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Monarch Academy Earth Matters Club!


monarchcharter

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Hello this is Monarch Academy (GB) Marine Biology Club,

Today was our first club meeting. We have 3 questions for you.

 

-What types of coral do you recomend we grow?

-What types of salt water fish do you recommend we raise?

-What size fish can we raise in our tanks? We have four 30 gal. tanks, two 60 gal. tanks, and one 200gal. tank.

 

Our club ranges from grades 2-8. We appreciate any feedback, help, or tips you can give us! Next week we will have some pictures to share!

 

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Awesome! I wish my school had a Marine Biology club!

My first question as it pertains to the corals you are thinking about is what kind of lighting do your tanks have? This does impact what kinds of corals you can take care of. Also what fish you are thinking to put with them, with that many tanks you could easily do some biotope tanks and mimic certain oceans and lagoons from around the world, but not every fish can be with coral.

And personally with the large tank I would stick to some of the larger predator fish, like triggers, they are my favorites, with a nice display of live rock.

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We have a 21w Daylight 10kk and a 21w Actinic 03 on each of our 30 gal. tanks, both bulbs are Coral Life brand. What lighting would you reccommend for our other tanks? (60 gal and 200 gal) We LOVE the predator tank idea!!!! :) What else would you reccommend to go with a trigger fish? And what kind of water conditions would we need? Any ideas for Biotope tanks, we love that idea also! We would really like to see some Seahorses in one of our tank setups, how feasible is that idea? Thank you everyone soooo much for all your input! We really appreciate it! 

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Generally speaking you will want to avoid seahorses.  They require slightly cooler temperatures in order to avoid some of the common diseases and can be problematic in terms of feeding in a school environment when you have long weekends and breaks.  More common fish and corals can be more forgiving for your particular situation, but your lighting is probably insufficient to host many corals.  I have had various types of lighting in schools but the biggest concern for you will probably be the heat produced by the ballasts and the bulbs themselves.  Where are the tanks themselves set up?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Our area is the Middle School Media Center, we have a corner of a larger room.  We will be posting some pictures of what we have next week.  We are hoping to add to what has been maintaining for awhile.  Love the idea of the preditor tank, we will hopefully have the filter and all plumbing soon.

 

More information to come.

 

Our students in the club have been testing our various tanks for; ph, nitrates, nitrites and amonia, keeping log of each of the tanks and of course salinity.  We are going to have to add time to club as 1 1/2 hours not long enough to do all we would like. 

 

Hoping to start growing brine shrimp to give them project to research and hopefully have food for any new fishwe hope to add. 

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Hello WAMAS, another great meeting!!  Students are testing our different tanks, researching what we would like to add to tanks, and learning about salinity. 

 

***A GREAT BIG thank you to WAMAS for the Educational Grant that will help us accomplish this.  The students are so excited!***

 

Our questions for the WAMAS members are:

 

1. what can we add that will eat the red algae in our tank # 2.

 

2. what can we add that will eat the algae in our other tanks.  We currently have hermit crabs, snails, and emerald crabs.  our water quality tests for the different tanks range:  nitrate .5 - 0 ppm, nitrite  0, amonia .25 - 0, ph 8.8(1), 7.8(2), 8.0 (3), 8.8(4) 8.2 (5)

 

We have adjusted light duration, so are wondering what we could do from here, any sugestions would be appreciated.

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Glad to hear things are going well for you.

So somebody will know better than me, but my two cents.

 

If you are reading any ammonia in your tank, it makes me wonder if you have finished cycling. The bacteria should be built up enough to convert that ammonia into nitrite, which in turn, turns it into nitrates. Ammonia is lethal to fish, and usually to inverts.

 

Can you tell us a little bit more about how you cycled your tank?

 

Red slime is a form of cyano, which comes up for various reasons. Usually those reasons are high nitrates, phosphates, and organics in your water. Low flow, over feeding poor skimming, and photo period can all contribute. How are you getting your saltwater made? This could be the most important factor.

 

It sounds like you still have not plumbed your tank, and don't have any filtration setup, so once that is handled, you will be on your way to clearing it up.

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  • 1 month later...

Starfishes are one of my faviorite sea animals. Have you ever heard of the starfish story? A little girl was picking up starfish on the beach after millions of starfish warshed up after a storm. A guy came along and said "little girl you will never make a diffrence their is millions of starfish on this beach". The little girl picked up a starfish and threw it back and said "i made a diffrence to that one" she threw another one " i made a diffrence to that one to". so she continued on picking them up and throwing them back. you can make a diffrence.                                                                                                      by:Bailey                   six grade.

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Dear Bailey,

 

I'm very proud of you. That's a great lesson to learn and put into action. You can make a difference and do great things. It's the "Power of One" - the "Power of You."

 

Thanks for sharing a great moral story.

