Bringing the reef into the classroom... 16g BioCube (now a Nuvo 40)

[reefiniteasy]

Well this past week the school forced me to make a decision. The chiller that services the kindergarten hallway went out. No AC for two days and the classroom was 82-85 degrees. I hung my ambient air temp probe from my ThermoWorks Smoke BBQ thermometer in the classroom.

So after school last Thursday I stopped at World Wide Corals and picked up a Kessil A80. We have officially gone open top. Went in to check earlier today and with no AC the water temp was a cool 77 degrees.

The plan is to dump a 1oz bottle of TurboStart 900 in the tank on Friday and add our first fish on Saturday. At that time I’ll probably use the second bottle as well.

I measured my parameters on Saturday, April 13th and then again today using my Salifert test kits.

Salinity 1.025/34ppt -1.025/34ppt
pH 8.15 - 8.15
Mg 1350ppm - 1350ppm
Ca 450ppm - 435ppm
KH/Alk 8.3dKH - 10.05dKH

This is all new to me... why would calcium drop but alkalinity rise? Time to do some research.

Also my wonderful wife ordered me a new Trigger Systems ATO reservoir to replace the point of sale we were using and some black egg crate to make a top for the BioCube.

 

[reefiniteasy]

We are officially three days into cycling the aquarium.
Day 1 - 4/23
Dosed ammonia to 2ppm and added 1oz bottle of Fritz TurboStart900.
Ammonia - .25ppm
Nitrite - .25ppm
Nitrate - .25ppm

Day 2 - 4/24
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 1ppm
Nitrate - 50ppm

Dosed ammonia again and measured later in the day back down to .5ppm

Day 3 - 4/25
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite - .25ppm
Nitrate - 100ppm

I expect I will find no ammonia and nitrite tomorrow so I figure a water change will be the only way to lower Nitrates. Following the water change I will dose ammonia again. We will see what happens. Once I declare the tank cycled I will add the Purigen and ChemiPure Blue to the media basket.

 

[count krunk]

82 isn't the end of the world. you could always start with that.

 

[count krunk]

whoops bit late haha. glad to see you got it sorted

 

[reefiniteasy]

So the tank is progressing through the cycling process nicely.

Day 4 - 4/26
Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrite - .25ppm, Nitrate - 100ppm

Day 5 - 4/27 - Did nothing
Day 6 - 4/28 Added Purigen and ChemiPure

Day 7 - 4/29
Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, Nitrate - 25ppm
pH - 8.15, Mg - 1350ppm, Ca - 450ppm, KH/Alk - 6.1dKH

Day 8 - 4/30 - Did nothing

Day 9 - 5/1
5 gallon water change
Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrite - 0ppm, Nitrate - 10ppm
Dosed ammonia again

Day 10 - 5/2
Ammonia - 0ppm, Nitrite - 1ppm, Nitrate - 50ppm
Salinity - 1.025, pH - 8.15, Mg - 1335ppm, Ca - 450ppm, KH/Alk - 8.6dKH

So far every time I dose ammonia, the ammonia is gone shortly thereafter. Adding the Purigen and ChemiPure helped to lower the high nitrate measured on day 4 from 100ppm to 25ppm. The water change worked beautifully to cut the nitrate from 25ppm to 10ppm. The water change also helped stabilize alkalinity. I suspect that tomorrow I will have next to no nitrite but nitrate will spike again, which might require another water change. After that water change to cut the nitrates I will declare the tank cycled and add a fish. I also noticed that I have some algae on the sand bend, maybe diatom algae, so I will clean that up and maybe introduce a small clean up crew. I cut a piece of black egg crate that I got from BRS to make a custom fitted top for the BioCube, I have to say it looks great. The Trigger Crystal ATO reservoir looks awesome as well.

 

[Dub_G]

Looking great! Glad to see educators teaching kids about the world we live in and all the different species and habitats of the world. I hate that teachers have to do so much like this out of their own pocket. Glad to see the industry supporting your classroom tank.

 

[homer1475]

As I was reading this I was going to suggest just removing the back and front "doors" on the biocube. It's all I did on my 29G biocube to reduce heat.

