Well, some experienced reefer friends with kids told me that before my first girl (Felicia) was born, get the tank all ready to survive on auto-pilot for 6 to 9 months. I did some big water changes and then yeah, it took us about that amount of time after the baby was born to catch up on the maintenance and stuff again. Recently, went for about a year's sabbatical where my tanks were just maintained (even regressed) and I ended up downsizing. Eventually, several months after the 2nd baby, my interest peaked again and I have been back at it hard and heavy.
Based on my work schedule, I do 50-100g (1 or 2 barrels) water changes every 3 months or so. I'm getting out of sps and going mostly LPS which are happier with the water quality I maintain than most sps. Ultimately, I will probably just have a big purple valida/bonzai-type acro and a red cap as my main sps and everything else will be LPS and softies. I try to keep my system reasonable simple and low maintenance. Got a good skimmer (SWC Extreme 200) that pulls out lots of gunk but upgrading to a Deltec Recirc so that will do an even better job IMO.
So, yeah, its hard to balance a very busy life but your kid will love the tank, so maybe sell off your most finicky livestock (particularly sps) and if it gets too busy and you have a good skimmer, its should NOT be too bad to extend the time between water changes. I've gone up to 9 months when my first was born.
Downsizing is an option, but it sounds like you don't have the time or energy to do something major like that.
Congrats on your first. My kids are the best part of my life (Irene feels the same way so I'm not in trouble for posting this). Lots of work, lots of lost sleep, but wouldn't give the chance to be a dad for anything.
Peace,
Anthony
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If you see it, can take care of it, better get it or put it on hold. Otherwise, it'll be gone & you'll regret it!
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