Classroom Tanks: The Phoenix Center - Stafford, VA

[gastone]

I've been away from the hobby since late 2008 or so when I got married and bought a house.  My wife okayed a new tank so I picked up a Waterbox 15 peninsula for the house.  My kids 11&9 have gotten excited and I started shopping for more and started thinking about getting a tank into the building where I've taught hs math for the past 22 years.  I've had a couple of members generously offer to donate systems, but given the large size of them, I couldn't get it past the higher ups.  Last week I stumbled upon a guy liquidating.   He had a very unique setup to include twin IM concept pro 2|20 aio encores and an IM 30L.  The encores weren't what I was after, but I thought it was a cool setup so I went for it.  

 

 

The setup included three pair of clownfish:  black storms, black extreme snowflakes, and black and white ocellaris.  The black storms are in the 30 with an orchid dottyback, a skunk cleaner and cuc and some softies (not my thing, but they are okay).  The salinity in the 30 was quite low (1.020) and I think he was using tap water treated with prime in lieu of ro/di so I've been doing daily 4-5 gallon water changes to slowly up the salinity and deal with nutrients export.  I ordered a nicrew 150 as at the very least I needed an a80 at home.  I still need to up the flow (only the return pump currently), and I'd like to get an anemone for the clowns.  That's the short term.  

 

Longer term:  The Phoenix Center houses the alt ed program for Stafford County.  We have two disciplinary based programs (I worked in the HS program for 14 years), a GED program, a high school completion program for students that just need an alternative setting to finish their grad requirements (Turning Point - this is my 8th year there) and an evening program to again offer another avenue for students.  

 

I'm thinking about adding an earth science endorsement to my license to explore the option of teaching oceanography.  In the meantime, the one science teacher in the building helped me pick up the 30.  We've got some ideas and access to 2 3D printers in our maker's space.  There's a new technology academy opening next door to us that a good friend is overseeing and I've thought about touching base to look into some controller programming and the like.  That's where we are.  I'll get some pics and more equipment details shortly.

 

Garrett.

[gastone]

I shouldn't have put that together using my phone.  Especially given there is not edit option.  

 

I managed to upgrade the lights a bit.  I went with a Nicrew 150 and the associated controller.  I get that the 150 is overkill on a 30g tank, but I wanted a bit more spread and I plan to just run them at like 40% or less.  I'd read on another forum that the Kessil controller (which is quite similar to the Nicrew controller), would work on Nicrew lights.  As luck would have it, the Nicrew controller also works on Kessil lights. (Bonus, it was only $44 or so on Amazon)  So I've got the Nicrew situated in the middle of the tank, flanked by two Kessil A80s, all daisy chained to the Nicrew controller.  This means I can get the other A80 and the Kessil controller over to my house and onto my nano setups.  

 

Tank:  IM 30L Nuvo Fusion Pro AIO

Lighting:  1 Nicrew 150w and 2 Kessil A80s controlled via a Nicrew controller

Mechanical Filtration:  Two filter baskets, with IM 3 stage media - mechanical sponge, carbon sponge, and phosphate sponge

Skimmer: NuvoSkim DC AIO Protein Skimmer (Desktop)

Biological Filtration:  Probably about 20lbs of live rock including some branch rock.  I believe the previous owner told me that it's Marco Rock or the like. 40-50lbs of CaribSea live sand. Also a number of Bio Blocks.

Heater:  Two Eheims - 150w and a 50w backup.  I've got 5 Inkbirds that should be arriving today so I can get the 4 nanos at home and the school tank set up with better monitoring.

ATO:  Auqa Gadget 5 Gallon Hydrofill Reservoir with a Prism ATO.  I can bring in a 5 gallon bucket of RO/DI from home as needed to refill the reservoir.  

Circulation:  MightyJet 538 GPH Return Pump through the two return nozzles is currently the only water movement!  I've got a Jebao SCP-70M wavemaker on order.  We'll see how it does.  

