Gone for 3-4 days a week

[Flyguy737]

Hello all...I have wanted a saltwater aquarium for years..I love the water and everything in it. Finally to a point in my life that this "could" be the time. I have been watching hours of YouTube and scrolling through here. I have an idea of what I want. The wife is "kinda" onboard (Yes, I know happy wife, happy life...we just celebrated our 20th anniversary in Fiji last month). So...she basically wants nothing to do with the aquarium, well she said she would be willing to feed some fish once a day kind of help. This is my question..I'm a pilot and gone 3-4 days a week (sometimes more with a short night at home between trips). There seems to be a lot of daily needs, but I'm not sure if that is the normal or not (see posts of came home to find XXXX..woke up to XXXX..etc.). So could I reasonably get into this hobby and have my tank run on cruise control for a few days at a time? I know I would need extra equipment compared to the normal (ATO, feeders, Reef Matt, probably at least a wifi controller to see the parameters while on the road). Do fish just get a disease after they have been through a QT process before putting them into the display? I don't have a close LFS that could service the tank for a reasonable price.

I have vacation for the month of June and would use that time to get setup if this could work out.

Thanks for your honest input. While I know I can make anything work..the last thing I want to do is create something to just kill living animals.

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

I’d suggest a smallish AIO. An ATO is probably mandatory but you don’t need all the other bells and whistles, reef mat, controller.

I’m away a lot chasing surf, and my tank operates on cruise control without drama. My plan with this system was simplicity and minimal points of failure.

Sometimes less is more. This will apply to your livestock as well. Think less fish, semi independent grazers are a good choice. Hardier corals that are resilient to fluctuations in system parameters will give you less trouble.

Some will disagree, but my experience has been that maintaining a smaller, simplified system is less onerous.