that regularly sends out an employee (Ray Bennett) to perform regular tank maintenance and make sure everything is working properly. This seemed to bring about some concern amongst the 'purists' as to whether I could consider myself a real reefer. In response to what I hoped was some good natured ribbing, I replied that if the defining criteria of real reefing was exclusive hands on tank management. I hope someone's prepared to tell the likes of Borneman and Sprung that they aren't real reefers either since I doubt that even THEY could be on national speaking tours and home scraping algae at the same time. Actually, there are three reasons I've chosen to go the service contract route:

1. I can afford it, thank God.

2. I too travel a lot and it's better than calling over a neighbor who 'might' notice a problem if the pumps were all silent, the tank was completely drained, and the fish were holding up a sign that read, "Yo, Jacques! When you're finished going for the 'Most Ice Cream In A Human Mouth At One Time' world's record over there, we're all dying, thank you!!!!"