Only word of caution, eggcrate holes are big and fish can and will jump through those little holes. Did the same thing on my biocube, only to have a clown jump right through it.

Awesome to see an educator taking the initiative to teach "outside the box". Wish I had a teacher like this growing up.

 

[reefiniteasy]

I am so tired of going backward. Tank is cycled and ready for fish. But... we are back to having temperature issues. When the AC is on the tank is at exactly 76 degrees with the open top and Kessil. This weekend was quite hot, 95 degrees, and someone shut my classroom door (I always leave it open). I went in on Sunday and the tank was at 81. Ahhh! This just doesn’t end.

So I found a permanent solution. I hit up my parents for a donation to my classroom. My dad ordered me the Chill Solutions CSXC-1. I’ll keep the heater set to 76 and the chiller set to 77. I think this will finally stabilize the temperature.

Now I just need to figure out how to keep the alkalinity at 8.6dKH. After a couple days it drops to about 6.8dKH. I’m tired of doing water changes to fix it. With all the supplies Fritz donated I have plenty of their 2-part, I just need to figure out how much and how often to dose.

I am honestly starting to question whether or not this habitat was a good idea. The amount of time it is taking to maintain is insane. 6 aquatic habitats in one classroom might be a bit much. Haha!

The first fish I’ll buy will be a Firefish. I also need to get a CUC. Next step is to research proper acclimation procedures. I would like to quarantine fish, but I don’t have the funds to set that up so I’ll just look for heathy looking fish. I’ll probably shop at World Wide Corals. I love their shop and their staff is incredible. It’s also a bonus that they are 10-15 minutes from my school.

I’ll install the chiller on Saturday and get a fish soon after.

To be continued...

 

[reefiniteasy]

We are back to school. The micro-chiller has been working and it is amazing. The tank sits at 77.2 degrees. When the AC is off it doesn’t go above 78.1. Very pleased so far. We have a CUC. I added:
8 Dwarf Cerith Snails
4 Nassarius Vibex Snails
10 Florida Cerith Snails
10 Nerite Snails
4 Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
4 Assorted Hermit Crabs

I ordered everything from Reefcleaners.org. Shipping was only $6.99. Everything arrived in 2 days alive. I am beyond pleased. My students were so excited when they arrived and we inboxed them.

Next I will add a fish. Probably just a Fire-fish, something small. Maintaining such a small tank has become a pain in the butt. Constant testing and dosing. I’m sure it would be easier if I had a larger tank, Mg, Ca and Alk would probably be more stable in a larger tank. But I’m getting used to it and enjoy it.

 

[reefiniteasy]

So my CUC is doing great. All the small Cerith Snails, I think that’s what they are, have buried themselves in the sand. I can see them moving through the sand. The crabs are traversing the the rocks. My students are enamored with them. The spots of whatever brown and green algae I had are gone. Score one for the snails.

I tested parameters today for the first time in a week and nothing has changed. Slight spike in nitrates. Normal I guess since I now have a CUC.

Mg - 1350ppm
KH/Alk - 8.3dKH
Ca - 420ppm
NO3 - 2-5ppm (can’t read the dang color)

On Thursday I will make a batch of saltwater and do the water change on Friday. 5 gallons should be good. On Saturday we are going to the grand opening of World Wide Corals new Winter Park location. I guess that’s a perk of living in Orlando. Our hope is to get a clownfish pair, a firefish and maybe a shrimp. My daughter loves fish so it’ll be fun.

Next update should include fish. I’m so excited and so are my students. It has been over a year since we started this project and the time for fish has finally arrived. Without this community we wouldn’t have reached this point. Thank you all!