 

Livestock:  Pair of Black Storm clownfish and an orchid dottyback.  Skunk cleaner.  Emerald crab (there was a wee bit of bubble algae on the rock.  Not horrible, but I don't want it to get horrible either).  Nassarius and a few hermits.  Maybe a cerith or two or three.  There's also two neon green cabbage corals, a neon nepthea and a few green mushrooms.  None of those corals move me or speak to me, but they are fine for now.  

 

Short term plans:  The tank doesn't jump out to me as being loaded with biodiversity.  I'll probably do an order of plankton and pods (copepods and amphipods) to up the diversity quotient.  I'd like to get an anemone to host the clowns.  Entacmaea aren't the natural host, but I'm not interested in attempting a Heteractis or Stichodactyla at work, so BTA it is. 

 

Longer term:  acquire some corals to frag so we can talk about asexual propagation with the students.  I'm thinks zoas and LPS, though I remember @SteveOutlaw and his debacle with palythoas many years ago so perhaps even in a controlled environment, that wouldn't be a great idea.  

 

Next year:  I'm hoping to get in another tank. I'd like to explore the idea of raising fry.  Not sure how feasible it is in a classroom setting, given how much care and consideration a hatch needs, especially before meta.  At the very least I'd like to get a few cultures going.  That would provide a good opportunity to discuss food hierarchies as well as grabbing the Bio teacher from downstairs to study the different cultures under a scope.  

 

We also have access to 2-3D printers.  We've already started using them by printing off a variable flow nozzle.  I need to grab it out of the maker space, get it cleaned up and see how it works.  

 

 

 

 

[gastone]

Not much has changed. I added an entamacea quadricolor (rainbow variant) and a large Caulastrea (neon candy cane) that I picked up from member @ChrisTran.  

 

For next year I'm planning on plumbing together a 20g Fiji cube and a 28 lowboy with a sump that I got from member @WheresTheReef.  I'm thinking of doing a pseudo Caribbean mangrove biotope in the lowboy.  I've got two pairs of clowns at home that are in grossly undersized nano tanks and definitely could use some more room.  The clowns aren't native to the Caribbean obviously, hence pseudo. I'm in the planning stages and will get to work on the stand soon 

 

Thank you to the members who have supported the tank with either donation, or discounts.  It's greatly appreciated.

[gastone]

Not a tremendous amount of change on the 30L.  I was able to replace the IM skimmer with an IOAIO nano skimmer.  The company was offering free skimmers (they asked they you post a review on Amazon) over on reef2reef and I was able to score one.  It's quite finicky to dial in, and the collection cup is tiny (does have an overflow), but it's been pulling some nasty stuff once up and running.  I'm loathe to use the overflow capability as if it gets twisted even slightly the bubble composition will immediate change to a watery froth and it could quickly drain the back compartments.  Especially given that it's in my classroom and someone from the cleaning crew could accidentally bump it at night.

 

 

The little entamacea quadricolor has settled in nicely.  Small guy, may 3" or so in diameter.  The clowns haven't found it yet, which again, given the fact that it's not a natural host for them isn't surprising.  They are partial to the corner of the tank nearest my desk.  She especially gets excited every time I stand up.  I feed them often, though not a lot.  This to make up for the fact that they don't always get fed on weekends, though I do try to make it up on Saturdays to feed them once.  Currently they are getting a mix of Marin S and some Thera A pellets.  I also spot feed the bta once or twice per week with some frozen mysis. 

 

In addition, I've been culturing phyto at home, currently Chlorella and Tetraselmis Chui.  I bring in a 12oz bottle of each on Mondays and dose a few oz per day throughout the week.  At home I've also setup a copepod culture.  Right now it's a mixed culture, but eventually the apocyclops will outcompete the tigre and tigriopus.  The plan going into next year is to start some school cultures with the students, both phyto and pods.  I'm also considering rotifers if we are able to get into some clownfish rearing, but I'm probably getting a bit ahead of myself.  To boot, while the students can keep up with rotifer cultures during the week, I don't know that I'm going to want to come into the building on every day off to attend to them.  We'll see where we land.

