bleedingthought
New member
Very nice!!!
New Aquarium for St Jude Children's Hospital (800+G)
- Thread starter bshumake
- Start date
bshumake
New member
You are correct sir! I got them in about 3 hours ago and BJ and I got half of them glued in place. I'm going back down after work to finnish with the caps.
Here is the message I sent to Dave:
BJ and I have been putting them in the tank and they look Fantastic! Of all the things to forget I left me camera at home. I'll have go get pictures this weekend or monday. They all arrived in great shape and the one acro (Larry Jackson?) has beautiful purple tips on it. Some of the Staff and parents were watching us and asking all kinds of questions about the corals and how we were fixing them to the rockwork. They were as excited as we are.
Fun Fun!
B
You guys and girls should go into business teaching companies how to package and ship corals. *Cripes* I got all misty eyed just from the care and diligence in the packaging. Then as I'm pulling the corals out AND NONE OF THEM ARE BROKEN...*snif* its a thing of beauty man. I completely forgot to grab the camera. The wife and kids have a stomache bug and I'm the only mobile one, so my mind is a bit distracted.
Interesting little story here, the Larry Jacksonish piece has maybe 1/2in long purple tips on it. I couldn't really see how much of it was purple in the bag. So BJ is putting it in the tank and I'm talking to a parent about the corals and shes picking up the bags and looking at the corals and I hear BJ in the background gasp and go "Aw MAN!" I turn around thinking she just burned herself on a lightbulb and catch her arm in the corner of my eye in the tank with the coral in her hand. As soon as she got it underwater the color jumped out and everyone could see how pertty it is. I said "man, thats pretty," and BJ said "you should see it from up here!" So it was basically like that for the rest of the pieces.
Dave and members of the Northern Indiana Marine Aquarium Society, yall should be really proud of yourselves!
bklynmet
New member
Dave is very diligent with shipping! I am happy he brought this idea to our club and that we were able to collect the coral frags at a meeting. Another forum's website hosts our club's forum and he's been updating us on the communcations there. I am happy that a few pieces that grew in my tank are now there giving everyone a needed diversion.
Link to the corals before they were shipped.
-Joe
Link to the corals before they were shipped.
-Joe
grannybj
New member
I agree with Barrett, you guys should be proud of your corals. I have a story to add. I was talking to the mother of one of the kids in the chemo lab today and she told me the tanks are her escape. She has been at St. Jude for 2 weeks with her 3 year old . She said she was feeling overwhelmed when she discovered the tanks . She said just being close to the tanks made her feel more relaxed. She said that when looking at the fish and corals, she is removed from the situation with her child and even if it is only 20 minutes of escape, it has helped her keep her sanity. Later I saw the same lady with her husband and her sick child and a small baby looking at the tanks. The little ones were all up against the tank in awe. The lady and her husband asked all about the corals and the fish .
You guys helped more than the kids..you helped whole families that are going through a personal hell . Thank you just does not cover it .
BJ
You guys helped more than the kids..you helped whole families that are going through a personal hell . Thank you just does not cover it .
BJ
aye what you guys have done is true amazing... well done =) you all deserve a huge pat on the back and like those beofre me said it provides a huge distraction to the kids... well done!!
(btw i would love to hear what your current stock list is =) really nice job, a beautiful tank!
(btw i would love to hear what your current stock list is =) really nice job, a beautiful tank!
old_man_river
New member
love the tank
bshumake
New member
Pictures galore coming soon. I got Peter "Spiderman" Barta getting some fantastic shots. He even brought an underwater camera!
I'm also trying to get an underwater video camera worked out for the tank. Our plan is to mount it in one corner and have it pan from side to side maybe once every 2-3 hours. The camera will be linked to the St Jude Hospital site and eventually work with Biomedical Communications to get a CCTV link going so the kiddies can watch the fish in their rooms. My hope is to eventually be able to remotely work the camera so I can hold "web conferences" type sessions with the CCTV to teach the kids about the animals and answer questions for everyone who can't leave their rooms.
Any thoughts on where I could find such cameras?
I'm also trying to get an underwater video camera worked out for the tank. Our plan is to mount it in one corner and have it pan from side to side maybe once every 2-3 hours. The camera will be linked to the St Jude Hospital site and eventually work with Biomedical Communications to get a CCTV link going so the kiddies can watch the fish in their rooms. My hope is to eventually be able to remotely work the camera so I can hold "web conferences" type sessions with the CCTV to teach the kids about the animals and answer questions for everyone who can't leave their rooms.
Any thoughts on where I could find such cameras?
flounderfish
New member
incredible! It is worth getting sick for! How many fish are in there roughly? It doesnt look like many.
chrisqueenz
New member
Sweet build!! Amazing thing you guys are doing!
bshumake
New member
The photo's went well. Peter just got the sheets to me and I picked out the ones I wanted so he's going to get them to me before too long. There were initially 60 or so fish in there but some have "vanished" and i've added about 10 so I would have to say theres still about 60 in there. The camera is coming along. I found a website that specializes in underwater cameras like what I'm wanting to use. I'm talking to one of them about getting a camera for us. The one I've seen is all stainless housing and a bullet style design. Hes checking on if they can get one that can be remotely controlled. On a side note I got Red Sea to donate a MAX for the TTU unit at St Jude. The TTU is a Transitional Trials Unit where patients come in for follow-up work and maintenance treatment for things like sickle cell disease. Their unit is located on a separate part of campus and not attached to the main hospital at all. Their planning a bunch of remodeling over there so the MAX might be moved a bit until the construction is over. But once everything is all said and done its going to be nice.
