From the Editor: Vacations, Aquaria and Chaos Theory

Recently, I was on vacation for just under two weeks and I needed someone to look after my tank. A friend who agreed to look after the apartment and cat, was "volunteered" for this duty also. Although things worked out reasonably OK, considering what could have happened, I don't think he'll be willing to watch the tank again. I'm going to discuss what I know of preparing a tank for when you're going to be away for an extended duration. Then I'll talk about what did and didn't work during this last trip.

In preparation for fish-sitting (although more like invert-sitting in reef tanks!), I performed some routine maintenance such as siphoning the bottom of the tank and sump, and taking apart the pumps and powerheads and cleaning them out. In some cases encrusting organisms, sand, or calcium and other minerals will build up inside your equipment. All of this should be cleaned out by hand, to get the heavy build up off. Then allow the unit to soak in the clearest, strongest vinegar (a moderate acid) that you can get a hold of. There are also commercial preparations you can buy. Either way, make sure to rinse everything thoroughly, before putting it back into service.

I also checked the seals on all my tubing, cleaned the salt spray off the fluorescent light bulbs, thoroughly cleaned out the protein skimmer, and performed a 20% water change. Even if you are one of those people who delay and delay water changes, now is the time to do so. Now, this might seem like a long list of things to do, but it really shouldn't, because this is basic maintenance for aquaria and every hobbyist should be doing these things on a regular basis.

Feeding is a tricky topic. Most non-hobbyists and some hobbyists over feed and overfeeding is detrimental to your tank's health. Even if you are going to have someone checking on your tank, as a general rule, most fish and inverts don't need to be fed for up to two weeks. If you feel they should be fed more frequently, or you'll be gone longer than this, I'd recommend a specific, measurable, serving size like a teaspoon or tablespoon. Use whatever size is appropriate for your tank. Alternately, you could measure out little plastic baggies of food, so the tank-sitter can just empty one bag per day, every other day, or what ever is appropriate. Strongly discourage the tank-sitter from giving them "special treats".

One thing I feel helped, considering the events that came to pass, was that I used about 1/4 LB of brand new activated carbon (I happen to use Kent). Carbon has a long history of use in aquaria but recently, it seems, it's reputation has taken something of a beating. Common thinking is not very pro carbon since in the past it has been misused and misunderstood and dogged by statements like "carbon leaches phosphorus and you'll get lots of algae". Although this article isn't the History and Use of Carbon in Aquaria, I would like to say that it can be a very powerful tool for hobbyists and its proper use should be encouraged and understood.

I would like to present my aquaria version of chaos theory: inconspicuous benign small changes in one part of the tank can cause potentially cataclysmic changes in a seemingly unrelated part of the tank.

That observation is the reason behind this rule of thumb: Any time your touch (that is CHANGE) the tank, you must observe it for a number of hours equal to the square of the number of times you say or think "This won't have any effect at all". For most things, this equates to 12 to 36 hours.

So, perform all your preventative maintenance at least three to four days before leaving because this will give time for anything to go wrong. Then, before you leave, double check everything but don't TOUCH anything.

Your helpful fish-sitter should be given as detailed as possible a tour of the tank, the equipment, and even of your spare parts, buckets, siphons, and oh yeah, don't forget to point out where the mops, the wet dry vac, and the fire extinguisher are. I would label the most important parts, like main pump cords, siphon tubes, etc. If they are hard to find, lost amidst the clutter behind your tank, you may wish to draw a small diagram like I did on my last vacation. The diagram should include vital locations of tubes, pipes, siphons, power cords and the like, and labels for most of the equipment.

Your tank-sitter won't know the names of things unless you tell them, and since keeping aquaria knowledge has been pounded into your head for probably at least a couple years, what seems obvious to you won't be obvious to your helpful tank-sitter! So write up some simple reminders and tack them up someplace obvious - like right on the tank's front glass. This will also give your fish something to read if they get bored.

In case of emergencies, leave two things: your vacation agenda with phone numbers, and the business card of the you favorite local fish store, preferably one that knows you and your tank. I did the first but not the latter and it would have saved me a lot of trouble and worry.

My vacation story:

A few notes about my tank: I have only a 30 gal main tank (but I'll leave that story for another day) and a 15 gallon sump with about 10 gal. of water in it. The sump holds the chiller coils, return pump, and protein skimmer. For lights, I have two pairs of HO FL (High Output Fluorescent) 24" bulbs: one pair of 50/50 daylight/actinics, one pair of actinics. The lights are in a homemade hood with a fan that comes on with the first bulbs on, the actinics. In the main tank are the chiller probe, pH probe, a couple powerheads for circulation, and the sump return pipe (the return pipe is normally 2" below the main tank water level).

