap as often as possible. I use a foam in the Mini as a crap trap, so when I clean it frequently, the foam doesn't have the chance to become a nitatre factory. Also, before cleaning the Minis, I gently turkey baste the sandbed and rock in order for the foams to pick up and export that much more gunk.

It's definitely a PITA to clean the Minis on both the 7 and 2.5 gals so often. But then, I bathe daily, floss my teeth daily and brush them morning and night, so why not care for my beloved reefs with the same diligence? BTW, I haven't had a cavity for years and years with this system, and I'm nearing the big 5-O in a few short years. And I smell pretty good some of the time too :-)

Heck, when we had the 180 gal reef, I did a weekly 30 gal water changes, cleaned the skimmer weekly, and cleaned the prefilters in the Hagen 802s weekly too. I balked at tearing apart the 802s weekly, but did do it at least every 3-4 weeks.

IMHO, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, especially where living beings are concerned. I don't want my animals living in a toilet, though that's not what I'm saying you or others are doing because I don't know your setups. I'm saying I do lots of maintenance on our tanks because of a high population that I feed fairly liberally. Plus, I'm just a little bit anal ;-)

Just today we brought home a 42 gal hex. I'll do weekly 5 gal water changes on this baby for sure. This tank won't have a skimmer either, so I'll be cleaning the prefilter on the 802 weekly just like all the rest. Sheesh!!

Take care :-)

lol, wanna get married?? I'm lower maintenance than your power filters.... well okay so I'm not really that low maintenance....

Geez, BCOrchidGuy, my first Internet proposal of marriage :-) You wanna move your tanks here, or should I move mine there? I'd prefer the former since we just moved the 7gal, our ball python and his habitat, and the 5.5' x 3' x 6.5' high finch aviary at the end of Feb.

But seriously, I thought my current husband was low maintenance when we got married, but it turns out he's as high maintenance as I am. God help us all ;-)

Python?... I'm scared of snakes... besides, I have 11 gerbils and two cats... dang so close too....

Sid's just a mild mannered 2' ball python who'll only grow to 4-6 feet. He's non-venomous and is such a little character. He's on my lap as I type. I think he's looking for a way up my sleeve :-) Or something. You just never know what he's got on his little reptilian brain ;-)

We've had gerbils. Their cute and have more brains than a snake. Don't your cats lick their chops around them?

DH Chris goes to Burnaby on business once in awhile. He suggested you and he get together to work out the details of the possible merger. I'm sure he was just kidding about the merger part ;-) Geez, he'd better be kidding ....