 

Speaking of next year we are making some positive headway planning wise.  My co-teacher and have sat down a few time and put together a wish list for the school.  We knew it would get kicked back, and it did, to the tune of a 75% reduction, but we are glad that we are getting some money for our venture.  I've got tanks, overflows, skimmer and sump.  Still going to need plumping, return pump, circulation, lighting, heaters, et al.  And that's just the dry goods.  Still looking at what else is out there to be had.  I plan on building the stand soon and hope to get water into the system by the start of the school year.  

[gastone]

Missed my window to edit the last post:  

 

I've also picked up 10 Avicennia germinans, black mangroves, for the Caribean biotope that will go into the 28g lowboy.  I've got half of them placed in the back compartment of the 30 and the other half planted in soil.  I suspect the ones planted in soil will take off quite a bit quicker, and then I'll have to re-acclimate them to salt water before adding them to the lowboy.

[gastone]

I just won a starter package from Tampa Bay Saltwater over on Reef2Reef through one of their sponsor giveaways.  Terrific news as I am planning a Caribbean lagoon biotope anyway!  

[ReeferMan]

Nice looking tank!

 

[gastone]

Thanks.  It's a work in progress.  Still trying to figure out the feeding regime.  I try to get in on Saturdays, but no building access on Sundays.  I can get it, but we rent from Mary Washington and trying to get two bureaucracies to work together is...challenging.  

Edited May 18, 2024 by gastone

[gastone]

Summer started two weeks ago.  I've been going into the building about 4x per week to check on everything and I've got a few 12 month co-workers feeding the fish on a daily basis.  My friend messages me a 0700 and says, something doesn't look right...

 

I've had precipitation events in the past.  I knew it was either my ATO w/kalk (unlikely as the tank would be overflowed) or worse, my Part B of 2-part.  I checked the Apex and the pH was 9.6.  Ouch.

 

Looks like at 0430 my dosing setup had a bit of a snafu.  I grabbed the 20g of nsw I had mixed up and headed up that way.  My dosing vessel had 400ml of Part A and 0ml of Part B which means 400ml of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate got dumped into a 30g system.  Yikes!  FWIW, it's programed to add 4ml 5x nightly for a total of 20ml.  

 

The orchid dottyback decided that he'd take his chances on the floor in lieu of bathing in the diluted household ammonia concoction I had going on.  The clowns were alive, the cabbages appeared alive.  BTA and mini carpet were definitely not happy and the crocea didn't look good.  Snails appeared alive as well. No bueno.  Changed out 15g and tossed the survivors into the remaining bucket of NSW to get them home.  

 

I've got 5 nano systems at home, one of them with no fish inhabitants so that's where the clowns went.  Everything else was dispersed to the other tanks were I felt like they would best fit.  The clowns are eating.  Nems are looking a bit better.  Corals aren't looking horrible, and we'll see about the clam.  It's not dead, is photoreactive and isn't gaping.  All positives.

 

So, time to figure out the failure point.  I started the 2 part dosing about a week ago as the kalk wasn't keeping up with the consumption, and, my ph levels were quite low, hence the sodium hydroxide (solution has a pH of 14 give or take... nasty stuff).  The doser was set above the tank as I'm very limited with space on this setup.  Best I can figure is that a siphon formed and drained the 400ml.  So I'll definitely have to address that.  And I think for starters I won't fill my vessels with 500ml for the short term, in case we have a reenactment.  100ml should suffice.  

 

I'm mixing up another 20g of nsw now.  I rushed out of school to get the survivors home so I didn't change our filter media or carbon.  I'll get that taken care of next.  

