updates from my school's coral reef project

[brandoniscool]

First grade teachers in my district teach a zoology unit which features several lessons involving fish. Every year the 40 something first grade classrooms get one beta, one goldfish and one hermit crab. I found out today that teachers don't receive any training about how to keep fish and are informally encouraged to keep them or flush them after the unit is over. A generous craigslist donor gave this gallon sized tank to a first grade class to save their goldfish and two snails.

I'm hoping that the teacher levels up to a bigger tank later:

 

[brandoniscool]

Rotifers from reed mariculture

Rotifers from reed mariculture

Eric and Gresh from Reed Mariculture have donated food and rotifers in the past but for most of the fall and winter I have been using a strain of rotifers I got from my friend and the culture was never strong. The rotifers were dropping their eggs from stress and the culture wasn't producing much. It eventually crashed and I haven't kept one until two weeks ago.

Eric sent me the Reed Mariculture strain and the difference in my rotifer culture is remarkable. I actually have to scale down my production because I'm running out of food for the rotifers and have to order more (which is semi expensive). I have three 5 gallon buckets going and harvest about 5 gallons a day. With heaters, the rotifers are consuming about 15 milliliters of concentrated food a day. I'm planning on saving up for more food and setting up more buckets in other classrooms. The kids love harvesting them.

Samaria and Aislin stay after school each day. Samaria is in my classroom and I'm training her on the rotifers so she can teach some new members of my reef project. The airstone filters seem to keep the culture cleaner and less poo sticks to the sides of the bucket.

The culture is so thick that you can literally see the density with my low quality phone picture. Every 12 hours I make the water dark green with food and return to clear water.

Andrew siphons the harvest with Samaria. Andrew is staying after school 3 days a week and takes breaks from studying. I also tutor about 8 kids after school throughout the week that don't work on the project but need academic help. It's extra work but gives me more one on one time with them.

He pours it through a 40 micron sieve and voila

A very thick slurry of rotifers ready to feed to our reef tanks.

<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/119185896" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/119185896">andrew see rotifers for the first time</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user28704363">Brandon Rutherford</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

 

[brandoniscool]

food chains

food chains

I'm creating a unit on marine plankton and invertebrates. Thought I'd share a discussion about food chains.

<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/119305910" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/119305910">2015-02-10 09.49.58</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user28704363">Brandon Rutherford</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

 

[brandoniscool]

New updates

New updates

Hello Reef Central,

I haven't posted for a while but my project is still going strong, with new students involved, new critters and new tanks.

I've been spending my free time helping other teachers start their own aquarium projects and doing some blogging for Reef 2 Rainforest media.

Below are some new pictures from this spring.

A new tank! New 15 gallon nano setup in a first grade classroom. A generous follower donated some inverts and my friend Justin donated two juvenile clownfish. One more classroom with a direct connection to the ocean.

I shared my project with other educators at the National Science Teachers Association conference. Jeff Turner also generously invited me to hang out at his Jellyfish Art booth.

My project got jellyfish fish and I used jellyfish to teach a 5th grade ecology unit. In this picture, a volunteer and kids tank notes on Jellyfish morphology.

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/6/0/3260808/8327817_orig.jpg

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/6/0/3260808/4243972_orig.jpg

My students are researching marine conservation and creating all kinds of promotional media to educate their peers.

We bought 2,000 pods from Reeftogo.com and started a amphipod grow out tank so we can seed some of our newer tanks with inverts. Any advice on how to do this will be greatly appreciated.

Recent picture of our 90 gallon tank. The orange tree sponge that Liverock (richard) donated is still hanging in there.

 

[brandoniscool]

Kids and a community volunteer stay after school to frag some coral.

Several community groups have been visiting for hour long tours with interactive lessons on marine biology and aquarium keeping.

Savana and Florence hold interviews for new students who are interested in joining my coral reef project.

 

[brandoniscool]

A student is taking notes during an outside biology lesson

Kids on my project have been rocking cool tattoos generously donated by Julian Spring

Savanna smashes live rock to filter a canister filter for a new tank build.

A first grader dropped and smashed a ceramic castle meant for his classroom tank. Little dude was super bummed until Jaden and Leon spent 2 hours carefully gluing it back together.

Kids are excited about the arrival of some new livestock.

The skimmer on our 300 gallon skimmer broke and a follower generously donated a new 120 gallon ASM skimmer. It's saving our tank until we can fundraise for a larger one.

Danielle proudly shows off a water test that proves she's been taking good care of her tank.

Rohan and Danielle show off all of the school currency that our project earned from 'selling' aquarium tours to other students.

My daughter Coraline next to a friends tank.

 

[brandoniscool]

Students are creating artwork for some of our donors. We are always taking new commissions.

Students learn more about anatomy by dissecting squid.

 

[brandoniscool]

before and after LRS Reef Frenzy pictures

before and after LRS Reef Frenzy pictures

In recent months I've learned the necessity of giving fish and corals a proper diet. In the past I felt that any kind of food was fine and paying attention to other variables on my reef system was more important.

In January, my project got two stressed yellow tangs. I was very concerned about their health and kept them in quarantine for over 2 months. While in a 20 gallon quarantine tank, my only 'treatment' was to feed them LRS Reef Frenzy food and the before and after pictures speak for themselves.

Before:

After:

Upon talking to a few people who know more than me, I'm also more confident about keeping sick looking fish in the system and monitoring the overall health of my tank and using that as treatment rather than catching and quarantining sick fish.