 

[reefiniteasy]

I’ve been waiting over a year to announce that we finally have fish. We have added two Black Percula Clowns that we’re graciously given to us by a R2R member exiting the hobby. They are beautiful fish. As soon as we got them in they hid behind the rock at the front of the tank and would periodically peek out over the edge. I gave them some LRS Fish Frenzy and they greedily ate it up. Went in to my classroom this morning to check on them. They seem to like to swim against the current in the back corner of the tank. I am afraid the flow of the Koralia Nano Evolution 425 powerhead was making it tough for them. However, when I feed they swim around just fine and as soon as I shut the classroom lights and walked away they swam out into the main part of the display. So maybe they just like swimming into the current. I want to get a programable powerhead but I can’t afford that now, especially with the school year just starting. I spent a lot of money on my room already. I also want to get a Reef Glass skimmer. It’s the only one that will fit my aquarium. I did notice that some of the uneaten Fish Frenzy was grabbed by my blue legged hermits. I guess they call them a CUC for a reason. Here are some pictures.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Holy crap! What a couple of days it has been. Very stressful! Hurricane Dorian skirted by us with no ill effects. My wife hasn't gone in to labor yet, we were so scared it would happen in the middle of the hurricane. I was also worried our school would lose power and I wouldn't be able to access my classroom. Buzz the turtle would be fine but we were so nervous we would lose Mickey and Minnie. We are thankful that all the classroom animals are fine. Obviously if the power went out the clowns would die from increasing salinity. The ATO wouldn't be functional and I wouldn't be there to manually top off the tank.

Found the remains of one of my hermits. I'm not sure who killed him. I couldn't imagine a snail would or could, it was either the clowns or another hermit. Certainly is a mystery. Mickey and Minnie love the LRS Fish Frenzy. They tear into it like elementary school kids on pizza Fridays.

I noticed that I have had no algae of any kind growing in the display, nothing, it's been crystal clear. However, I have various brown/green algae growing in the rear chambers. Not sure how this happened. It certainly is nice to have it contained but are their negatives to this? Most of the algae is in the third chamber with the return pump. There is a clear window in the side and I think the sunlight coming in from the window has caused the growth. None of my snails have died except for the ones my hermits have attacked. So I assume the lack of algae on the glass hasn't hurt the snails.

I have a routine now. I do a 4 gallon water change every Tuesday. That is almost half the volume of the tank. I make 5 gallons of salt water simply because it is easiest. I also find that I have to dose Alkalinity and Calcium even after the water change to keep my numbers where I want them. Magnesium is always stable, fluctuating between 1275ppm and 1350ppm. I try to get as close to the following targets: Mg - 1350ppm, Ca - 420ppm, Alk - 8.3dKH. I know I don't have corals yet but I know my water parameters will be key to their survival and I consider this practice. The water changes are going to be important in this small tank as my nitrates have jumped to 10ppm by the time I get to it.

I am now looking forward to adding a firefish, goby, a couple more hermits, and a shrimp. Oh, and CORALS CORALS CORALS! Did I say CORALS!!?

Here is an updated list of equipment:
Aquarium Equipment
16 gallon BioCube
Tunze Silence Pump 1073.008
XPAqua Duetto ATO
Trigger Systems 5 gallon ATO reservoir
Cobalt NeoTherm 50 watt heater
Chill Solutions CSXC-1 ThermoElectric Chiller
inTank Media Basket
Hydor Koralia Nano 425
Kessil A80 Tuna Blue w/ Gooseneck
Flipper Nano
VeeGee STX-3 Refractometer

Salt Mixing
Aqua FX Barracuda RODI 50gpd
20 gallon Brute – RODI storage
10 gallon Brute – salt mixing
Coralife pump – salt mixing
100 watt Fluval heater – salt mixing

Chemicals
Fritz RPM Salt (Blue Box)
Fritz RPM Part 1 Alk
Fritz RPM Part 2 Calcium
Fritz RPM Liquid Magnesium
Seachem Purigen
ChemiPure Blue
Salifert Test Kits (Mg, Alk, Ca, NO3, NO2, pH, NH3, PO4)

 

[reefiniteasy]

So just a quick update. The tank is doing very well. I have fallen into a good routine where I do a 5 gallon water change every week and do all my parameter testing. After reading through the Fritz thread I tried a new way of mixing my saltwater and now it mixes clear very fast. I dump my salt into the water in one quick motion. I only use a powerhead and no heater. The water starts at 76 degrees and the heat produced by the mixing brings it up to 78 degrees within the hour and it's clear and ready to go. It's interesting that Fritz suggests to add the salt slowly but it works better if I do it quickly. I am slowly running out of my Salifert tests. I'm thankful that the test kits are not very expensive, but it is still beginning to add up.