Edited June 7, 2024 by gastone

[gastone]

Tank update:  have done a few large water changes.  Only known casualty is the fridmani who jumped.  The clowns, corals, crocea (not enough light at home in my nanos...need to get it back soon), rtba and snails/inverts have all transitioned safely to my home tanks. What's funny is that in the chaos of dealing with the precipitation event I completely forgot a rock of rhodactis.  Wouldn't you know that they've survived a pH as high as 9.6, that stayed over 9 for 36hrs.  Alk as low as 6.6 and calcium that also dropped to 320.  I'm slowly bringing parameter back to normal.  Alk is 10.06, pH is 7.90, calcium is 377.  I did replenish the pod populations with a metric ton of pods from reeflegends.  The plan, literally the day of the crash, was to add a mandarin dragonet which would be fed from my pod culturing stations.  Had to contact Christina at Christina's Coral Cabin and let her know that I couldn't pick up the fish she'd ordered for me.  Talk about awesome, Christina offered to let me move any inhabitants and take whatever I needed to get everything stable.  If you guys haven't looked her up, I'd encourage you to.

 

Pod stations (L->R)

Tigriopus californicus

Tisbe biminiensis

2xApocyclops panamensis

 

 

Another shout out to Skyler @reeflegends.  This guy has great phytos, pods, and service.  

 

Of course I was in the midst of setting up the new tanks when everything went south.  So I've had a few days pre vacation to get working again building a stand.

 

Working on the doors and plumbing today.  I need to have it water tested and filled by the 24th as that's when I'm getting my first live rock shipment from TBS.  Of course I leave tomorrow for a beach vacation, back on Thursday.  Yikes!

[gastone]

On a side note, I've been a certified math teacher licensed by the Virginia Department of Education since 2002.  I took and passed my earth science praxis about one month ago (results yesterday), which opens the door for me to teach oceanography.  The plan was to do some cross curricular activities with he Science teacher downstairs (same building, different program... our program has never had a certified science teacher), but I'm going to get together with admin and our counselor to see what other offerings we have access to.

 

Fun stuff!

 

[Jeremy]

5 hours ago, gastone said:

On a side note, I've been a certified math teacher licensed by the Virginia Department of Education since 2002.  I took and passed my earth science praxis about one month ago (results yesterday), which opens the door for me to teach oceanography.  The plan was to do some cross curricular activities with he Science teacher downstairs (same building, different program... our program has never had a certified science teacher), but I'm going to get together with admin and our counselor to see what other offerings we have access to.

 

Fun stuff!

 

Congratulations! 

[gastone]

4 minutes ago, Jeremy said:

Congratulations! 

Thanks, Jeremy.

 

Worked on the stand today.  Didn't get to the plumbing as I'm still short a few components and it was hot outside.  

 

Waiting on some door catches so it's not done, but it's done enough.  Still have to seal it and square up a few things, but overall I dig it. 

 

 

 

[YHSublime]

It looks great! Great build!

[gastone]

Updates, update:

 

Back to it. Finished plumbing yesterday. Added more water (still didn't have enough mixed up at home as I only have 2-20g Brutes for my mixing station). Brought over another 8-9 gallons this morning (should have brought one more bucket....) to get everything topped up and running. No apparent water leaks though it is a bit noisy. Especially the sump area. Still haven't completed my standpipes, but I don't feel as if that's the issue. I've got a bit of splashing in the sump to contend with.
 

I'm a plumber no more than I'm a carpenter, but I fake my way as best I can. The third chamber will eventually house a fuge once I add sand and get more lighting. I know the manifold isn't level. I cut the return lines a bit short and they are tugging a bit. I added plenty of room on the manifold to run another line off of down the road...uv, ats, etc. Oh, and I didn't fell like ponying up for gate valves so ball valves it is. There's a heck of a horizontal run coming from the 20 cube. Probably close to 48". The return pump will be dialed back quite a bit and each return has ball valve so I can play with the flow there as well.
 

