Can I make this hobby work?

[CoralB]

Welcome !!! :cool:

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[dstockwell]

Welcome to the Reef

 

[Fish Styx]

Greetings and welcome to the reef! As other have already said, yes, it is absolutely doable. Invest in a controller for automation.

 

[Rmckoy]

Hi Jeff
First and most important . Welcome to r2r

2nd . Yes for sure doable . But as mentioned be very mindful of what’s added and their level of care required .

automation is your best friend and could even include water changes , feeding ,
They even have an automatic or robotic glass cleaner .

 

[findingsimple]

Welcome and good luck!

I’d echo the comments above. Slow and steady with adding livestock and agree that you’ll likely need to spend a little upfront to get things like ATO automated - you’ll need a reservoir big enough to handle the time away

 

[Kiwi reefer]

Welcome to R2R, looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

[SPR1968]

Welcome to Reef2Reef Jeff!

 

[aquakj]

I think you can, Im not a pilot lol and sometimes I don't check on my tank for like 3-4 days, once you get the flow of things youll know when you need to check up on it and when you need to top it off with fresh water, which i suggest you try to persuade your wife to learn ;) just in case, I would also just make sure you set 1 day aside for water changes a week or 2 preferrably once a week and you should be good, and just like others have suggested if you have the money try to get the most up to date technolgy to control/view your tank while you're away

 

[Dave Clark]

So I'm new to the hobby and have a similiar situation. Besides an ATO, would it be useful to get a lid which inhibits evaporation, assuming that the water isn't being deprived of oxygen?

 

[RichReef]

Welcome!

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and the salty world Jeff. Good advice, as always, from Vetteguy and Tharbin.

 

[907_Reefer]

Welcome aboard! Great info here already. IMO should be no issues for 3-4 days regularly away with a full controller or some simple automation such as timed lights, ATO, auto feeder, keep RO and SW on hand and have the wife prepped for simple monitoring and supplemental feeding, etc.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!

 

[G Santana]

Welcome to the Reef
Automate

as much as you can, have a backup plan and perhaps a friend who can watch tank intermittently.
Good luck.

 

[Christian0505]

Yes very doable! I have a high end mixed reef, waterbox 3620 peninsula semi automated. That means i feed my fish daily (could easily automate but i like to do it) and clean my glass every 3-4 days.
i do some tasks weekly, but could easily skip them for a week.

My tip would be, don’t go to big, don’t go to small. Stay somewhere in the range of a 300-400L tank.
Just start of with some softies, and slowly advance to the more easy lps corals. I am sure you could have an amazing softie/lps tank with even some hardy sps corals in combination with your work. As said though, it’s going to be a heavy upfront cost.

 

[Flyguy737]

Thanks for all the input! Much appreciated.

 

[Buckster]

Hello Flyguy, Welcome to R2R! I agree with "tharbin". I have a 180, 32 and a 30 that I leave for up to a week at a time. I have either my mother or one of my two neighbors feed the fish. Specific instructions along with checking the water level in the ATO.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hello, and welcome to the group.

 

[StepByStepFishkeeping]

Welcome.

I would consider starting with a live-rock-fish-only tank given your current constraints. This will give you time to work out any kinks in your arrangement without committing to full-scale reef equipment right away. Fishes tend to require less attention than corals as well. Also, the time/effort spent here will help you get a head-start when you wish to get into corals. The live rocks will progressively mature whether you keep corals or not.