According to my user profile, I last logged in in August of 2010! I guess it's time to join the fray again. I see some old familiar names and a fish load of new ones. I kept a beautiful reef tank for years in upstate New York, 300 gallon display tank with a 750 gallon sump filled with live rock. Fish, corals and invertebrates were happy campers. I went on vacation for 3 weeks one summer and had a live in house sitter watch the two dogs and the aquarium. Their job was tough for the aquarium, they needed to keep the water level in the sump between two lines. Supposedly checked every day, but honestly they could have done it every 3 days and still been fine. All they had to do was turn the little water valve handle right over the sump for a moment and they would be all set. Everything else was automatic. When we returned home, I could smell the disaster from outside the house. The task became too tasking for them and so they thought they could just fill it back up before we returned. Needless to say, the level got below the pump suction and so water stopped flowing to the tank and in a few more days, everything was dead. You can probably imagine what the smell was like, only double that imagination and you will be close to being there. I gave up at that point and vowed to never do another tank again. Well I'm going to retire soon and my wife and I have decided that priority one in the new house is a really special reef tank. I've got a lot to learn since I've been out for so long and believe it or not, the world of reef keeping seems to have marched forward quite a bit. Hope I can catch up. Glad to be back.