Tomorrow I have to remove a snail that somehow managed to climb out of the display and into the third chamber. I guess it isn't bad having a CUC member in the chamber to clean, but I don't need him to mess with the pumps and ATO sensor. I can't believe he went up and over the back wall.

Also I have to replace the clear tubing that attaches to the chiller. Sunlight entering my classroom has caused algae to grow in the tubing, they have slowly turned green. Normally I wouldn't care, but I don't want the algae to work its way into the chiller and cause a problem later on. I will be replacing the tubing with black vinyl tubing from BRS. I will post some pictures when I make the switch.

My next big project is setting up a small QT system. I will make a thread on the forum to ask for advice as my situation in the classroom is unique and I'm not sure what to do.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Well I finally made my first, I guess we can call it a mistake with salt mixing. I mixed a 5 gallon bucket for my weekly water change. I think it was @TheHarold that mentioned on another thread to just dump/pour the Fritz into the water in one shot and it would mix up clear. This was spot on, I've done this twice now and it mixes up clear very quickly. I then read that I should't let the pump run non stop. I shut the pump after two hours. I then went to do the water change. I usually don't test the new saltwater before the change (bad practice, I know) but for some reason this time I did. I'm glad I did. The water tested at 1.020. It takes exactly 1lb 9.3oz of salt to mix 5 gallons to 1.025 salinity. So what went wrong? I think I shut the pump before the salt fully dissolved. I added a couple ounces of salt to see what would happen and turned the pump back on. 20 minutes later the water tested at 1.030. I dumped the 5 gallons, gave up on the water change and started over the next day. I mixed the 5 gallons and 1lb 9.3oz salt at 8:30am, left the pump on all day and did the water change at 4:30pm and it tested perfect (1.025), as it always does. I have no clue what happened, was it shutting the pump? Was it a measuring error? I don't believe so, but anything is possible.

What have I learned from this... Always test the salinity of my water before using it for a water change.

I almost have all the supplies for a QT - 10 gallon tank, Aquaclear 20, sponge filter, heater, air pump, egg crate. Still deciding if I'll QT a new fish or chance it. I don't know if a QT setup will be successful in my classroom when I am not there part of the time and I had so much trouble stabilizing temperatures in my DT. I don't know what to do. I might have some cool news to share in the not to distant future.

 

[JDnKY]

Well I finally made my first, I guess we can call it a mistake with salt mixing. I mixed a 5 gallon bucket for my weekly water change. I think it was @TheHarold that mentioned on another thread to just dump/pour the Fritz into the water in one shot and it would mix up clear. This was spot on, I've done this twice now and it mixes up clear very quickly. I then read that I should't let the pump run non stop. I shut the pump after two hours. I then went to do the water change. I usually don't test the new saltwater before the change (bad practice, I know) but for some reason this time I did. I'm glad I did. The water tested at 1.020. It takes exactly 1lb 9.3oz of salt to mix 5 gallons to 1.025 salinity. So what went wrong? I think I shut the pump before the salt fully dissolved. I added a couple ounces of salt to see what would happen and turned the pump back on. 20 minutes later the water tested at 1.030. I dumped the 5 gallons, gave up on the water change and started over the next day. I mixed the 5 gallons and 1lb 9.3oz salt at 8:30am, left the pump on all day and did the water change at 4:30pm and it tested perfect (1.025), as it always does. I have no clue what happened, was it shutting the pump? Was it a measuring error? I don't believe so, but anything is possible.

What have I learned from this... Always test the salinity of my water before using it for a water change.

I almost have all the supplies for a QT - 10 gallon tank, Aquaclear 20, sponge filter, heater, air pump, egg crate. Still deciding if I'll QT a new fish or chance it. I don't know if a QT setup will be successful in my classroom when I am not there part of the time and I had so much trouble stabilizing temperatures in my DT. I don't know what to do. I might have some cool news to share in the not to distant future.

Unless you want to teach your students how devastating, and difficult to eradicate, marine Fish diseases can be in an aquarium, I would setup and use the QT. I “took my chances” in the beginning and really wish I hadn’t.