28g lowboy - This is set to be the Carribean biotope. I just placed an order of 80# of sand. Now, I don't need 80# of sand, but it was on closeout from BRS and stupid cheap so I purchased more than I needed. The plan is to build up the left side of the tank with eggcrate/rockwork/sand, sloped down to the right. The elevated left side will house mangroves, which I need to figure out the lighting for. I'm thinking just a cheap growlight from amazon. I'm sure I'll have to 3D print a shade, but that will be a project for the students. On the right side I've got a Nicrew 150 which I'm sure is way overkill, but I can dial it back. I had to trim out some of the tank frame to account for the mount. Dremel to the rescue. For water movement I only have the returns running at the moment. I've got a Hygger wavemaker on my IM 30 which I like so I'm thinking about one of them for each the lowboy and the 20g cube. Definitely planning on crucifers and ricordeas, understanding that touching will not be good. As far as the fish selection goes, unfortunately I've got 3 pairs of captive bred ocellaris at home that are in undersized tanks in my house (all 10g nanos). I'll now have 3 tanks at school. This biotope may have to house a pair of non-native ocellaris that some careless hobbyists has released into the wilds of my aquarium. The other option is that I ditch one of the pairs of clowns. I currently have: black storms, black extreme snowflakes, and black and white ocellaris. If I ditched a pair, it would be the black and whites (Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce thanks to my 11yo Swiftie). Of course I could leave them to suffer in a 10g nano as well. Moving all of thee guys over leaves me open for adding fish to each tank at home. Taylor is particularly nasty and I'm ready for her to bite someone else. Other than that, red lip blenny? Neon gobies? Royal Gramma? Probably got to have a Gramma, right? That's the initial plan.

Speaking of BRS... a big shout out to them. I reached out to see if there was anything they could do to support my classroom project and man did they come through.
 

2 heaters which I desperately needed and two inkbirds as well!!! They also provided a 6 month supply of reagents for the trident and also a ton of reef nutrition. Can't say thank you enough to them and their support.

20g Cube - not yet situated. I've added all of the base rock and sand from TBS to this tank as when it arrived on Monday the lowboy wasn't completely plumbed. It will get moved over the lowboy in keeping with the Carribean biotope plan. In the meantime, it settled in and cleared up immediately. I had my son with me this morning and was scrambling to get other stuff taken care of so I didn't just stare for an hour, which I am want to do. I'm not sure what I'm going to light this one with. I do like the Nicrews. Aesthetically the 50 would fit so much better. Is it enough punch? Should I go with the 100? Down the road as things change and student interest promotes it, I want to have a lighting system that could support anything we decide to add. As far as theme... I'm researching. Again, I've got a pair of Ocellaris that will for sure end up in this tank. And an entacmaea quadricolor (I've got a rainbow and a pretty green at home). Outside of that it's pretty wide open. Both of these tanks are designed to be viewed/studied from above. I wish the lowboy was rimless, but it was free. Clams are so nice to look at from above. I've got a maxima that was in my IM30 and got moved home in a precipitation event. That tank is void of life save for a few rhodactis which I am not sure could survive an apocalypse. So no theme just yet, but I'm still researching. 

 

My desk is bright red btw, hence the red hardware on the cabinet. My classroom is an absolute mess atm. Literally crap everywhere. Two coworkers have decided that they are going to use my room as the summer overflow for the maker's space and the clothing closet. This doesn't explain why my room is a mess, it just adds to it.

I should address the IM30 as well. It's been in my room for a few months and spurned me on to add the science endorsement to my license and start using the tanks for more than display, but for education as well. Like I said above, I had a fun overdose event and had my pH spike to 9.6. Thanks to the Apex, I caught it quickly enough (3hrs later as it happened at 4:30am) and was able to get everything moved home. It is typically home to a pair of clowns (see a theme here? I'm not even a huge clown fan (love my premnas at home)), but they came with the 5 nanos I purchased. It also has a pretty maxima, an rbta, two neon cabbages (sinularia brassica), an as yet unidentified (by me) neon green finger leather, the aforementioned rhodactis and a red mini carpet anemone (Homactis tapetum). I'd like to get something to encrust the tonga branch. Zoanthids, cypahstrea maybe. Could go easy with some GSP or xenia. (Hate away people!) The softies will be a good start for the students to propagate, save for zoanthids. I've never been a softie fan, but some of the yellow fiji leathers are nice as well. Maybe a nice sarcopython. The plan, just prior to the overdose, was to add a green mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) which we could feed from the pod cultures I've got going. I know the 30 is way undersized for a mandarin, but I do have the 4 pod cultures going as well as two current phyto strains, chlorella and tetraselmis chui (the phyto is at home, but I'll bring it in as well for the students to maintain and study).