St Jude is going to take the pictures that Peter took and use them in a "press book" that their putting together for all the benefactors. The tank's gonna get a lot of circulation (pun
)
St Jude is going to take the pictures that Peter took and use them in a "press book" that their putting together for all the benefactors. The tank's gonna get a lot of circulation (pun
)
ReefingBuddha
New member
great as always guys... really looking forward to those pictures.
I was thinking about cameras in my own tank the other day and I decided to go with a dedicated web cam as well as another camera that will take a pictures every few fours of a certain part of the tank for a couple months. Then you can tie all the pictures together and get a time lapse of the progress and growth of the tank. You could even put a time and date stamp for each week gone by to monitor growth and progress. After a few months of growth the time lapse video could be put on a loop near the tank to show newcomers that these things actually do grow in aquariums and give them a greater appreciate of the life inside. I know that whenever people come to see my tank for the first time they are not sure what is real or alive and it is sometimes are to explain that corals grow.
Just a quick thought that might be cool for a tank like this. Things are plugging along beautifully and I'm looking forward to the new pictures.
I was thinking about cameras in my own tank the other day and I decided to go with a dedicated web cam as well as another camera that will take a pictures every few fours of a certain part of the tank for a couple months. Then you can tie all the pictures together and get a time lapse of the progress and growth of the tank. You could even put a time and date stamp for each week gone by to monitor growth and progress. After a few months of growth the time lapse video could be put on a loop near the tank to show newcomers that these things actually do grow in aquariums and give them a greater appreciate of the life inside. I know that whenever people come to see my tank for the first time they are not sure what is real or alive and it is sometimes are to explain that corals grow.
Just a quick thought that might be cool for a tank like this. Things are plugging along beautifully and I'm looking forward to the new pictures.
bshumake
New member
Well, As you can see there are no pictures to speak of on the thread. Peter has all of them and I'm working on getting them from BMC. They have to go through the proper channels and its taken longet than I anticipated. iwill post them as soon as I get them.
On a different note, the waiting room is being used for filming today and the tank is a prominant feature. I was told yeaterday that Marlo absolutely LOVES the tank and wants it seen in shots whenever possible.
I am getting a camera from Ocean Systems for the tank. Its a fixed bullitt type cam but has nice picture quality and was discounted so Yipee! Leslie is taking care of the details (as well as the pictures from BMC) so all this will be in the making very soon. Already the A/V guys are gearing up for integrating the cam into the system and the website. I'm going to replace the bullitt cam with a pan/tilt/zoom cam when I can get a good one. The bullit cam will then be moved to one of the other aquaria and we'll have two cams to pick from on the St Jude website. I take some pics of the tank personally and get them up when I can.
Happy Easter Everyone!
Barrett "It's the Fish Man!" Shumaker
On a different note, the waiting room is being used for filming today and the tank is a prominant feature. I was told yeaterday that Marlo absolutely LOVES the tank and wants it seen in shots whenever possible.
I am getting a camera from Ocean Systems for the tank. Its a fixed bullitt type cam but has nice picture quality and was discounted so Yipee! Leslie is taking care of the details (as well as the pictures from BMC) so all this will be in the making very soon. Already the A/V guys are gearing up for integrating the cam into the system and the website. I'm going to replace the bullitt cam with a pan/tilt/zoom cam when I can get a good one. The bullit cam will then be moved to one of the other aquaria and we'll have two cams to pick from on the St Jude website. I take some pics of the tank personally and get them up when I can.
Happy Easter Everyone!
Barrett "It's the Fish Man!" Shumaker
bshumake
New member
This is the one that I get the most out of explaining. I'll be talking to the kids or parents and tell them about the fish (the first thing they always notice) and someone will ask me how often we have to clean the decorations. Their always amazed that everything is alive! And then they can't believe that you can ship corals alive and they make it. Something that I do my best to explain to everyone is that reefkeeping is not impossible. The biggest thing to realize is that nature has been doing this for millions of years and we have to bow to her superior knowledge. If we follow the rules she laid down, its quite possible to have a reef tank and not work yourself to death to keep it. The simplest rule to follow is to let everyone do their jobs. Make sure that you do your best to make a balanced ecosystem and pick up the slack where its needed. I alwasy advise them to READ, READ, READ, and NEVER just pick it up. Course, that sends the kids and parents to the book section to read about the sea and everything else fish related in the waiting rooms.
I've also started having the kids save me the pictures that they color so I can make shades. The backroom has a window so you can see in there while someone is working. In the inbetween time, I'm covering the window (for stray light reasons) with their colorings. I'm going to make a couple of them and have them laminated so I can rotate the shades.
Their such little artists!
