Best hardware for a low maintenance aquarium

[Fisherman Joe]

Moving house in 2 months.

Getting a new tank and want it to be low maintenance as I travel for work sometimes, 2-3 days at a time and I don’t trust the wife.

What setup/hardware would you recommend?

I’m looking at a triton method, maybe an alkatronic, or should I wait and go for a Neptune Trident and Apex system?

I live in the UK so the the plugs are an issue.

I’ve read about the GHL controllers but it’s all a bit bamboozling.

Any advice?

 

[LiveWire]

I would recommend watching this series that @Bulk Reef Supply did on ULM (Ultra Low Maintenance) systems. They do a great job of setting up different setups from low to high cost and give you all the details of the pros and cons of each systems setup.

Check it out

 

[jda]

You wanting an automated tank, or one that is not prone to failure? These do not go hand-in-hand... more points of failure with an automated tank.

I mostly know about a reliable tank, which means getting the most reliable stuff. No controller.

Tunze or Ehiem return pump. Tunze flow pumps. Ranco temp controller with Ehiem heaters. Skimmer can be whatever since it won't matter if it is down for a few days. No equipment that is not 5+ years of market time without too many failures.

As for methodology, two circuits. Return pump on one. Flow pumps on another. Pick one for the heaters and use the other for skimmer. This way, both have to go down for your fish to suffocate. Your stuff can live at 68 degrees for a few days if you lose heaters.

If you do use a "controller," then have it monitor and text/email only. This will be a nightmare for anybody to deal with if you are out of town.

 

[Fisherman Joe]

You wanting an automated tank, or one that is not prone to failure? These do not go hand-in-hand... more points of failure with an automated tank.

Essentially - the more sophisticated we get, the more vulnerable we are.

Some good points in there. When you say circuits, you mean have that equipment in separate plug sockets right?

One of my big worries is always a heater sticking on, i got one of the German made titanium heaters for this reason with a D&D controller, both have been around ages.

 

[Tastee]

Controllers are good for automation but as previously said they can introduce new points of failure. I also agree with another earlier point - redundancy is important.

In my case I run an Apex and have my system at a pretty low maintenance level. Here is a few examples of what I do along with the redundancy built in. Next big project will be AWC. Another next big project will be to fit a house battery (10KVA) to my Solar PV system and install a VSR to move the aquarium circuit to the house UPS supply in case of an outage.

Heating. Primary heater controlled by Apex, backup not. Primary heater thermostat used as redundancy in case the Apex doesn’t turn it off when it should. Chiller that would kick in to fight the heater(s) if the backup got stuck on. Apex alerting if temp goes out of band.

Top-up. Gravity fed ATO automatically refilled daily by the Apex ATK from a large remote RODI reservoir. Low level sump sensor switch in case the gravity fed ATO float valve gums up.

Power. Key equipment incl Apex powered by a CyberPower 1500 VA UPS, rest on mains. Apex alerting for outages e.g. if the circuit is tripped. Fusion alerting if the entire house incl the Wifi router goes out.

Backup beyond this has to be human. The alerting will tell me about many of the problems. Me or proxies would then have to take it from there.

 

[jda]

Yes, two plug ins that are on different circuit breakers.

I like to use Ehiem heaters since they have a thermostat in them. Most titanium ones that i have seen do not, but if your do, then they are redundant. I have never used D&D, but if they are good, then cool. I use Ranco since they are industrial and widely used in nearly all settings and are as good as it gets.

Label all of your plugs so that a layman can try and help if you are out of town. Have an extra heater and even an extra return pump laying around - you can use this to mix water and do water changes with a garden hose the rest of the time.