How to Plan a Tank Tour

How to organize a successful tank tour:

If you want to plan a tank tour for your club members to attend, take the lead and organize it. Check with your leadership to make sure you aren't stepping on anyone's toes, but usually this type of initiative is well-received. Set a date as soon as you can, and ask via your club's site for any volunteers. If you know a few friends, call them up and get them to commit. Once you have five or six tanks lined up, map out the best route and create a schedule (see example in link below). Including full names, addresses, and phone numbers, and encourage everyone attending to print it out and bring it with them that day. Be sure to bring a copy yourself, because as organizer people are going to ask you for that information every time. Keep it in your pocket.

The date must be locked in stone, and then promote it as much as possible to get the word out. Everyone can benefit from the tour, but newbies get the most out of it. Talk it up, remind people daily, and the group will form. The number of people attending will vary (weather conditions, distance to travel, etc.). In our club, we've had small groups of about 20 to as many as 45 attend a tour. It's quite the procession as everyone follows each other to the next stop. With GPS and map-assist on our phones, it's almost impossible to get lost nowadays, but by having the phone numbers printed on the schedule, people can call if they need a little localized help.


Not everyone will attend the entire day, but are happy to join in later, meeting up with the group at the next stop on the route. You can plan a short lunch break, or perhaps each host can have a few snacks on hand to keep the group moving. Another idea is for you as the leader to have the treats and a cooler full of drinks in your vehicle, so at each stop people have the opportunity to grab something. Try to avoid excessively long drives between stops, and don't put too many tanks on the tour. Each host should take a few minutes to explain their system (tank size, age of set up, type of lighting, how often do they do water changes, and anything special that they incorporated into their reef's design), then answer any questions from the visitors. As soon as you feel that there is a lull, it's time to tell everyone to head to their cars for the next tank on the tour.

Hosts open up their homes, so every attendee should be on their best behavior as a guest. Each home should be respected, with visitors being careful not to create a bad experience. In inclement weather, be sure to wipe your shoes off to avoid tracking in a mess (homeowners may opt to put down extra towels just in case). If each stop is brief (15-25 minutes), that usually is sufficient for everyone to get a look at the system and see some of the behind-the-scenes. Seeing how the sump is tied in, what equipment is used, how they dose and what they dose, how they feed, what they do to keep jumpers in the tank, etc... that's what makes the experience enjoyable. If everyone is laughing and talking about hobby-related stuff, that's a good sign. Do a few of these and you'll be the local hero, or at least the best tank tour organizer in your club. Try to do this at least twice a year. Odds are there are plenty of tanks in your area, way more than you can actually tour each year. If you can visit the best of the best, the visitors will be blown away, but even younger setups are interesting to visit and the group may provide that owner with valuable feedback to make it a stunning reef one day.

If you don't have a club in your area, perhaps you can coordinate this idea with your local fish store(s), creating an event where hobbyists can see some of their clients' tanks. Another option is to tour one or two local fish stores during the tour, or only tour the fish stores perhaps. Fill up a few cars with some addicts, and make a day of it. You'll have a blast.

Here's a link to a tank tour I organized for DFWMAS: http://www.reefaddicts.com/entry.php...ur-Jan-23-2010