 

Tom

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Thank you Bailey! Star fish are a very fun animal to study. There are many many kinds that are different shapes, colors and sizes. In the picture is one of the many in my tank.

post-2632878-0-69326200-1389842618_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Hello just wanted to try to update, it has been awhile.

 

Our program at Monarch is doing well.  The students are learning a lot.  They are even learning how to frag coral.  We have been fortunate to have Robert Burgee come and work with us, teaching us numerous important things:)  

 

The students work well with him.  Our tanks are doing very well; we have several tanks with different fish, crabs, starfish, corals, urchins etc.  They are all doing well.

 

I have just learning that this will be added to a class next year, this will be great as it will give dedicated time to blog and maintain the tanks.

 

Thank you so much to WAMAS for the grant that has helped make all this possible, Mr. Joe Knight has been a great resource and has helped with getting some of our creatures for our tanks.

 

I am trying to upload pictures and will continue hopefully I will get lucky.  Hope to update more regularly.

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Fantastic news! In order to post up pictures, it's really easy to use a photo hosting site, like photobucket. Also, when you try to post in photos, make sure to use the Img link! Look forward to seeing the progress!

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  • 2 weeks later...

UPDATE:

 

 

My first trip down to the school I gave a lecture on the nitrogen cycle, which IMO is one of the first steps to understand our captive reefs.

 

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Second trip was to revive the school's 54 gal bowfront.

 

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I am currently transforming a 60 gallon tank that once completed is going to be their "full blown reef"  Did a 100% WC, 50% new water and 50% existing water from another system.  I replaced the sand bed and did a little aquascaping, 

 

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[20140605_131912_zpsnznje9bc.jpg=http://s63.photobucket.com/user/BAAD/media/20140605_130644_zpsq4zskycm.jpg.html]20140605_130644_zpsq4zskycm.jpg[/url]

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Very cool! Great job helping clean it up!

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  • 4 months later...

Hey it is Monarch Academy again and we have a problem. We just had a tank break and lost one clown fish and multiple heater bluegreen chromis. We also have live rock and substrate sand. How would we store that so we can reuse it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are looking forward to your reply,

 

Ali and Ryan

 

Tranzed Enviormental Class B-day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Put the rock and substrate into a cheap Rubbermaid tote that you can get from the hardware store. Keep the water heated to 75 degrees or better (suggested) and moving (using power heads). If you have sand, try not to have it deeper than 4-6 inches in the tote (this helps to prevent an anoxic layer from developing). Monitor the water's ammonia level for the first week or so. If it gets above 1 ppm, you're going through a mini-cycle. If you've got much macro-life on the rock and in the sand, then change about 50% of the water if this happens to keep from killing off too much of that life.  Repeat until things stabilize.

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  • 1 month later...

We got our tank up and running and now we have a problem. Our chocalate chip star fish has died. We believe that the pencil tip urchin ate him because he was starting to die. we found him in the back of the tank eaten to the center. He lived in our previously broken tank that is now running. All we have in that tank is two fish and a pencil tip urchin.

 

Ryan and Ali From TranzEd Enviormental Club B-Day

Edited by monarchcharter
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Hi this is Sharlene, I am the facilitator for our tranzed class:)  The students are very excitedly doing research on possible tank mates. They will then have to write a persuasive letter as to why their fish/coral should be in the tank.  Our goal is to add some life to 2 of our tanks that have been running/cycling for several months. 

 

They are to research fish/invertabrates/possible corals, for species that will cohabitat, creating a healthy environment.  With similar parameters, also checking compatibility to make sure we are being vigilant and not setting a tank up to fail

 

I am also going to go over the nitrate cycle and how to maintain our tanks once they are set up.  Does anyone have a link for a child friendly video to show?

 

Thank you

Edited by monarchcharter
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Hi Shar. Try Googling "Nitrogen cycle for kids" and click on Videos at the top of the page. It'll bring up lots of youtube resources, including some that are animated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dear Sharlene and the tranzed class,

 

Thanks for taking the time to update us about your tranzed class. I just stumbled upon this thread and it makes me feel good to know that you guys have tanks up and running and are supporting such a project. It's not always easy and it takes effort, so keep up the good work.

 

As far as the chocolate chip starfish dying, they are very sensitive to changes in salinity. One time I was trying to increase my salinity and did a water change with water of a much higher salinity. My chocolate chip starfish was the only thing that got affected and died. Everything else was fine. However that is not to say that is why mine died, as there's no way to be certain.

 

As far as videos to watch, I think these videos will help your students develop a grand plan to tackle tank maintenance, as that will be a key part of your future success.

 

When in YouTube, search this: How to Reef Aquarium Maintenance Part 1 Introduction.

 

The videos are by a guy named newyorksteelo. He is positive and educational and can be a stepping stone into learning more about reef aquariums for your students. Don't worry he is not negative.

 

If you need any more help feel free to ask.

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