I leave for Asia next Wednesday. One of my best friends moved to HK about 16 years ago and I last went out there to see him in 2010 (the World Cup was a lot of fun to watch with a bunch of European expats). He finally convinced me to come back that way so I decided to go for it. I think my wife (also a teacher) okayed it as she led an educational trip to Costa Rica last summer. So July 3 to HK, then off to Phuket and Bangkok, before heading back home on the 14th. I've got to get things stabilized and mostly self sufficient before then. Next up I'll get an ATO setup. Still need to get a reservoir to handle that. I think a 20g high will fit, and I know it will fit with some modifications. Worst case I'll just pick up a cheap 10g from Petco and plan on filling it more often.

[gastone]

Leave in 8hrs for Hong Kong and then Thailand.  Very excited.  Ran over this morning to top up ato reservoirs and leave directions with coworkers to add more water and feed the pod cultures.  I've shut down my phyto cultures while I'm away so I'll have to restart those right away upon returning.  Picked up a mandarin for the IM30.  I've probably added 10k pods over the last few weeks to that tank. 

 

On the other side of the room I've been working on the rock scaping for the lowboy.  80% of the live rock is from Tampa Bay Saltwater.  I had two pieces unused that I tossed in as well.  I'm getting another shipment from TBS in August (I think).  The cube is empty now and just has some sand in it.  Of course when I was chasing a bulkhead leak last weekend I forgot to put acrylic backing on the lowboy so I'll have to address that at some point.  Still searching for a few more lights and wave makers.  Otherwise I feel like everything is progressing (knock on wood).

 

[gastone]

Returned one week ago from an 11 day Asian adventure.  Visited the goldfish market in HK.  Husbandry practices are certainly....questionable.  There are probably 100 or more fish shops.  Most are fairly small, probably 12-15' wide and however deep.  But boy do they pack a lot into the space.  50L tanks with 100 clowns or 40 tangs are quite common.  Only every fourth or fifth shop had SW as it was mostly fw. Clowns were marked as 50HKD, about $6.50. Not much in the way of corals and no pics as they don't like photos being taken.  Beautiful fw planted setups.

 

Back to work on the school tanks.  Moved over a few mangroves into the lowboy and got a light hung for them.  Also added a ricordea/zoanthid rock that I picked up on FB and goes with my Caribbean plan.  Ordered some p. crucifers and a royal dottyback as well for that tank. Added a hygger gyre to each tank (prime day special) and went with a 60w smatfarm light for the cube.  I shut down my phyto cultures while I was gone so I restarted upon returning.  I had a coworker feed the pods while I was gone.  The tisbe and tigriopus did fine, but I'm afraid I ran out of phyto for the Apocyclops.  Those little buggers are hungry.  Their population took quite a hit while I was gone.  I'm trying to nurse them back now.  

 

The cube is mostly empty.  My second shipment from TBS doesn't come in until the third week in August and the plan will be to use the LR that I get them to put in the cube as the lowboy looks good as is.  Still haven't completely decided on how I'll utilize it.  Clowns/bta for sure.   Otherwise...I do like the idea of a theme for the students to study, just not sure which way go...

 

 

[gastone]

Our students are officially coming into the building this morning.  Getting excited to get to work on the tanks.  I've been collaborating with our building instructional coach to come up with some projects for the students.  She's excited as well as she's actually teaching a section of math (project based learning program).

