fully automating a tank
 

So im going to leaving to go back to school come september and will be leaving my fish-tank in the hands of my girlfriend. For me this is a terrifying experience because if reef keeping isnt really your hobby it can seem pretty labour intensive.

I had a few questions about lightening the load of work she will have to be responsible for. I was looking for some suggestions on things that could be set up to make this run smoothly.

I have already thought about the ATO and all of my lights are on timers, i have a vortech mp20 powerhead as well as a koralia or two. and as far as dosing i purchased a simple two part solution for her to add every couple of days.

i was just wondering if an aqua controller would be worth is to set up my heater and such to to help with any sort of heat issue that could arise.

im really short on ideas so any input would be great!

Might also consider just selling off the livestock but keeping the hardware rather placing the burden on the GF.

yea. i thought about doing that. she was actually against it because she enjoys looking at it. so she offered to do everything. i just wanted to make it as easy as possible for her.

Well if your keeping it, lights should be already on a timer and heater on a thermostat or controller. Advantage of a controller or even something as simple as a Ranco is they can control the heater and a fan for evaporation cooling.

Rather than manually dosing 2-part, can use a dual channel dosing pump, GreenSpottedPuffer has a good deal on his or consider a Ca reactor.

ATO is though one of the greatest things. Can be a simple $10 humidifier float and reservoir or live on the edge and connect directly to a ro/di unit.

A controller is a great idea. One huge advantage is that you can monitor and control your tank remotely via the web! Get an iPhone and then you can view your tank parameters from anywhere. :-) Even being away from my tank for 8 hours during the day makes me a little nervous.. hehe. This is why I have a profilux. I just got it but I'm hoping to set it up so that it emails me when my parameters are off :-)

Have you got your profilux to work with your Iphone? I tried for a while but then gave up and just use logmein.com and go through a computer at home.

How involved with your tank has your girlfriend been in the past? Something that could really help is to get her to read a book on reef keeping so that she has a better understanding of what she is dealing with.

we started this hobby together then she got caught up in work. she has read quite a few books on it. im pretty sure she can handle it. But, as Kien said you worry about this stuff that you have invested so much time and money on. i just wanted to make everything as stable as possible on its own so she would only have to do basic maintenance (water change, ATO bucket refill)

I find reefkeeping pretty easy when you just dont worry as much. all I do know is feed, top-off and empty the skimmer cup. Maybe 2-3 weeks a waterchange. Oh and some one mentioned ranco temp controllers,one of the best things you can invest in, just make you get a dual stage one.

OMG thank you, I've been looking for something like this!