|
To answer many questions:
I am very lucky to work in my school - we have the best staff and students in the world, which has made the transition into school administration easy, exciting and enjoyable.
Again, vandalism is NON-EXISTANT - the reef has been going now for close to 5 years - never an issue other than a tornado that killed power to the town for 3 days last May.
During the power outage the entire reef died - all corals and fish dead - a parent stuffed $200 into my mailbox in the school to get new fish!
The original start-up funding came from a grant I wrote and won from Toshiba American Foundation - they hooked me up with $5,000 to start the system (this explains the TUNZE's, HUGE EuroReef RC-250, Dual $00w MH Lighting, Chiller, etc.)
Vacations, weekends, summer is tough - the Superintendent - again, the Superintendent was in the lab viewing the reef 2 weeks ago, heard the story about the reed crashing due to power outage last year and bought a 5,700w generator on the spot - it was at the school assembled, tested and ready to go within 48 hours!
We also raise live trout from eggs - so we need backup power for both systems.
Getting back to vacations, etc. - water top off is taken care of using a 55 gallon rubber maid food-grade barrel with auto-top off (4-stage RO/DI with Spectrapure top-shelf resin and cartidges), food using an Eheim Feed-air (the new double barrel model for multiple food types), lights on timers, chiller and heaters using a controller - massive skimmer set for espresso rich dry skimming)
The system is good for 12 days with no eyes on it - during summer break, I come into school for maintenance.
We also have the best custodians ever who look at the system 365 days/year and call me on my cell phone if there is ever an issue.
Funding today comes from the science department budget, PTA mini-grant program, donations, and my wallet.
Vacations
__________________
SPS-Anon
|