My tank has but one shortcoming: its sump return pump is a little under powered, pushing only 120 gal/hr up the 4 ft. back to the main tank. I never really gave it any notice because its only side effect seemed to be that it had difficulty pushing air bubbles out of the overflow siphon tube (this siphon tube sends the water from the tank down to the sump). So when I first had the tank set up, I quickly got in the habit of tapping the siphon tube every couple days to knock the air bubbles out. No problem.

I explained this to my tank-sitter and everything seemed fine. Two days into my trip and I got a phone message from the tank-sitter. As I was far away (Hawaii - yet another story, another day), there was quite a time difference and it was difficult to arrange a time to talk face to face, so we left messages back and forth.

To boil a long, convoluted, painful story down, while dutifully tapping on the overflow siphon (which I now remember half-noticing that it was collecting more air bubbles than normal - it must have acquired a small crack, as it was about 4 years old), the crack increased and the siphon lost seal, and while my tank-sitter looked at it in amazement, the tank started to overflow.... Thusly, chaos theory tooketh hold, and it was Bad:

• Overflow beget Soggy Power Strips
  
• (luckily, the tank-sitter pulled the main pump cord quickly)
  
• Soggy Power Strips beget Smoke and Corroded Plugs
  
• (luckily, Smoke did NOT beget Fire)
  
• Powerless Pump begets Back-Siphon
  
• Powerless Pump also begets No Water Exchange
  
• Back-Siphon and No Water Exchange begets 3 Extra Gallons in Sump AKA 3 Less Gallons in Tank
  
• (tank-sitter replaces Soggy Power Strips, but doesn't plug everything in correctly - AKA Fan Always On, one Pair of Lights Always On)
  
• (time passes....)
  
• Pair of Lights Always On beget Heat
  
• Heat beget Chiller Cycle On
  
• Chiller Cycle On and No Water Exchange beget Chilling Sump
  
• Chilling Sump and No Water Exchange begets Sump Temp 50 deg. F
  
• No Water Exchange from Sump also begets Ineffective Protein Skimmer
  
• 3 Less Gallons in Tank and Fan Always On and Pair Lights Always On begets 5 Less Gallons in Tank and 85F Heat
  
• 5 Less Gallons in Tank beget Dry Running Powerheads
  
• Dry Running Powerheads pass on to a better place
  
• Dead Powerheads and No Water Exchange beget No Circulation
  
• No Power and Kalkwasser Drip beget Clogged Powerless Pump
  
• Clogged Powerless Pump beget Pump Wont Restart Without Cleaning
  

• And so on, and so on, and so on...
  

All in all, I'm missing one cleaner shrimp, a couple gallons of water, one of my sea fans looks a little ragged, my pagoda coral is receding a bit, and one of two powerheads was salvageable. And don't forget the cost of phone calls a quarter of the way around the world. In the worst possible case, if the siphon had broken while he wasn't there or he was unprepared, a fire could have broken out. So the results were not too bad, considering.

In retrospect, what I did wrong: if I had left a local fish store business card, or if I had actually understood what was happening while it was happening, the problems could have been fixed with a $6 "u" siphon. Placing the chiller coils in the sump and the probe in the main tank seemed a fine idea when I first did it. Of course, the whole siphon tube/bubble thing could have been avoided if I had a stronger pump (which I now have going at twice the flow rate). And a siphon break in the water return tube would have helped with the water level problem and the dry running powerheads. For the smoke/fire prevention issue, the wall outlet should be replaced with a GFI wall outlet. (Make sure your tank sitter knows how to reset these, if you have one!)

What I did right: having all the information, diagrams, and labels helped prevent a major flood, and our conversations at least prevented the chiller from creating the next ice age in the sump - he moved the temp probe to the sump.

Qualities you should look for in a tank-sitter: master plumber, electrician, marine biologist, quick thinker, level head, fireman, mechanical engineer and "McGyver".

- Todd Zebert, Editor-in-Chief

PS. And if you haven't got a GFI outlet for yourself, at least get one for your tank-sitter! It can keep them from seeing your house or themselves burn down. Or it may keep them from Major Harm, by Electrocution.

PPS. Try to make the situation not only good for your aquarium, but also for your tank-sitter. If they have a difficult time, they probably won't offer to help again (or worse!), and if they have a good time, perhaps they will be accompanying you to the fish store soon!