tanksitter, new kalk drip and 9 days on the road...

[Sk8r]

My longsuffering tanksitter, who happens to have some chemical expertise [medical], but no fish experience, came through again with flying colors.

I was really worried about this: tank re-set-up with cycle only since March, 3 months and about prime for problems, lps, 4 sps, and fish---sump in basement, with brand new kalk reactor and big [EV120] skimmer which my sitter had never worked with.

So I loaded kalk in, got the rodi reservoir filled [32 g] to drive it, tuned my skimmer, and ran my sitter through the paces---how to tune a skimmer, what tests to run. She 'got' it, and I left her 3 pages of instructions, diced the food for her in the freezer, gave her my cell number, and, sure enough, one thing that I hadn't predicted [new-ish tank] was the sudden magnesium draw. I left it high, near 1500. She phoned and reported it, after her 2-day hiatus for a 37-hours-with-no-sleep stint in the ER, as crashed down to near 1200 mg, my calcium at 350, and the alk at 6.5. Wah! I gave instructions for a fast rise in the alk and mg, and bless her, she fought that cussed skimmer 2 days to get it going, staying an hour and watering the garden, to be sure that skimmer was going.

By the time I got home, still short of sleep and preparing for her daughter's wedding, she'd battled that sucker to 1400 mg, 400 cal, 8.0 alk, and the only thing I had to do was grab a rock that had caulerpa on it, toothbrush it, and deposit it in the sump refugium for an algae cleaning.

When you're considering tanksitters, friends, don't discount the friend who's got zero fish experience, but who knows chemistry. Brains and grit definitely are an asset in this hobby. And she gets a mega-steak dinner---after the wedding.