What's The Longest You Have Gone Without Any Intervention

[reefsaver]

I have plans to go leave home for a while. I'm not sure when I'll be back and sometimes I may not even be able contact my family.
I love my aquarium so much. I want to train my family to care for it while I'm away but I understand it's a pretty unreasonable ask.
I was wondering would it be possible to set up a 60 US Gallon tank to be automated for at least 1 year.
It sounds like a pretty crazy feat. Not to mention expensive.
So it's a mixed reef which probably lowers that potential automated year moreso.
If I did set up the automation side of things, it might make things easier on my family to maintain the automated systems over getting deep into everything.
Brainstorming options:
A large water tank full of ready salt water in conjunction with a Kamoer X2SR
A large water tank full of RODI on floats/solenoids directly plumbing the RODI to the ATO container.
A Neptune Trident Apex combo is really my best thinking but if there're options that last longer I would like to know, or even if I can scale up the Trident Apex system to increase it's automation longevity if that makes sense. I was thinking that or a newer system. Preferably what lasts longest.
And then I'll try my best to write a comprehensive guide on caring for my specific tank for my family.
If anyone has suggestions or knows 1 year free of a tank is possible I'd love to know.
I've even considered changing it to a softy tank.
Really I've paid, learned and grown so much because of this hobby and honestly it would be a big part of wanting to stay home and live a normal life.
But I'm not really the kind of person that gives up, or lets people tell me something isn't for me.
So one way or another I'm hoping I can make my tank as easy to work with and as automated as possible before I leave.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

You might have a LFS or two that offer services.

-Matt

 

[Gumbies R Us]

The longest I’ve personally been away from my tank is two weeks. I would just have someone come in and check on it every couple of days. Now for you? I would be interested to see if that’s even possible to be gone from a tank that long!

 

[ca1ore]

With the exception of feeding the fish, I regularly go 2 weeks without attending to the tank. A year .... not sure how one would do that.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I would consider what’s best for the animals. Life events happen, and we can’t always expect to get what we want when it does. Reefing requires a human to intervene when necessary. Equipment fails, power outages happen, and a lot of other things can and will derail a reef tank. My suggestion is to either give the tank to someone in hopes of getting it back, or sell the livestock and restart at a later date. But it most likely won’t survive a year in “stasis”. If no one in your family is interested in reefing, trying to force it on them won’t end well either, imo.

 

[Formulator]

You might have a LFS or two that offer services.

-Matt

This is a great suggestion. With what it will cost you to automate everything, unless you already have a fair bit of automation, it will probably be about the same to pay someone who knows what they are doing to tend your tank while you’re gone. Check your LFS. Hopefully you have one nearby. Another cheaper option would be to shut it down, but give all the livestock to your LFS to board. My LFS does this for a fee, but cheaper than in-home service. When you get back, you can start the tank back up and add back the same livestock.

 

[Melanie D]

The longest I've ever left my tank is 10 days. I taught a friend's son how to take care of it. He has a FW tank so he knew basics. No water changes were needed in that time.