So I'm going to give this build thread a shot. I'll start from the very beginning. I teach a kindergarten through 5th grade science block. Several of my students have been asking for the last couple of years why I don't have a Nemo fish. I continuously have to explain that a Clownfish requires a saltwater aquarium. The follow up question is "well why don't you have one Mr. S?" I then have to explain that taking responsibility for animals, whether furry or scaly is a major responsibility that is not to be taken lightly and right now I don't have the extra money to support another habitat. You see, in my classroom we have a 65 gallon African Cichlid aquarium, a 38 gallon South American Cichlid aquarium, and one gorgeous Pink Belly Sidekick Turtle living in a medium WaterLand Tub. The kids love it and I love it. Think about it, I get to go to work everyday and teach elementary science using these wonderful habitats... Life is good.
Other habitats in the classroom:
So last April/May it occurred to me that there might be a way to give my students Clownfish. I decided I would write letters to different companies in the industry and see what supplies and equipment I would be able to receive as donations. The first letter I wrote was to aquarium manufacturers. I wrote to Coralife and two other companies. Two of the three manufacturers responded and Coralife hooked us up with the 16 gallon BioCube and stand. (As a side note, Coralife's sister company Aqueon gave us the 65 gallon aquarium the previous year as well.) From the moment they wrote back to us to receiving the BioCube was 4 days. We were all blown away, not only did they send the cube, but they also sent the stand.
This is the photo just after I finished assembling the stand.
At this point, I realized that this project was becoming a reality. My next thought was, "how do I go about getting "clean" water?" So I sent emails to several companies that manufacture RO/DI systems. AquaFX immediately offered us a system and mushroom corals when the time comes. What I didn't know at the time was that AquaFX is a local company so I was able to go out to their warehouse and pick up the system. Their Operations Manager, Doug walked me through the system and even added an extra capacity carbon block. I also chose the adapter to hook the system to my classroom sink, this way I can divert the water when needed. I also plan to use a 20 gallon brute trash can as RO/DI storage. I actually just sent an email off to Rubbermaid Commercial to see if they will donate the Brute cans, we will have to wait and see what happens. Now the Barracuda RO/DI did not have a TDS meter and I didn't want to ask for one as I don't want to be greedy so I purchased one shortly after picking up the system.
I thought I would be pressing my luck if I wrote more letters, but why stop now. I sent an email off to Cobalt Aquatics and they contributed a 50 watt Neo-Therm heater. I also sent letters off to three salt manufacturers. I wrote a letter to one company in particular, they offered me salt, additives and a bunch of stuff. They told us it was on the way and nothing ever showed. I emailed them again to check on things and never received a response. I figure it disappeared in shipping. Knowing I am going to need salt very soon, I reached out to Instant Ocean. Another quick response and we were set up with two buckets of Reef Crystals. Again, my mind has been blown.
The next email I sent was to CaribSea. In both of our Cichlid habitats we use CaribSea substrate and it has been excellent. I reached out to Caribsea for a donation of reef sand. Betsey from CaribSea immediately responded that they would love to help out and that they would also send pieces of their Life Rock. Shortly thereafter a large box was delivered to the school. They sent a 20lb bag of reef sand and three beautiful pieces of Life Rock. Unfortunately the box was a soggy mess. The bag of reef sand popped. Much of the reef sand was salvageable but the live bacteria was now soaked into the box. I replaced the bag of reef sand during a recent order of supplies.
Here are the pieces of rock:
#1
#2
#3
Today I worked on some aquascaping. My goal was to dry fit the pieces in the BioCube in a way that they would fit. All three pieces will not fit on the floor of the aquarium. Piece #1 is perfect for the back of the BioCube, however it is quite short and the three peaks are awkward. So I decided to try and fit piece number two on top of the first two peaks of Rock #1. It looks like this:
My though is by laying rock #2 on top of rock #1 I now have a ledge upon which I can set up some coral and I now have shade below for any coral or fish that prefer less light. I am not sure whether I should leave the floor in front of this piece empty or if I should use rock #3 to fill up the space.
I would like to house a Clownfish pair and a goby. Does anyone have some thoughts on this aquascape? I only get one shot at gluing the two rocks together so any input I get now would be much appreciated.
Here is a list of equipment and supplies that I have to work with for this project.
16 gallon BioCube and stand (Donation)
InTank media basket
Cobalt NeoTherm Heater (Donation)
CaribSea reef sand (Donation)
CaribSea Life Rock (Donation)
Purigen
ChemiPure Blue 6 pack 5.5oz
Poly Filter Floss
Tunze Nano Osmolator
Hydor Koralia Evolution Nano 425
Tunze Silence Pump 1073.008
Aqua FX Barracuda RO/DI (Donation)
Vee Gee STX-3 Refractometer (Donation)
Salifert Test Kits (Magnesium, Alkalinity, Calcium, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Phosphate, pH)
Bob Smith Industries IC -Gel and Accelerator
Ammonium Chloride for cycling
Other habitats in the classroom:
So last April/May it occurred to me that there might be a way to give my students Clownfish. I decided I would write letters to different companies in the industry and see what supplies and equipment I would be able to receive as donations. The first letter I wrote was to aquarium manufacturers. I wrote to Coralife and two other companies. Two of the three manufacturers responded and Coralife hooked us up with the 16 gallon BioCube and stand. (As a side note, Coralife's sister company Aqueon gave us the 65 gallon aquarium the previous year as well.) From the moment they wrote back to us to receiving the BioCube was 4 days. We were all blown away, not only did they send the cube, but they also sent the stand.
This is the photo just after I finished assembling the stand.