 

30g - We've added a female mandarin dragonet (Synchiropus splendidus).  I've been in and out of the hobby for a number of years.  I used to keep a mandarin in a 42g hex that was attached to a 100g stock tank fuge/sump.  Even that was blasphemous 20 years ago.  With the 4 pod cultures I've got going I'm able to harvest and feed her multiple times per week.  Enough so that I'm thinking about adding a mate for her.  Also added a lawnmower blenny (Salarias fasciatus).  He was shy at first, but once I brought the clown pair back (Black Storms - Amphiprion ocellaris), who are absolute chowhounds, he's realized I'm a good thing and people=food.  So he's been much more visible.  I've added a few frags as well, a long polyp toadstool, a neon toadstool, an acan enchinata.  All of the previous inhabitants that had moved out during the precipitation event are back.  The maxima is back in the tank (thinking I'd like to add another giant clam if anyone has one they are looking to part with: derasa, squammie, crocea even).  A nice little blue sympodium that I'm hoping will encrust the branch rock eventually.  

 

28g lowboy - Haven't added the royal gramma (Pictichromis paccagnellae).  Soon I hope.  Did add some rock flower anemones (Epicystis crucifer). They've settled in and are eating.  The algae that came in on the base rock from TBS has taken off, including some unsightly stuff, but we are working our way through it.  The ricordea and zoa rock that I put in has settled nicely.  One mangrove looks fine, the other two not great.  Bottom growth, but no top growth.  I'll keep my eyes open for some new one.  That's it for the lowboy.  Still haven't made the final determination on the rest of the stocking.  No lid, but lots of deep sand so I'm still considering some pearly jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons).  And I still have that miserable pair of black and white ocellaris that I need to sort out.  Could be that they get traded out, which would solve a problem for me.  Then I could come in with a pair, or more, of pajama cardinals (Sphaeramia nematoptera).  Mouth brooders would be fun and we could start a rotifer culture.

 

20g cube - Moved in the pair of black extreme snowflake Ocellaris (I don't make up these names... apparently ORA does).  I was able to pick up a nice size  euphyllia from a WAMAS member who was breaking down his system.  I've also added a few frags that I'm hoping the students can grow out and propagate.  A few chalices, a favia.  One of those wonky jawbreaker mushrooms.  I've got 25 lbs of premium rock coming in from TBS on Monday the 19th that I'll need to allocate and most, if not all, of it will go into this tank as I'm quite satisfied with the rockwork on the lowboy. That will help to determine where things get glued as currently they aren't.  Two entacmaea quadricolor have been moved over.  A green with purple tip variety from a WAMAS member and a rainbow.  The clowns were housed at home with the green bta and the male has found him again.  Not a natural host, but I won't tell him that.  

 

Pod cultures have bounced back nicely.  I'm going to do a class at Christina's Coral Cabin on Saturday, August 31st, where we are going to talk about phyto and pod cultures and benefits in the reef tank.  The apocyclops are coming back and are showing good growth.  I've put a light on their containers as they are so voracious, and go through so much phyto, that it's hard to keep up with them.  This gives the phyto an opportunity to establish in their culture container so hopefully I won't have to feed them as often.  That's my theory anyway. 

 

I've decided I'm going to move some phyto cultures into school for the students to study under the microscopes (speaking of which, I managed to get the Bio teacher to give me a much better scope than I have and he was helping to identify some dinoflagellates yesterday).  No autoclave at school and there's not deep sink either so I think I'll go with a rotation system with glass jars.  Clean and bleach at home, then bring those jars in when I harvest and use them to start next week's cultures.  I'll continue to maintain cultures at home so if there are issues here, I'll have backups.  Currently have Chlorella, Thalassiosira weissflogii (planktonic diatom so needs silica water as well), and Isochrysis galbana which is proving to be a bit trickier to get going.  I hit a bump in the road where the culture was struggling, but I've been nursing it along and I'm hoping it has turned a corner.  I had tetraselmis chui, but upon returning from my July trip I wasn't able to get it restarted.  Not sure if I'll go with another tetra culture (it was very easy to maintain previously) or round out with something different.  

 

I'll get some update pics up as soon as I figure out how to take a decent pic.

[gastone]

So this past Friday we introduced a few students to fragging.  These young men had next to no prior knowledge of coral reefs coming into the year.  The biology teacher has been working with them in advance of Friday's festivities.  They were excited to learn about coral propagation.  I identified a nice neon green cabbage that was a prime candidate for fragging. 

Then I used a scalpel to show them how we would slice.  We removed 6"x 1.5" piece of cabbage from the periphery of the coral.

Each student then had the opportunity to slice off a piece of coral for their individual frag.  The corals were affixed to plugs using rubber bands and they chose which of two tanks to place them in and under what lighting conditions.  

 

We took measurements of each frag including size (using calipers), and weight in grams using a digital scale.  Every two weeks we will pull the plugs to take new measurements and talk about progress and the tank conditions that influence them.  We'll let the students drive the discussion and formulate their own conclusions.

 

This is a group of students that hasn't had much exposure educationally.  They were excited, polite, inquisitive.  As they were leaving one of them said to my co-worker, "I feel like we just stepped out of the Great Barrier Reef." He and I are looking forward to ongoing work and collaboration.

[WheresTheReef]

It’s nice to see things coming along. I appreciate all the details you provide in your updates.

[howaboutme]

Just catching up on this. Great work, Garrett!

[gastone]

12 hours ago, WheresTheReef said:

It’s nice to see things coming along. I appreciate all the details you provide in your updates.

 

Thank you!  This endeavor has been years in the making.  I'm glad I finally decided to run with it, my administration has supported it, and most importantly, the students are excited.

 

2 hours ago, howaboutme said:

Just catching up on this. Great work, Garrett!

 

Jack, thank you for your kind donation.  I just received an an acclimation box from Amazon so my next plan it to split some of those nems you so graciously provided us with.  

[YHSublime]

Very cool seeing this all come together. I like the students have potential buy in with their own frags!

 

I have a few colonies of neon green trumpet corals if you're interested, I'm in Hyattsville, MD. 

[gastone]

On 9/23/2024 at 12:04 PM, YHSublime said:

Very cool seeing this all come together. I like the students have potential buy in with their own frags!

 

I have a few colonies of neon green trumpet corals if you're interested, I'm in Hyattsville, MD. 

Thank you.  We are doing the first round of measurements this coming Friday.  We ended up with a total of 5 little frags.  The fifth one was just a little castoff sliver of cabbage that I stuck on a plug.  Color is awesome on that little guy.  Hopefully they are starting to atttach.  We'll see.  And thank you for your offer of trumpet.  Are you going to the meeting on the 5th?  I'd love some.  As a side note, we are culturing phyto here at school.  If you are interested, we could offer you some as a trade.  We've got tetraselmis chui, chlorella, nannochloropsis and a nice diatom phyto, thalassiosira.  

 

On a side note, I'd placed a group order from KP Aquatics this past week to close out the stocking on my Caribbean biotope.  One pygmy angel (centropyge argii), and two yellowhead jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons).  The order was placed Monday morning to hopefully be shipped Tuesday for Wednesday arrival.  Which was all well and good until I woke up 1:30am Tuesday morning with appendicitis.  Off to the hospital for an appendectomy.  The order shipped and was slated for delivery Wednesday.  They kept my overnight Tuesday as things were a bit messy in there and wanted to keep my overnight again on Wednesday.  Wasn't going to work so off I went to rescue the delivery.  @Almoe and @MaeganWink both drove to the house to pick up their offerings (Maegan brought us lasagna so we wouldn't have to stress over dinner - Thank you again Maegan.  It was fantastic and made everything much easier that evening).  I felt bad that I wasn't in much shape to conversate.  After that my wife drove me and my stuff up to school.  Into the quarantine with the fish.  Into the tanks with the inverts.  Unfortunately the centropyge looked rough from the get go and didn't make it through the night.  One of the jawfish only lasted a few hours later.  I'm quite disappointed, but the other guy is still in quarantine as of this morning.  Changed out a few gallons of water on Saturday and I'll hope to do another water change tomorrow.  I still can't make water here at school so I have to bring it from home and being on a lifting restriction (<10lbs), bringing in water is a bit of a challenge.  

 

That's where we stand as of right now.  I'm back to work officially this morning, though I did come in Friday afternoon for a staff meeting.  

[YHSublime]

Can’t make the meeting, sorry!