Charity Tank

goldenhurricane2 · Apr 16, 2018

Hi Guys - I posted in the main forum, but someone suggested I post over here as well since your group may have done something similar:

Our local Reef Club is considering donating and maintaining an aquarium that will house an easy-care mixed reef to a nursing/long-term care facility here in the area. We've been piecing together equipment via donation from our members and it looks like we're well on our way to having everything we need.

Have any of your local Reef Clubs done something like this? If so, do you have any advice, things to watch for, or anything else that may be helpful?

Thanks!

Skydvr · Apr 18, 2018

We have a tank that the club maintains at a local children's museum, which is also where we hold our meetings.

Right now the tank is doing really well, but there have been points in the past where it really struggled. There was one point where it was an algae display and it was not filled with nice macro algae. I haven't been directly involved with the maintenance myself due to how far away it is and the transient nature of my involvement with the club, but I have heard a bit during my time in the club.

You need a team of people that are really dedicated to the tank and are willing to go out of their way at really inconvienent times to maintain the tank. There is a ballance between too small of a team where it becomes too much of an inconvienence and too big for anyone to actually have ownership and maintain motivation or to keep people accountable for their responsibilities/quality of work. You need a decent crew that is a bit flexable with at least a couple people that live close enough to show up midweek with no notice to check on potential issues (ahhh... where is this water coming from? What is this noise?, etc). People have things that come up in life that might cause them to have to drop out of the rotation without notice. Some people don't realize that they don't have the time or are more enamored with the idea than they have motivation to actually stick with it, and some people are just flakey and dissappear. You need to have enough people to compensate for this. It isn't always negligence and is rarely intentional, but people drop off and the tank sufferes. You need the crew to fill in when there are gaps and you need to have people that can drop everything for emergencies.

There needs to be a plan and direction for the tank. People randomly "donating" corals can do more harm then good (with just the types of corals, in addition to the pests that can be brought in). A defined plan and a policy that prevents anything from being added without consensus will help keep the tank looking ballanced, prevent people from dropping out due to frustration with the direction of the tank, and help keep things stable by preventing conflicts with conditions/livestock/equipment. An SPS dominated tank may not be an ideal track. A tank full of fast growing soft corals and pallys is not ideal either as the maintenance involved and lack of motivation for many (considering current trends) will cause people to be disinterested. Putting the plan up to vote for the club might sound like a good idea, but if the people maintaing the tank do not find it interesting, the tank may end up being neglected in short order. If you have a solid maintenance team, their input should probably trump general club input to some extent.

Automation will help keep parameters stable between servicing and minimize fluctuations due to differences in people's maintenance techniques will go a long way as well. The less frequent people's hands need to be i the tank, the better. Especially if those hands are different at every interval or if those hands are not part of the maintenance team.

Educate the staff and make sure they understand what their roll is and that there is no maintenance they need to do. Ideally keeping them from even having to touch the tank (including feedings) would be ideal. Having someone accidentally set the lighting timer to always on did damage to our tank at one point. Having a main point of contact for the staff so they can reach out if someone has a question or if someone notices any anomolies will make them comfortable and keep well intentioned hands away from the tank. Even informing them about simple things like not cleaning the glass with windex or any other cleaning agent, basic stuff that we take for granted.

A detailed schedule with who has what responsibilities and when along with alternates to fill in if someone can't make it. A text group or group chat app (only people maintaining the tank) to keep the team updated with what is going on, to have people report in when their maintenance shift is completed, and to get coverage if someone can't make it.

You will also need a space to maintain the equipment and a plan for RO and salt mixing. I think there was a struggle at one point getting consistent good RO on site for water changes. If there isn't space to mix up the water, it may need to be premade. The salt mix may need to be chosen based on ability to mix up quickly on site.

A maintenance log would be helpful too. With a few people maintaining the tank, it can be difficult to keep track of trends and what is actually being done.

Having a backup plan (or the primary plan) for funding a service company to do the actual maintenance with the club managing the livestock might be an option too. It would remove a lot of the variables with people having to dedicate their time to maintain the tank and add consistency to the maintenance.

goldenhurricane2 · Apr 19, 2018

Skydvr said:
We have a tank that the club maintains at a local children's museum, which is also where we hold our meetings.

Right now the tank is doing really well, but there have been points in the past where it really struggled. There was one point where it was an algae display and it was not filled with nice macro algae. I haven't been directly involved with the maintenance myself due to how far away it is and the transient nature of my involvement with the club, but I have heard a bit during my time in the club.

You need a team of people that are really dedicated to the tank and are willing to go out of their way at really inconvienent times to maintain the tank. There is a ballance between too small of a team where it becomes too much of an inconvienence and too big for anyone to actually have ownership and maintain motivation or to keep people accountable for their responsibilities/quality of work. You need a decent crew that is a bit flexable with at least a couple people that live close enough to show up midweek with no notice to check on potential issues (ahhh... where is this water coming from? What is this noise?, etc). People have things that come up in life that might cause them to have to drop out of the rotation without notice. Some people don't realize that they don't have the time or are more enamored with the idea than they have motivation to actually stick with it, and some people are just flakey and dissappear. You need to have enough people to compensate for this. It isn't always negligence and is rarely intentional, but people drop off and the tank sufferes. You need the crew to fill in when there are gaps and you need to have people that can drop everything for emergencies.

There needs to be a plan and direction for the tank. People randomly "donating" corals can do more harm then good (with just the types of corals, in addition to the pests that can be brought in). A defined plan and a policy that prevents anything from being added without consensus will help keep the tank looking ballanced, prevent people from dropping out due to frustration with the direction of the tank, and help keep things stable by preventing conflicts with conditions/livestock/equipment. An SPS dominated tank may not be an ideal track. A tank full of fast growing soft corals and pallys is not ideal either as the maintenance involved and lack of motivation for many (considering current trends) will cause people to be disinterested. Putting the plan up to vote for the club might sound like a good idea, but if the people maintaing the tank do not find it interesting, the tank may end up being neglected in short order. If you have a solid maintenance team, their input should probably trump general club input to some extent.

Automation will help keep parameters stable between servicing and minimize fluctuations due to differences in people's maintenance techniques will go a long way as well. The less frequent people's hands need to be i the tank, the better. Especially if those hands are different at every interval or if those hands are not part of the maintenance team.

Educate the staff and make sure they understand what their roll is and that there is no maintenance they need to do. Ideally keeping them from even having to touch the tank (including feedings) would be ideal. Having someone accidentally set the lighting timer to always on did damage to our tank at one point. Having a main point of contact for the staff so they can reach out if someone has a question or if someone notices any anomolies will make them comfortable and keep well intentioned hands away from the tank. Even informing them about simple things like not cleaning the glass with windex or any other cleaning agent, basic stuff that we take for granted.

A detailed schedule with who has what responsibilities and when along with alternates to fill in if someone can't make it. A text group or group chat app (only people maintaining the tank) to keep the team updated with what is going on, to have people report in when their maintenance shift is completed, and to get coverage if someone can't make it.

You will also need a space to maintain the equipment and a plan for RO and salt mixing. I think there was a struggle at one point getting consistent good RO on site for water changes. If there isn't space to mix up the water, it may need to be premade. The salt mix may need to be chosen based on ability to mix up quickly on site.

A maintenance log would be helpful too. With a few people maintaining the tank, it can be difficult to keep track of trends and what is actually being done.

Having a backup plan (or the primary plan) for funding a service company to do the actual maintenance with the club managing the livestock might be an option too. It would remove a lot of the variables with people having to dedicate their time to maintain the tank and add consistency to the maintenance.