School Science Club Reef Tanks

[johanasu]

Some of you may have read in other posts that I am an 8th grade science teacher in North Phoenix. This year I took on the endeavor of starting a before school science club. Our primary focus is the development of three reef tanks in our science classroom. We are starting small with two twenty gallons and a twenty-nine. The students have been learning about the different types of equipment, cycling, fish compatibility(with each other and with tank size), corals, etc.

We just finished topping off each of the tanks with saltwater to start our cycle. The lights are on in the pictures just for aesthetics, the tanks will cycle without the lights. Right now we could use small live rocks for seeding our tanks with bacteria and coraline algae. If anyone lives in west or north phoenix and can donate a small rock that would be great!

I hope to instill an interest in reef tanks as well as coral reef sustainability in the wild in my students. Hopefully they will go on to pursue related fields in the future.

 

[dream54ing]

:thumbsup:

 

[Derekbc]

Starting off small, with 3 tanks?

Looking forward to the updates!

-Derek

 

[rollinnoland]

let me know if you need anything have tons of stuff laying around filters ,lights so on and so on 2 sumps there yours if you need them

 

[rollinnoland]

i have rock from my sump for you but it had pest in sump

 

[johanasu]

Haha yeah Derek... small by some standards. My students are managing the tanks though so it isn't too much work for me.

Rollin thanks for the offer! Right now we are looking for a heater for a 20gal and small powerheads for each tank for increased flow.

 

[Frizz]

I have some small pieces of rock too. Some is in the sump & some is not. Also some coral Skellys. Most of my rock has sponge growing on it though so it might not be that great in a new tank.
Frizz

 

[johanasu]

Thanks for the offer Frizz, where in town are you located?

 

[johanasu]

Update:
Tanks have finished cycling. Starting to get them stocked. Dropped a tiny piece of pulsing xenia into each tank and all through attached and started pulsing

 

[Dangerwill]

You are a far more interesting science teacher than mine was, i hope you get some young minds excited and curious about reefs

 

[johanasu]

January Update!

So far things are going well. All of our organisms survived the winter break even though the heat was turned off in my classroom. Lucky it was a mild December.

Still waiting on a last fish or two for our two smaller tanks but otherwise our vertebrate additions are nearly complete.

We are starting to research interesting clean-up crew organisms like peppermint shrimp, emerald crabs, tuxedo urchins, cucumbers (tiger tail) etc. The students seem pretty interested so we may look to add a few items as we move forward. Discount Aquarium donated a few snails and hermits for each tank which was much appreciated.

We are also looking for more small coral frags that can be added. We would gladly accept any small or undesirable frags to fill in our tanks

Now for pics!

Our pistol shrimp has been busy making a mess of the sandbed in the last tank. He is so cool to watch and it is great to have live examples of symbiosis to show my students. The watchman goby paired with him in the qt tank and they have been happy together ever since.

 

[tdp22]

As a teacher also, I commend your passion and look forward to seeing how well the kids do. I have a bunch of toadstool frags and frogspawn you can have. Let me know if you are interested. Best of luck!

 

[bdevillier]

i have a piece of rock with some gsp as well as a few small frags of random zoas( wammin watermelons and gorilla nipples i was told), and a frag with a couple bluish green stripped mushrooms. i need to make room in my tank so you can have all of them if you'd like

 

[BobthePhotoGuy]

I can get you a small toadstool and some red mushrooms (they grow very fast). They would be unattached so you would need to attach them to some rock. Might be interesting to show them how to attach them.

Bob

 

[johanasu]

Wow that sounds great guys, I appreciate the generosity. My students have really benefitted from the kindness of the reef community both locally and commercially.

tdp that sounds great! What do you teach? Where in town are you located?

bdevil that sounds perfect for their tanks. You are in Tempe? I may be out that way tomorrow or an evening this week.

Bob that would be very cool. We have fragged and mounted some zoas and fragged a purple sea whip gorgonian so it would be fun to teach them about mounting some new frags.

 

[bdevillier]

I'm in Tempe off of Elliott and the i10. I should be home all day other than a trip to reef culture to get water. In the evenings during the week I'm home around 4:30. Let me know what you want to do.

 

[johanasu]

I'm in Tempe off of Elliott and the i10. I should be home all day other than a trip to reef culture to get water. In the evenings during the week I'm home around 4:30. Let me know what you want to do.

Sounds good, I have a few pickups to make on the East Side so I will try to get over there one evening this week. Thanks!

 

[zibba]

I have a few frags for you too and I'm right around the corner, as we've discussed before. Let's find a time to coordinate a drop-off or pick-up.

 

[johanasu]

I have a few frags for you too and I'm right around the corner, as we've discussed before. Let's find a time to coordinate a drop-off or pick-up.

Sounds great, I am at work around 7:15am every day if you wanted to do a drop-off in the morning. Otherwise I can do a pickup after work, I'm usually available after 4:30. I can also arrange to be here after work if you wanted to do a drop off. I appreciate it!

 

[schristi69]

Do you need any food? I have an assortment of various things if you want them. I need to get rid of this stuff and don't really want to throw it away