Biology Classroom Nano Reef

[ks2509]

Following.
As far as stocking I have a 20 gallon tank with a pair of clowns, a yellow clown goby, a watchman goby, emerald crab, tuxedo urchin, cleaner shrimp, and 8-10 snails. All are reef safe.

Think it’s an awesome teaching tool to actually show how animals work together in the wild to live.

 

[Zach0918]

Midterms have us busy right now but I have an updates coming soon, tank is cycling right now.

 

[Zach0918]

BIG UPDATE (had to take a break for midterms)

First and foremost I have many thank yous!

Companies:
Reefbreeders - Coral Box Moon LED Plus & RN-1Wavemaker
AquaFX - New RO/DI system
Central Aquatics (Kent, Coralife) - Salt, Biocube accessories, supplements
CaribSea - Live Sand and Rock
Octo Aquatics - Mini Frag Rack and RO/DI Auto Shut Off

Individuals

Reefkeeper Lite - @Technorch (Boston Reefers Society) & @bill120mph (Boston Reefers Society)
Testing supplies, carbon, GFO - Lawrence from the Reef Conservation Society
Tunze Osmolator Nano - @1spotpooalot (Boston Reefers Society)

Pics

The Light

The Tech

Supplies

Progress Update

The tank is cycled and ready for our first livestock. I am in the process of locking down a date for the class to visit Ocean State Aquatics. Playing with getting a pair of clowns and then holding off on corals until we go to OSA but not positive. Gonna see if I can first any online or local sellers that would consider donating to the project. If not, Scott from OSA offered to give me a great deal on a pair, he has been a huge help throughout the whole project so shout out to them as well!

If anyone is still interested in donating any kind of livestock Fish, coral, CUC, ect.) let me know. I will do my best to follow up with those that offered originally to see if they are still interested but feel free to let me know too.

Thanks to everyone who has followed and supported this build!

 

[instantaquatics]

BIG UPDATE (had to take a break for midterms)

First and foremost I have many thank yous!

Companies:
Reefbreeders - Coral Box Moon LED Plus & RN-1Wavemaker
AquaFX - New RO/DI system
Central Aquatics (Kent, Coralife) - Salt, Biocube accessories, supplements
CaribSea - Live Sand and Rock
Octo Aquatics - Mini Frag Rack and RO/DI Auto Shut Off

Individuals

Reefkeeper Lite - @Technorch (Boston Reefers Society) & @bill120mph (Boston Reefers Society)
Testing supplies, carbon, GFO - Lawrence from the Reef Conservation Society
Tunze Osmolator Nano - @1spotpooalot (Boston Reefers Society)

Pics

The Light

The Tech

Supplies

Progress Update

The tank is cycled and ready for our first livestock. I am in the process of locking down a date for the class to visit Ocean State Aquatics. Playing with getting a pair of clowns and then holding off on corals until we go to OSA but not positive. Gonna see if I can first any online or local sellers that would consider donating to the project. If not, Scott from OSA offered to give me a great deal on a pair, he has been a huge help throughout the whole project so shout out to them as well!

If anyone is still interested in donating any kind of livestock Fish, coral, CUC, ect.) let me know. I will do my best to follow up with those that offered originally to see if they are still interested but feel free to let me know too.

Thanks to everyone who has followed and supported this build!

Aw man I just gave a snowflake clown to my LFS :(

 

[Zach0918]

Aw man I just gave a snowflake clown to my LFS :(

Crap, bad timing on my part.

 

[Zach0918]

Just installed the Aquatic Life 115 that @Chris A. from the BRS forums not only donated but shipped to me. Thanks so much! Please let me know how I did mounting it at the right height. The bubbles barely reach the opening.

 

[Zach0918]

So I went to FFM this weekend, what an experience. Huge thank you to the following vendors/attendees who donated to the project...

TJM Corals
Reef Junkeez
Coral Kraze
BRS (Boston Reefers Society)
AC Corals
Cheezy Corals
Talon's Cove
Tidal Wave
Mod Corals
Ultimate Corals
Corey Page
Alyssa from FB
Fish Ninja (large selection of CUC members

We added our first 3 inhabitants to the tank (other then the clownfish). Can you please give me some help and confirm or help me ID these.

