Colvin Run Elementary School

[CRESdragons]

Hi everyone,

 

We truly appreciate your help getting our first saltwater aquarium at Colvin Run Elementary.  I wanted to post a picture we like to call "every morning at the tank".  It's what our librarian sees every morning.  You have truly followed your philosphy to educate our chidren regarding the importance of protecting our environment.  They (and all of the staff and parents) are truly fascinated by this tank.

 

Take care,

Ken

[YHSublime]

Very cool to see! Keep up the good work!

[smallreef]

Awesome! A tank is such a great ecosystem to teach about....

My biology teacher in high school had a SW tank and that's what got me interested...

Fun for everyone!

[Der ABT]

that really is cool, i used to help our science teacher in elementary and middle school with all the animals, lizards, varmints etc....really made me like science alot more

 

let us know if you ever need anything, im happy to donate whatever i can.

 

LOVE the size of the backpacks to the kids, i have a 4 year old and she is HILARIOUS with her backpack...

 

though i think if i had been reachin in the tank when i was a kid i wuold had a ruler flying at me haha

[DaveS]

As we say here, what's a tank thread without pictures?!  I've been meaning to put them up but haven't had time with travel and other things.  Here's a recap of how the tank came to be.

 

In a meeting, with faculty at Colvin Run Elementary, we discussed and there was significant interest in having a tank set up for the school.  I put a posting out to the WAMAS community and the membership responded with overwhelming generosity.  Donations for equipment, livestock and time came pouring in from members and vendors alike.  The result was a 90 gallon reef tank that had most of the parts needed to operate.  Only a few small supplies and gadgets were needed to be purchased- and even those were provided at a significant discount.

 

Saturday May 17th was the big day when everything came together.  

Here's the school

 

All the hussle and bussle with getting the tank into it's spot- right in front the Library which means all the kids will pass by frequently.

 

Cleaning up the tank a little.

 

Monkiboy and Jesse in charge of getting the sump in place and plumbed

 

Water coming in!

 

Hypertech in charge of getting the screen tops cut and made

 

Cheshireboxers and Mbvette helping to get the light hangers mounted

 

One afternoon's work complete!

 

Full tank shot with lights

 

In addition to those pictured above, lots of other WAMAS members were instrumental to making this tank happen.  Here's a quick list but please forgive me if I accidentally omitted someone, there were so many!

Monkiboy- Donated the 90G Reef Ready tank, stand and sump setup

Donations of livestock, equipment and/or time:
JR-Tanked150
Darkcirca
Squishie89
Wangspeed
epleeds
PatrickB
Hypertech
Jesse
St9z
Cheshireboxes
MBVette
Brian Ward
Coral Hind
Gwweber
Sharkey18
dbartco

Lastly a special acknowledgement to our local fish stores for their generous donations:
Exotic Reef Creations
Incredible Corals
Quantum Aquaria
Reef eScape

 

With this, we now pass things on to the faculty and staff at Colvin Run.  They have eagerly accepted the tank and agreed to provide periodic updates to the WAMAS community.  I know we all look forward to seeing how this tank makes a difference with the young students.

[dbartco]

I haven't given anything - yet! Though I have volunteered

 

You have a livestock list so we can see what else we can donate?

[DaveS]

I haven't given anything - yet! Though I have volunteered

 

You have a livestock list so we can see what else we can donate?

 

You donated your good energy and happy thoughts!

 

I'm hoping to stop by late this week or early next week to check up on things and introduce a donated anemone.  I can let everyone know what other kinds of things they need.

 

Off the top of my head, they could probably use a little more in the way of fish.  There's a pair of clowns and a pink Chromis in there right now. We've had lots of offers on dottybacks and damsels but I think it would be best if we had nice, easygoing fish in the tank.  Maybe a tang or something?

[wangspeed]

Hey, it looks great! Very happy I was able to contribute to this effort. Good idea on passing on damsels and dottybacks. Fairy wrasses, blennies, gobies, and chromis are probably better choices.

[Grav]

What is the status on fish coral etc?  We would like to help stock the tank. 

 

Phil

[YHSublime]

What is the status on fish coral etc?  We would like to help stock the tank. 

 

Phil

 

Phil,

 

I think DaveS is the ringleader here, hopefully he will chime in with an update!

[DaveS]

What is the status on fish coral etc?  We would like to help stock the tank. 

 

Phil

 

The tank is doing well.  Being a fairly new tank, we intentionally kept the bioload down.  There are a pair of Ocellaris clowns along with a pink chromis.  There are some snails and crabs for clean up crew and then a few pieces of leathers, GSP and zoas in there for corals.  Some of the zoas are high end ones from my own tank that I temporarily put in there just for color. 

 

If you want to help stock with some fish, that would be great.  I think it could use a tang, a blenny, and maybe a couple of other easy colorful fish.  Let me know what you're thinking as I'm sure the school would appreciate it.

 

I took a funny pic today when I stopped by.  I'll post it from my phone in a sec.

[DaveS]

This crab has an entire COLONY of zoas growing on it.  It was hilarious seeing this walking zoa colony!

 

Edited July 18, 2014 by DaveS

[CRESdragons]

Hi everyone,

 

The picture Dave did above it a child and staff favorite.  Our little 'alien' continues to walk around the aquarium, much to the enjoyment of the kids and adults. 