At this point, I realized that this project was becoming a reality. My next thought was, "how do I go about getting "clean" water?" So I sent emails to several companies that manufacture RO/DI systems. AquaFX immediately offered us a system and mushroom corals when the time comes. What I didn't know at the time was that AquaFX is a local company so I was able to go out to their warehouse and pick up the system. Their Operations Manager, Doug walked me through the system and even added an extra capacity carbon block. I also chose the adapter to hook the system to my classroom sink, this way I can divert the water when needed. I also plan to use a 20 gallon brute trash can as RO/DI storage. I actually just sent an email off to Rubbermaid Commercial to see if they will donate the Brute cans, we will have to wait and see what happens. Now the Barracuda RO/DI did not have a TDS meter and I didn't want to ask for one as I don't want to be greedy so I purchased one shortly after picking up the system.

I thought I would be pressing my luck if I wrote more letters, but why stop now. I sent an email off to Cobalt Aquatics and they contributed a 50 watt Neo-Therm heater. I also sent letters off to three salt manufacturers. I wrote a letter to one company in particular, they offered me salt, additives and a bunch of stuff. They told us it was on the way and nothing ever showed. I emailed them again to check on things and never received a response. I figure it disappeared in shipping. Knowing I am going to need salt very soon, I reached out to Instant Ocean. Another quick response and we were set up with two buckets of Reef Crystals. Again, my mind has been blown.
The next email I sent was to CaribSea. In both of our Cichlid habitats we use CaribSea substrate and it has been excellent. I reached out to Caribsea for a donation of reef sand. Betsey from CaribSea immediately responded that they would love to help out and that they would also send pieces of their Life Rock. Shortly thereafter a large box was delivered to the school. They sent a 20lb bag of reef sand and three beautiful pieces of Life Rock. Unfortunately the box was a soggy mess. The bag of reef sand popped. Much of the reef sand was salvageable but the live bacteria was now soaked into the box. I replaced the bag of reef sand during a recent order of supplies.
Here are the pieces of rock:
#1

#2

#3

Today I worked on some aquascaping. My goal was to dry fit the pieces in the BioCube in a way that they would fit. All three pieces will not fit on the floor of the aquarium. Piece #1 is perfect for the back of the BioCube, however it is quite short and the three peaks are awkward. So I decided to try and fit piece number two on top of the first two peaks of Rock #1. It looks like this:
My though is by laying rock #2 on top of rock #1 I now have a ledge upon which I can set up some coral and I now have shade below for any coral or fish that prefer less light. I am not sure whether I should leave the floor in front of this piece empty or if I should use rock #3 to fill up the space.
I would like to house a Clownfish pair and a goby. Does anyone have some thoughts on this aquascape? I only get one shot at gluing the two rocks together so any input I get now would be much appreciated.
Here is a list of equipment and supplies that I have to work with for this project.
16 gallon BioCube and stand (Donation)
InTank media basket
Cobalt NeoTherm Heater (Donation)
CaribSea reef sand (Donation)
CaribSea Life Rock (Donation)
Purigen
ChemiPure Blue 6 pack 5.5oz
Poly Filter Floss
Tunze Nano Osmolator
Hydor Koralia Evolution Nano 425
Tunze Silence Pump 1073.008
Aqua FX Barracuda RO/DI (Donation)
Vee Gee STX-3 Refractometer (Donation)
Salifert Test Kits (Magnesium, Alkalinity, Calcium, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Phosphate, pH)
Bob Smith Industries IC -Gel and Accelerator
Ammonium Chloride for cycling
Last edited: