Reef Tank Made Easy?

Ok, so here is my problem. As of right now I have to leave the country for a year in June. I will teach my wife what she can learn in the mean time, but I want to make my current set up easy for her to maintain. I also plan on have a guy from my LFS come out at least once a month for maintenance issues.

What I have:

40 gallon breeder
CPR BakPak 2R Protein Skimmer
Odyessa 36" 4 Bulb T5 light
UV Sterilizer
2 AquaClear 50 HOB fitlers
Hydor 425 circulation pump
2 ocellaris clowns
1 yellow tail damsel
1 McCosker's Wrasse
1 Scooter Blenny
Zoas
Mushrooms
Paly's
40 - 50 pounds LR
50 pounds LS

What I will have:

Overflow Box (probably CPR) for 40 breeder
Mag 5 or 7 return pump
3 10 gallon tanks plumbed together into a sump (drilled)
29 gallon sump (I can probably go bigger on the sump if I can convince my wife) for all 10 gallon tanks/40 gallon breeder
RO/DI system (either Spectra Pure, Purely H2O | The Optima Vision, Purely H2O | The Optima Automated)
Maybe a dual reactor from BRS for biopellets/carbon
I hope to get a ATO as well

My goal is to try and make this tank as maintenance easy as possible. Tax returns are coming soon enough, and I want to have a list of supplies ready to go with the best place to buy them lol. The 10 gallon tanks are for the 3 pair of clowns we have for our brood stock. Two pairs are in separate tanks in our bedroom, and I want to put all three pairs in the same location in tanks plumbed to a sump to help with the algae problem caused from over feeding them to fatten them up. The clowns will be coming out of the 40 breeder as well.

Please criticize this list and make suggestions. ;D

 

Lol if to want to make it really easy dont set up 3 more tanks lol!

Are those all drilled or do you have external overflows. My wife and her parents always hated the overflow on my 55. Honestly it doesnt sound like you are too crazy on corals and fish, That system should be an easy once a month LFS water change. A reef controler or digital timer for all the lights, teach her to rinse the frozen food before adding, and I can't see why you would have any problems!

 

Thanks for the response. I am looking into a reef angel system actually. That way she shouldn't to much trouble keeping track of some water params as well.

I made changes to the original post to reflect some of your questions though.

 

subscribed.

i would like to know some ideas too for minimizing my maintenance and expenses

 

I think the best thing you can do before you leave is replace a lot of your equipment that requires replacing.

New UV bulb, replace your T5 bulbs, new filters for your RO/DI. Some kind of tank controller would be perfect too. Can alert her and you if anything is out of the norm. Cleaning all of your pumps will probably help prevent any of them failing or require some serious cleaning while you're gone.

It may just be easier to hire a tank maintenance service as well.