 

Update on the tank:

We have two students who are responsible for feeding the fish each morning, and another few students who are responsible for keeping the aquarium clean.  This has been a great incentive for some students who need to have an incentive to keep them focused in the classroom.  These students have such a vested interest in the tank that their classroom focus has dramatically improved.  It's amazing to see our students take such ownership over the aquarium.

 

We just had signage installed on the front of the tank base.

 

"In Recognition of this gift by the members of The Washington, D.C. Area Aquarist Society (WAMAS) and the Sun family."

 

Thank you so much,

Ken

Edited October 23, 2014 by CRESdragons

[Origami]

... These students have such a vested interest in the tank that their classroom focus has dramatically improved.  It's amazing to see our students take such ownership over the aquarium.

 

I just love to hear stuff like that! Keep up the good work.

[CRESdragons]

Here is a picture of the sign.

 

We would love to know what fish, coral, etc. we should purchase next.  I'd also love to know where you purchase your supplies.  We have several SW suppliers near school.

 

Thank you again.

 

Ken

Edited October 23, 2014 by CRESdragons

[DuffyGeos]

Love the sign!

 

I don't think you guys would have to buy much if anything. Just post a need and I think you will probably have it filled.

[iceet]

Yea let us know we're here to help

[Incredible Corals]

Let us know when you are ready for some fish!

[CRESdragons]

I need some help problem solving.  We have run into some problems with our school 90 gal aquarium.  We had some fish die a few weeks ago and found out our pH was 7.8-8.0 which caused them too much stress.  I spent last week getting all of the levels to back to spec.

 

Current levels:

Salinity 1.022

pH 8.3

All other levels within norm

 

We just bought two clownfish 9 days ago, and both of them disappeared... literally disappeared.  I just purchased two more ocellaris clownfish from Vienna Aquarium, introduced them on Saturday, checked on them Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, they were happy and swimming.....until this morning.  They are both disappeared with no bodies anywhere to be found.  This is now 4 clownfish nowhere to be found. 

 

In the tank we have:

1 lawnmower blenny (new a few weeks ago)

1 yellow tang (new last weekend)

1 blue tang (original to the tank)

2 urchins (original to the tank)

handful of snails and hermit crabs.

 

Any thoughts as to what could be going on?  The clownfish were about 11/2"-2" since that is what is sold.  The kids are sad and as one staff put it, "The school isn't the same when the aquarium isn't good."  Yeah, it's causing me great stress as I hate seeing kids and staff sad, and I hate losing fish.  I have no idea as to what could be happening.

 

I don't want to keep getting small ocellaris "Nemo" clownfish to have them disappear, however I also don't want the kids to lose interest in the aquarium.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Ken

[Origami]

A pH of 7.8-8.0 is not bad. That's probably not what caused the loss. 

 

When a small fish dies, it'll often be taken up by your hermit crabs in very short order. Fish can jump also and work their way into and under things where you can't see them. They could also be hiding. Do you have a sump or an overflow on this system? If so, take a look in each and see if they've managed to hide themselves there.

 

Ken, what are the hours at the school? And when are you there until usually?

[dbartco]

Check the overflows as well....

[CRESdragons]

Checked the dumps and overflow. New hypothesis is that the blue tang (original to the tank 2 years ago) has outgrown the 90 gal and doesn't appreciate the new clownfish crowding in "his/her" tank and bullied them. Consequently, I am now working with Dave S. to find a new home for the blue tang. It's a beautiful fish and I know the school will be sad to see it go. They really enjoy the clownfish more, so this needs to happen. We are happy to know we can add different fish that aren't as aggressive and renew the joy of the tank.

[CRESdragons]

School hours are 8:30-4:30. However I am usually there until 5:30/5:45. Lately it's been weekends as well in order to get the tank remedied before kids come back on Mondays.

[CRESdragons]

The aquarium has become "THE PLACE" to hang out. Often kids will "meet at the aquarium" before/after school. This is outside of our Library so all of the kids stop and look before going into the Library. Since the kids slow down when walking down the hall, the teachers have now made it a natural stopping point to make sure all the kids are together. It's awesome to see how this has become so engrained, Which is why anything missing is so quickly noticed and then the talk of the school.

[davelin315]

When you checked the overflows did you find the fish?  What's your rock structure like, could they be hiding?  In my experience, a frightened clown typically hides up in the top corners of the tank rather than behind rocks, but you never know.

 

Larger fish can be an issue but if you're really attached to the tang I would hold onto it.  Rearrange the rock a bit before you put new fish in, turn off the lights, and leave them off for about 24 hours.  This will allow them to acclimate and find someplace safe to hide and prevent the tang from bullying them.  I assume you have a Pacific Blue Tang (aka regal or Paracanthurus hepatus) which is typically not a really aggressive fish but each has its own personality.  Could be that simply removing it to the sump temporarily while you acclimate new fish is the answer.  Another possible solution to this is to try and find clowns that are already hosting in an anemone and get them to host.  Instead of darting to to the top of the tank and either jumping out or going down the overflow, they will dart into the anemone for cover and the tang will not follow them to it.

 

Good luck, depending on time I could also stop by and help take a look, today is even a possibility in the afternoon.