I've had several small outbreaks of Ich and fungus and all quickly got better from water changes, good food and being consistent about general husbandry practices.

Just my two cents.

 

[Synergy Reef]

Tell the kids Thank You for the artwork you sent us! It looks awesome!

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I have some quick video of kids working on the project today. Wanna imbed it but don't know how. Can anyone help me out? Here's the web link:

http://vimeo.com/116616587

I applaud you for doing this program and it's success! :thumbsup:

But, you need to turn your phone horizontal when doing video. Vertical only works for pictures but NEVER video. Try it and you'll be amazed at the difference :thumbsup:

 

[chefbill]

Brandon, what you are doing is very, very cool. You have my respect 100%. I wish there were more teachers out there doing more than "their job", which is all I had in school. You have gone well beyond that.
Have you ever considered kickstarter? I know they limit eligiblity to mainly art projects that impact many people, but you can easily and correctly include yourself and your project, as it fits both to a T.

Thank you for what you are doing for these kids and the reefing community as a whole.

 

[chefbill]

And I just caught your daughter's name, nice!

 

[joshky]

Great recovery on the yellow tangs!! Keep up the great work you all.

 

[tonto95]

I like your influence with your students and getting them to understand the world around them.

 

[Mrs. Music]

Brandon, Congratulations on the Coral Magazine article. Imagine my delight to flip the page and see your students and you in my favorite magazine. Hey, I know these guys! I truly felt awe at the insights you shared about your early teaching experiences, and students, and I look forward to reading your first Coral article.

 

[scootshoot]

Amazing work. This sort of stuff will impact a childs life positively for a lifetime...beats playing video games, eh?

Guarantee you kids are probably looking forward to coming to school with this stuff around...I would have! I probably wouldn't want to come home!!

 

[PhaneSoul]

Hello Reef Central,

I haven't posted for a while but my project is still going strong, with new students involved, new critters and new tanks.

I've been spending my free time helping other teachers start their own aquarium projects and doing some blogging for Reef 2 Rainforest media.

Below are some new pictures from this spring.

A new tank! New 15 gallon nano setup in a first grade classroom. A generous follower donated some inverts and my friend Justin donated two juvenile clownfish. One more classroom with a direct connection to the ocean.

I shared my project with other educators at the National Science Teachers Association conference. Jeff Turner also generously invited me to hang out at his Jellyfish Art booth.

My project got jellyfish fish and I used jellyfish to teach a 5th grade ecology unit. In this picture, a volunteer and kids tank notes on Jellyfish morphology.

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/6/0/3260808/8327817_orig.jpg

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/6/0/3260808/4243972_orig.jpg

My students are researching marine conservation and creating all kinds of promotional media to educate their peers.

We bought 2,000 pods from Reeftogo.com and started a amphipod grow out tank so we can seed some of our newer tanks with inverts. Any advice on how to do this will be greatly appreciated.

Recent picture of our 90 gallon tank. The orange tree sponge that Liverock (richard) donated is still hanging in there.

Wow, a blast from the past this thread is!

I have never checked out this thread until now and im very glad I did! Surprisingly enough I used to live in Champaign, Illinois! I used to live just down the street, in the neighborhood just down the street and across Bradley Ave. I went to Columbia Elementary during its last few years being an elementary school and Franklin Magnet middle school. I used to walk by Stratton elementary everyday while it was being built years ago, my brothers and sister went to Stratton! Man this is crazy! If the invitation is still open I would love to tour the setup!

 

[brandoniscool]

Hello Everyone,

As always, thanks for the positive feedback. I'd like to extend the credit to all of the generous people who support my project like Coral Magazine, Quality Marine, Synergy Reef, LRS Fish Frenzy, Tropic Marin, Tunze and more. It's truly a community effort and that I'm just proud to be part of. I hope that the reefing community will continue to patronize business that give back to the hobby.

I've tried Kickstarter campaigns, Donors Choose and Go Fund Me. I've also applied for grants of different sizes. I had the most luck with GoFundMe but still have to put a great deal of my own money into the project. This summer my first order of business it to set up my project as a nonprofit, allowing me to apply for a large range of grants.

I've also been very interested in the work of the Cincinnati Area Reef Enthusiasts (C.A.R.E). They have a portable tank and do outreach programs to different groups. I'm in the process of fundraising to stock two new tanks and I hope to use some of the money to create a tide pool touch tank that I can use to do reef related outreach. I have several months off during the summer and hope to use some of my free time to spread my science gospel. Things are still in the 'idea stage', namely what kind of inverts to get and how to move them around and let kids touch them while still keeping them healthy.

I also extend an open invitation to anyone who is interested in either skyping with my students or visiting my school in person. I promise free frags to anyone who comes in for a student led tour. PM or email me via my website if you're interested.

 

[Nina51]

you are doing GREAT work!! it's been an amazing journey watching your kids learn and their enthusiasm is wonderful. keep up the good work!

 

[brandoniscool]

Great recovery on the yellow tangs!! Keep up the great work you all.

Like I mentioned, I didn't really understand the role that diet played in fish health until I saw the positive changes that came from using LRS Frenzy Foods. My fish just started to behave and look different after I began using it.

I try to promote all of my donors but "hand to god" (as my kids say) this stuff rocks in so many ways. Plus Larry DuPont is such a salt of the earth type of guy. He has gone out of his way to help my kiddos, just last week donating hundreds of dollars worth of food.

Centered is Monty Rose, one of the other teachers at Stratton who works on the project.

My blue tang was chronically shy but now comes out to be hand fed.