From the Editor: The Dark Side of Summer: Heat & Vacations

Ah, Summer! Well, at least for half the world. It's time for all of us to be free of incarceration within our homes and apartments, and enjoy the sunshine, attending sporting events, the beach, parks and forests, volleyball, badminton, etc. But wait! For many reefkeepers there is a dark side to summer. Those things that generally make us so happy: warm weather and vacations, turn on us and can make our reef keeping a living hell! This FtE will cover each difficulty and try to offer up some good solutions.

Cold weather is easy. Slap a cheap heater in there, and end of story. Warm weather, on the other hand, is aggravated by the heat generated by tank equipment and the cost of cooling equipment. What exactly are the problems associated with heat? What solutions are there?

Heat build up can cause a number of problems. Some organisms just don't tolerate temperatures much higher than the mid to high 70's F of the tropics. Organism metabolisms increase, which increases need for life sustaining nutrients and requirements like oxygen - which unfortunately is less soluble in warmer water. Increased metabolism also means increased waste - which can put a strain on filtration. Higher temperatures and fluctuations in temperature induce stress on organisms, reducing their resistance to disease, parasites and predation.

Tank temperatures must be kept in check because the potential results can
be catastrophic. Please see the RTO Features article Temperature and Reef Aquaria for a complete discussion of issues like: How do I keep heat from building up? How can I reduce heat in my tank? What other side effects of heat are there and what can I do about them?

Vacations away from your reef tank can leave you a twisted wreck of nerves and anxiety. Will a pump stop? Could the overflow siphon break and the tank overflow? Will the protein skimmer cup overflow (yuck!)? What if the tank gets too hot? Or starts to foul? Will the fish or other organisms go hungry? Will they eat each other? How to make up evaporation losses?

Regardless of how automated your tank may be, it is wise to have someone check in on it every couple days. If something goes wrong with your reef tank, you know its going to be catastrophic. How does 100 gallons of water on the floor, a house fire, or $1000 worth of dead organisms sound? I've heard some local reef stores or companies charge as much as $50 a visit to check on your tank. Or you can have a fellow reef hobbyist check it out, or even just anybody - but give them a thorough "tour" of the tank and a list of things to check. Some people suggest you shouldn't have a non-hobbyist check your tank because of the possibility of them doing the wrong thing, but sometimes you have no one else to turn to.

I know of someone who, while "fish-sitting" a FW tank, noticed the light,
in the glass test-tube shaped thing submerged in the tank, was off one time, while it was normally on. So they turned the knob until the light ame back on, and then did this every day while feeding the fish. You guessed it! Soon there was fish stew!

So the moral of this story is: give your "helper" all the necessary information, and tell them "Don't touch anything unless specifically told to", but do it in the nicest way possible.

You'll have to wait until next time for full details on vacations, until then....

Enjoy the summer, but don't forget to check out what's happening on the RTO!

- Todd Zebert, Editor-in-Chief