Has a long term illness or condition in the family changed how you reef

[Fin2you]

I have to have surgery on my ankle so I need to "streamline my tank cleaning chores" so my husband can take over while I recover. He's always been my muscle & he'll pitch in here & there but more than that his fish keeping is limited to him enjoying my hard work.
We fully converted my FW tanks over to Seachem's Matrix in the filters instead of charcoal, replanted the tanks with volcanic soil. This has proven to cut needing to clean the tanks in 1/2. My 11 year old daughter has taken to feeding these 2 tanks.
The salt water tank is just being slowly set up & hubby has been involved so that he understands more the day to day. We are sticking with easy to care for corals right now & peaceful fish!

[Aquattro]

I suppose my daughter's condition/issues reduce the amount of time/care I have for the tank. Lot's of hospitalizations, nurses in the house day and night have impacted my time with the tank. I've tried to balance things out so that it gets the minimum at least, but at the end of the day, it is just a box of water I call a hobby, and there are more important things in life to care about.

[mseepman]

I was struggling through 2015 and finally got diagnosed as having RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis). As such, some days parts of me stop working and that has changed how my tank thrived (or failed to). I do my best to just ignore it and push through because the tank does a lot for helping me through stress and/or tough days. I relaxed on some of my habits and continue to try to automate more of the tank. I also had to learn to ask for help more readily if i'm having an attack and need to do something in the tank.

[Myka]

I wish I was still there so I could help Mark!

[hillegom]

Mark, You will persevere. You will do what needs to be done. It would be good if you train your significant other to do some chores while you are able. Then if/when you are disabled, someone can do temporarily what you cannot.
I hope you will have a minimum of problems.

I must say I am fine now, not a problem to do anything. Back to work. Tank is doing good.
In May 2011 I was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. Went through chemo and radiation. And positive thinking helped.
Finished in June. Back to work in Aug. Really pushed myself to recover.
My tank suffered during this time. Some fish and corals died because of lack of maintenance.
I thought that I would be able to keep up the maintenance but that did not happen. I did not have fore sight to train anyone. I was just too weak.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by hillegom

In May 2013 I was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. Went through chemo and radiation. And positive thinking helped.
Finished in June. Back to work in Aug. Really pushed myself to recover.

Holy crap, Dietmar, didn't know you had that!! Glad you are OK now. I know a guy at our airport that had it. Thought he was a goner at the time, and felt really bad. But he came through it, and seems to have beat it. He is still a little hoarse, and has to be careful what he drinks and eats, but otherwise is fine. Good luck and wish you the best going forward.

[hillegom]

Thanks Walter
Everything is ok now.
The main thing is, one person cannot just maintain a tank. At the very least someone else has to be trained to do a minimum of chores to keep up the water quality. (in my case). Because I just was not interested and did not care.
The other person does not really have to do anything routinely just have knowledge to do things if anything happens.
As in the case of others, you do not know when suddenly something happens and we are temporarily incapacitated.