1. Rock Flower Anemone

2. Pagota Cup

3. Some kind of hammer (can get better pics if needed)

 

[Zach0918]

 

[cromag27]

looking good!

 

[Zach0918]

 

[Hemmdog]

 

[Reefbuds]

Man this is cool.! Awsome that you have put this together. Wish they would have incorporated this when I was in school!

 

[Zach0918]

Bunch of updated and then yous (sorry for the delay and super long post (super busy with work and life and I have been neglecting this thread)

World Wide Corals

Thank you so much 6o Chris and the whole team at World Wide Corals. Now that our tank is up and running we on always looking for frags to add to our system. WWC not only donated 10 frags to the tank but also a number of inverts, including a fighting cinch which was a huge hit with the students. The students loved getting the cooler in the mail and thought it was fascinating how the coral could be shipped worldwide. A few of my most interested students came after learn to dip and acclimate the corals. We researched each species to determine the ideal placement of each frag. Thanks so much WWC for your support and commitment to inspiring the generation of reefers.

Hanna Instruments

One issue that comes with having so many different people working on the tank is inconsistent test results based on who is performing the test. One of the biggest (and scariest) of these was testing the salinity of the water, especially when students were performing water changes. I had been eying digital salinity checkers for awhule but it just wasn’t in the budget right now. I then learned that Hanna is actually based out of RI (awesome!) and I figured it was worth a shot. I spoke to a number of employees who were responsive, caring and truly seemed to want to help. Hanna generously donated one of their Marine Salinity Testers. We have been using it for a couple of weeks and I have to say it is easily one of my favorite pieces of equipment we have. Test results have been extremely accurate and reliable. I want to thank everyone over at Hanna for not only making an amazing product but also generously supporting our project, couldn’t recommend this company enough and I know I will be a customer in the future.

Keep on Reefing 2019

I would like to thank each of the following vendors/attendees from KOR 2019 who donated frags to our tank. Without the support and generosity of this industry/community this project would never have begun and without the continued support it would not be able to grow. We truly appreciated every single donation! Anyone in the market for frags, consider checking out these vendors, they have great coral and are even better people.

Frags

Son & Sand Reef: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1398841580366298&ref=br_rs
Frag Creations
Rick’s Coral and Aquatics: https://www.facebook.com/rickscoral/
Reef Junkeez:https://www.facebook.com/reefjunkeez/
Sick Twisted Corals: https://www.facebook.com/SickTwistedCorals
New York Reef Aquatics: https://www.facebook.com/nyreefaquatic/
Koral Craze: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=2067831426872370&ref=br_rs

Adam Kowal (attendee

Agcore Fish Food: https://www.agcorefishfood.com/index.html/

Another RI based company I just discovered.The Agcore Farm Team grows a “Superfood” called Spirulina, a blue-green algae. Agcore Spirulina has over 60% protein, is highly digestible, nutrient dense, has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. The Agcore team was eager to donate at KOR and even expressed interest in working with us as our project grows. Amazing people and were clearly passionate about their products, highly recommend this company.


Koral Kreatiions Art: https://www.facebook.com/koralkreationsart/

Koral Kreations is a company specializing in binging the natural beauty back to coral skeletons after they moved on from their waterworld and finding them new homes looking over their descendants. This artwork is beautiful in pictures but is a whole different experience in person. Thanks so much Chris for donating a piece to our tank (. I will update on Monday with some pics of it above the tank!

Reefbreeders: https://www.reefbreeders.com

As previously mentioned Logan from Reefbreeders had donated not only a Coral Box Moon LED Plus and RN-1 Wavemaker. We recently discovered an issue with the LED where a channel was failing to turn off. I reached to Logan and he got back to me almost immediately and set up a time for me to bring the light in. He went ahead and resolved the issue that day and we were back up and running (now algae free). Not only has Reefbreeders been a huge supporter of the project but I love my Photon 2 and RP-M Wavemaker, couldn't recommend this company more.

Tank Updates

Say hello to our second clownfish, she is a black domino we purchased from OSA. She and her "man" are getting along great!

Heres a few more tank shots:

I'll more pics after we add the frags from LKOR!