toastiireefs

wow thats amazing! cant wait for your new one!!! :( i wish my tank could look so good

this is my rough of the proposal! it is going to be formatted slightly different than showed here what do you think Aquarium Proposal For North Bethesda Middle School By Sara Eisler Purpose: I would like to construct a saltwater aquarium for the North Bethesda Middle School staff and students. By having this aquarium students will become more aware of the ocean environment, something that many people (including scientists!!) know very little about. Not many kids get the privilege or opportunity to go and visit public aquariums, and even those who do might not have a full understanding of what they learned that day. The school aquarium will not only give the students a “behind the scenes” view of mainstream public aquariums but also teach them responsibility and a new respect for the ocean. I really want the students to be involved with this aquarium as possible. I would love to get a few teachers on board with this project as well. I hope that I will also be able to teach each grade something about the ocean reefs and conservation that corresponds to each science curriculum. Equipment: A sample equipment list would look like this, 40gl Long Tank and Stand 48” HOT-5 Lighting fixture Protein Skimmer Sump Return pump Overflow box Refugium I am currently unaware of sizes and the exact equipment list because I will hopefully be getting the majority of it from donations. However the list above is a general guideline for what types of items will be needed for this set up, though items like a sump, overflow, refugium, and return pump are not necessarily required. Costs: I would hope that the costs will be as close to $0.00 as possible, through donations of other people in the Washington D.C. Area Marine Aquarist Society as well as myself. However if the school wishes to raise some money, or put down any money at all for this project it will be graciously accepted. Maintenance: Maintenance is not as difficult as it may seem. Yes, it does take a lot of work to run a saltwater tank, though it is a lot of fun. Once the tank goes through an initial cycle, the aquarium itself will do a lot of cleaning on a biological level. Then it would only take a 10% water change every couple weeks. Once the tank is established it would probably only need a water change every month. Another task is that if there is a skimmer on this tank, that would have to be cleaned every week, which I could do (Or you could make misbehaved students clean it). Also the glass of the tank will have to be scrubbed of algae, which is not hard to do at all, it does not even require getting a finger wet! Then evaporation would have to be monitored. It is to make sure the salinity stays constant, and it is easily done by getting the salinity at a preferred place and then drawing a line for where the water line should be, and making sure the water stays at that level by topping it off every week, every couple days with fresh distilled water. I was hoping that some of the staff might be interested in helping the project along, and helping with some of the maintenance jobs. I can also go to the school once a week, to check how things are going. If this was possible, it would be ideal to pick a class, and for that week or two, that class would take care of the tank, or at least look over it. Livestock: This is also a sample list of things that I would ideally like to put in this tank. Live rock is, rock that has been sitting in an established aquarium and has colonized nitrifying bacteria, or beneficial bacteria. This is essential to an aquarium, because without it, the tank would not be able to support itself with life in it. Xlbs of Live rock (corresponds to gallonage of tank) Xlbs of Sand Small Polyp Stony Corals (SPS)(depending on light) Large Polyp Stony Corals (LPS) Soft Corals Rose Bubble Tip Anemone Pair of Clownfish Shrimp / Goby pair. Clean-up-crew. such as snails, sea stars, other invertebrates Again most of these will be donations from other members and some coral fragments from myself. The best part about reef keeping is receiving fragments of corals from someone else's tank and watching them grow BIG! Feeding: Feeding is not hard at all. Foods could be frozen or flake. For SPS corals they really do not need much in way of supplemental feeding, however most if not all LPS needs to be fed on a regular basis with meaty foods. I can easily provide food for these guys. They do not have to be fed everyday, more like every 2-3 days. So feed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I also hope the students participate in feeding the fish, and keep a feeding log next to the tank so it does not get over fed. Lesson plan ideas: There is something that can be taught that would fit any curriculum. Symbiosis for ecosystems. Dissect corals, or study cnidarian anatomy. Study hot vent ecosystems. Making their own salt for chemistry. There is a multitude of subjects for any class of any level. Location: This is a topic I think best discussed as a group. Some ideas would be; a science classroom, a hallway, the library, the main office. Time Table: If this project is approved I would like to get started ASAP with the collecting of materials. Then I would hope to set it up with water and rock sometime this summer to have a chance to cycle, so that I can be ready to stock the tank for the new school year. Then I would come to the school regularly for checkups and maintenance. Any lesson plans I hope can be integrated through the second semester, though it is fine if something fits in better with a unit earlier in the year. I would just need to know ahead of time so I can do some research and pull something together. Long term: I do not know how this project would go long term without the help of the staff. As I will be going off to college, I do not know how long I will be able to come in after next summer is over. I was considering asking a person from WAMAS to help out with this project as he lives in the area and is very talented with marine aquaria. I am sure that there will be a teacher who will be hooked onto saltwater by the end of this project and will more than willing to continue it. People to contact:

