To take the plunge or not?

[tccombs]

Hi all, I am new to the forums as well as reef keeping and thought I would seek some expert advise before buying my tank.
I have experience with salt tanks, but have never had a reef.
I travel often I am rarely gone for more than a week.

I want to create a low maintnace tank that is stable. I would like to do maintnace monthly or at most every 2 weeks. I would rather spend a lot up front to get a good, reliable setup than have to spend countless hours messing with the chemistry. I dont want to have to keep dumping in tons of money and/or time each month. And of course I would like it to be nice looking.

Since I am sometimes gone for a week at a time, is there a good enough system for auto feeding on a reef tank?

Is all this possible or am I just dreaming?

I am considering between a 70 -100 gal tank what should I expect to pay each month to maintain it? food electricity water changes etc?

[Bubbashrimp]

This kind of reminds me of a project I tried to start. The Idea was to make a sable ecosystem in which each member would take care of the other. In that way i could see how an aquarium would be low mantainence. I got the Idea from a show that used to be on called beyond 2000 where a glass sphere would encase a minnow with some algae and a clean up crew. It was, i was told, completely independant. My idea was to use this same principal toward reefkeeping. Did not go very far. I would be very interested in how people approach this topic thank you for jogging my memory.

[afbengochea]

I do water changes on my tank every 2 weeks so Im with you on that portion. I dont know about the chemistry though, I guess it would depends on what u want to keep in your tank.

[afbengochea]

I think you could start adding gadgets to automate the tank such as reactors and controllers but this will bring up the cost of the tank

[coralcat]

good questions,,, ok. back at ya. what kind of lighting, auto topoff for evaporation, ok, auto feeders, ok, sump?? Corals? type? Recirculating skimmer, pumps, heat, have ac at home? test kits
http://www.hobbyoutletsales.com/salifert.html
Yes it can be done, Go slow and ask questions. We will all help you avoide the mistakes we have made, at one time or another

[tccombs]

I figure that I would have to make consessions on what I could put into a low maintnace tank. Obviously some things require more TLC. And just could not survive in a low maintnace tank.

So I guess what I should put in the tank is also a question I should be asking here.

[afbengochea]

well then I would imagine it would be a softie tank. I have a remote resevoir filled with R/O that lasts me about 2 weeks so you can do that for an auto top off.

[tccombs]

So far I dont have a thing. auto top off, Ro, controlers and like gadgets are all things that I am willing to consider if it means I can rest easy when I am away. I live in a cool area so I dont think cooling the tank will be a problem.

[partobe]

I'm also new to the reef keeping hobby. Welcome to trt btw! I wish I would have done like you are doing. Coming here first is the best thing you have ever done. Not only to save money in the long run but to gain experience from people who really know. I hope the folks here can help you with the set up you are looking for.

[Little Luey]

There are things you could do to have a reef as low maintenance as possible, as someone already mention you can get a Auto topoff system, calcium reactor.
What makes me nervous about the whole thing is that you won't be around to check on it. Even systems that have this gadgets still need to be monitored by a human; there are so many stories about pumps malfunctioning, water level sensors getting stuck and a lot more for me to feel comfortable with a tank that size running by itself.
But I have to say a 24gal Nano cube, which is all plumbed internally and there are no needs for outside plumbing parts may be a better choice. The evaporation rate will not be so great and should anything fail the water is all still in the tank so I will not flood anything. Probably won't need a Ca reactor since the water changes will for the most part replenish all the Ca your coral may need.
I keep thinking that the more gadgets you have the likelihood of experiencing failure of any components goes up. The nano cube eliminates a lot of these failures.

[Little Luey]

Oh, where are my manners, Welcome to TRT!!

[tccombs]

Hmmm? I was thinking that I should automate as much as possible.

But your thought that with more automation comes more opportunity for failure points is certainly a good one.

[Little Luey]

I would try to keep it as simple as possible. Check this out

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_...ube.asp?CartId=

That is the nano cube I mentioned.

[Loverotties]

Welcome to TRT! a low maintance depending on what you keep,can be some what cheep to very exspensive like run by a computer for everything.

[Bubbashrimp]

I would monitor it using http://www.eurekaenvironmental.com/manta/overview.htm this would be a bit costly though 3000 for the manta 3000 for the eagle eye plus satalite time. Not for a nano something bigger and more stable.