I am going to be having surgery in a month and will have limited use of my dominant arm for several months. I accept that I may lose items in my tank over this period, but ideally, I want things to run as simply as possible. Simplifying maintenance for my wife is critical as she will have both myself and the kids to look after!
I have some tank details below and my plans. Feedback and recommendations are appreciated. The only rule that I'm making is that if I can't make the change in the next week, I don't want to make it at all. In my experience, last minute changes always cause the largest issues.
Tank Setup and Maintenance
---
- the tank is 2.5 years old
- 6ft, 125 Gallon mix reef with 30-gallon sump
- filtration consists of a skimmer and refugium in the sump (no carbon/GFO/carbon dosing)
- lighting is a six bulb ATI fixture
- eheim 1262 pump, jager heaters, apex classic
- Tunze Osmolator auto top off. Using a 5 gallon pale for RO water which is fed from a 20-gallon brute container
- Two Ecotech MP40QWD for flow
- I'm dosing red sea A, B, C using the Apex and BRS dosers. I make dosing solutions using the Red Sea powders.
Current Maintenace
---
- daily
+ feed nori, frozen, and sometimes pellets
+ scrape glass
- weekly
+ clean skimmer
+ make RO water
+ test water parameters
+ Dose Red Sea coral colors manually
+ Test dosing lines are not clogged
+ Check the three dosing containers have sufficient contents
+ Reef roids
- bi-weekly
+ 12-gallon water change including vacuuming gravel
- monthly
+ clean pumps/skimmers as needed
The Plan
--
- Add battery backup for the MP40s.... I've been meaning to do this for a while.
- I'm considering adding a Neptune WXM and AFS to simplify feeding for my wife. Less work for her will be much better. That would limit feeding to adding Nori when time permits
- Add a webcam on the tank and sump to simplify checking on things
- Ideally, I wanted to add a Neptune Trident, but that just isn't ready. I may send off an ICP test once a month for simplicity and see if my LFS will test Alk for me once a week
- Pre-mix Alk, Calcium, and Magnesium to simplify topping off dosing jugs
- Load one of my reactors with carbon in case it needs to be put on-line
- Stock up on frozen food and nori
- change two of my older blue plus bulbs (they're approaching 1.25 years old)
- Re-train the wife on how to start, connect, run and flip the transfer switch for our generator (it will be gassed up and ready to go)
- Cut water changes down to once a month, but make it 20 gallons
- Start tracking dosing container consumption with sticky notes to make it easy for my wife to tell if they liquids are being consumed.
I have some tank details below and my plans. Feedback and recommendations are appreciated. The only rule that I'm making is that if I can't make the change in the next week, I don't want to make it at all. In my experience, last minute changes always cause the largest issues.
Tank Setup and Maintenance
---
- the tank is 2.5 years old
- 6ft, 125 Gallon mix reef with 30-gallon sump
- filtration consists of a skimmer and refugium in the sump (no carbon/GFO/carbon dosing)
- lighting is a six bulb ATI fixture
- eheim 1262 pump, jager heaters, apex classic
- Tunze Osmolator auto top off. Using a 5 gallon pale for RO water which is fed from a 20-gallon brute container
- Two Ecotech MP40QWD for flow
- I'm dosing red sea A, B, C using the Apex and BRS dosers. I make dosing solutions using the Red Sea powders.
Current Maintenace
---
- daily
+ feed nori, frozen, and sometimes pellets
+ scrape glass
- weekly
+ clean skimmer
+ make RO water
+ test water parameters
+ Dose Red Sea coral colors manually
+ Test dosing lines are not clogged
+ Check the three dosing containers have sufficient contents
+ Reef roids
- bi-weekly
+ 12-gallon water change including vacuuming gravel
- monthly
+ clean pumps/skimmers as needed
The Plan
--
- Add battery backup for the MP40s.... I've been meaning to do this for a while.
- I'm considering adding a Neptune WXM and AFS to simplify feeding for my wife. Less work for her will be much better. That would limit feeding to adding Nori when time permits
- Add a webcam on the tank and sump to simplify checking on things
- Ideally, I wanted to add a Neptune Trident, but that just isn't ready. I may send off an ICP test once a month for simplicity and see if my LFS will test Alk for me once a week
- Pre-mix Alk, Calcium, and Magnesium to simplify topping off dosing jugs
- Load one of my reactors with carbon in case it needs to be put on-line
- Stock up on frozen food and nori
- change two of my older blue plus bulbs (they're approaching 1.25 years old)
- Re-train the wife on how to start, connect, run and flip the transfer switch for our generator (it will be gassed up and ready to go)
- Cut water changes down to once a month, but make it 20 gallons
- Start tracking dosing container consumption with sticky notes to make it easy for my wife to tell if they liquids are being consumed.