haha

wow i was just looking over this thred... and i can not believe this is a 20gl!! it looks bigger than my 40!!!! i think i will need to do some re aquascaping in my tank now haha

refractometer

so should i take out the coral? might be stupid quetion.. but can it spread...

i knew that haha mis type i wasnt thinking... wow thats embarrasing. i also said the wrong persoj hahahah aah AND AGAIN THATS WHAT I MENT dam it im on a stupid roll... aaahhhh im not usually this dim. honest!! (besides spelling errors) but seee i knew it was a guy who broke the shoulder...

yup its gone. pretty much 0 flesh this morning so strange the persons also sent me some beautiful AOG (which are doing great) and another zoa which hasnt opened yet but doesnt look bad and im pretty sure of the person who sent it is pretty reputable.. huh

of course then again.. when i lived in DC we got school off for EVERYTHING! rain/heat/snow/ anything there was also that winter of 95-96 (HUGE blizzard) only was 4 though. cant believe i remember that ! wow then airconditioning broken in a heatwave (school off) hurricane (school off)

not anymore!!! we havent had a single snowday this year, and only had one last year AAAND!! 2-hour delays are a waste of a school day, you hardly get anything done, and its sad. :( but i like the sleeping in but we really shouldnt of had school today... i slipped and fell twice so did a friend but 3times, a teacher fell. we have portables... like 40 portables cuz our school is under construction so we have to walk outside. it was very dangerous. ppl were hospitalized in the area. and secretary of state broke his shoulder in this weather! thats all im sayin :P

ok that makes me feel a LOT better.. i got really sad and worried so what should i do? take it out?

*sigh* darn so would you say it was my fault for drip acclimating after shipping? which i was just told not the best? darndarndarn

there are the photos make anything of it?

mine was good slipped and fell twice today going to school .... why is montgomery county the ONLY county that never gets school off... grr

i just got this coral in a frag swap for valentines and it was understandibly closed yesterday, but they continued to recede and now the tips of it are coming off and is "leaking" brownish stuff i drip acclimated for 3hrs and all other corals including, soft/sps/lps are doing fine. i will take a picture in a second is there anything i can do... or just wait and see what happens?

thanks! here are some new frags i got in a valentine trade is the green thing closed frogspawn? it hasnt opened and has been looking sparse... i hope it does ok

wow those are nice ! i got some nice zoos/paly and something unidentified thus far... hasnt really opened

woah!

i voted on topdown photo contest

i was hoping that it would take a while for my false percs to take the nem so it would grow more... but they took to it with in a week or two of being in the smae tank.. its really cute they will figure it out in time

I agree i have been confused bout this as well

wow sounds like the opposite at my house dad: no you can not get another tank. you already have the house full of them me: i only have two! and one is small and in my room dad: no! me: MOOOOOMMMMM.... :D

oo thats good thanks

I personally love aquarium one... they are currently upgradeing their saltwater systems, so they dont have a lot in, they do personal orders though but i think all my livestock is from there. and they are just a great store congressional i sed to go to, buuut i dont really anymore...

wooooooooooooooooowwwww that tile work on the stand is BEAUTIFUL!!! (im a sucker for seahorses) as well as the tank!!! woooow