Military members with reef systems

[RFLKPTR]

What do you do when you deploy? I've been in the navy for 5 years now, and when I was on a ship before, I completely tore down my system due to me being away from home more often than not.

Now that I'm on shore duty, I've gone all-out again. With a dedicated sump room and two reef tanks, it sure is going to be a headache when I deploy in the coming years! We all know how meticulous one has to be to keep these things in balance, so would you trust your significant other to keep things up and running for 6+ months on end? :spin2:

What steps would you take to keep things as simple and painless as possible?

By the way, breaking down the tank is definitely out of the question.

 

[Dmoody]

I did 2 tours in IRAQ and 1 in Afghanistan with a fully stocked 90g. I was gone for 40 months collectivley in a 5 year time period and really the only thing you can do is TRAIN THE WIFE/HUSBAND. Look into aquarium controllers for efficient timing of lights, pumps, heaters, ATO, dosing pumps, etc but make sure "household 6" (the wife) knows how to look for problems. Most of the controllers have audible alarms that will help out. Make sure they know how to read and understand a refractometer. Last but not least.... Make water changes as easy as possible for them or they will put it off every time. With a little luck and instructor skill your deployment will be successful and your tank will be fine. ONE MORE OPTION..get with other reefers in the area via local threads to pop in every now and again for water testing and what not. Make sure you know this person well in advance of deployment and tell neighbors to BOLO for this new friend just in case this person turns out to be shady. TIME

 

[RFLKPTR]

That's good advice for sure! My wife used to work at our LFS, but that doesn't mean she's ready for full maintenance duties.

I think the best thing I did was give her full creative rights to her mushroom tank. Granted, it's not the same as an SPS system, but she'll learn the ropes well enough. She's gotta live with me too, so I think she'll find a way to make it work. :spin2: I think another trick is to give your significant other some sort of incentive to put effort into something that's your "baby". Maybe I'll let her get a few corals to put in there. :celeb2:

 

[Dmoody]

Incentive is always powerful, good point

 

[AWDcameoLSX]

This is exactly the reason I am sucking my wife into the hobby with me as much as I can. She helped me aquascape, pick out fish (she has named all of them so far), and generally like it. I also am almost done making at a bucketless 10% water change system by incorporating it into my ATO. My buddy who got me into this hobby set up a neptune while on R&R and came back and was monitoring via email.

 

[RFLKPTR]

THAT would be awesome. Getting alerts via email while out to sea would give me peace of mind for sure. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the suggestions and advice, guys!