 

[reefiniteasy]

We have a mystery on our hands. Came in to my classroom Tuesday morning and found another dead hermit, looked like he had been torn to pieces. His shell was also missing. So either I have murderous clownfish or a cannibalistic hermit crab.

Here are my water parameters after my water change yesterday.

pH - 8.15
NO3 - 10ppm
Mg - 1380ppm
KH/Alk - 8.15dKH
Ca - 450ppm

I think everything has finally stabilized. I haven’t had to dose anything the last two water changes. I think we are finally in a good place. I think this weekend I will hit up my Lfs for our first coral. I think I’m finally ready. I guess one of the perks for being in Central Florida is that I have access to premier coral retailers, @WWC @TopShelfAquatics @Living Reef Orlando

I wonder if any of them offer educator discounts or would want to help a local elementary classroom start their reef

 

[reefiniteasy]

Was supposed to do a water change today but didn't get to it. Had to take Buzz the turtle to vet for his yearly checkup. Today was a teacher work day, so we had no students. I seem to be having a snail problem. My hermit crabs are slowly murdering my snails. I only have one Florida Cerith and one Nassarius left. My Nerites are doing well, they are always high on the glass out of the hermits' reach. The crabs are constantly changing shells, I thought they did this out of necessity but it seems like my hermits enjoy it. I don't think I need more Nassarius snails as they eat the left over fish food, but so do the hermit crabs. I guess with both competing for food, the crabs took them out.

My hermit crabs' garage. They have a shell for every occasion.

Decided I'm going to add a frogspawn first change I get. Very excited for what's to come.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Haven’t posted in a while. Tank is doing great. I still haven’t swapped out the hoses on the micro chiller for the black ones. I’m nervous to disconnect it all especially since the temperature is dialed in and everything is working.

I laminated all the direction sheets from my Salifert test kits. Now I just need to find a better way to store them. The boxes take up so much space.

We also just received a package from CoralVue containing their IceCap ATO that will be used in our QT setup. The AutoAqua Smart Temperature Security that will be used as a fail safe for our Cobalt Neo-Therm heater, and the AutoAqua Digital Inline TDS Meter, the Titanium S3. It’ll be nice to have a TDS meter on our RODI filter that is backlit so it can be read under the classroom fluorescent lights. CoralVue has been very generous in their support of my efforts and I am especially appreciative.

As I begin to set these up I will document it here.

That’s it for now. More exciting news to follow but I can’t reveal it just yet. Stay tuned.

 

[reefiniteasy]

So we now have some green algae in the main display. It’s barely noticeable. There has always been algae in the rear chambers and in the tubing that goes to the chiller. I noticed the other day that the clear u-bend pipes leading to the chiller were clear of algae. Either a snail got in there or the algae exited the pipe and ended in the display where it began to spread. Who knows! At least I have a good CUC to keep things under control. I would not call this a problem or nuisance.

I installed a new surge protector with more outlets. Much easier to unplug things now. I also installed the Auto Aqua Smart Temp Security. So far I believe it is working properly. I will only find out if it issues a warning. It sets up real easy. Temp sensor magnetized in the aquarium and the heater plugs into the AC outlet. Not sure on the best placement for the sensor. I put it in the chamber with the heater. I tried to place it below the heater but then the wire sits against the heater and I didn’t like that. Right now it sits just above the heater. I didn’t know if putting the sensor in the chamber with the chiller was okay. I’ll play with it as we move forward. I’ll get the new TDS meter hooked up this week.

Very exciting news, Oase hooked us up with new BioMaster Thermo canister filters for our freshwater tanks. Can’t wait to get them plumbed, especially the UV filter on the cichlid tank.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Just a little update...

The Nerite snails have been taking care of the green algae on the rocks. However, the hermit crabs have been slowly picking them off. We started with 10 and I only have 4 left. So I placed another order with reefcleaners.org. I ordered 10 Nerite, 12 Florida Cerith, 10 dwarf Cerith, and 5 Nassarius snails. They should be here Wednesday. Since we will be on Thanksgiving break they will be delivered to the house and I’ll take them in to school.

So I contacted WWC and they will be supplying us with some coral frags to get our reef started. They told me to stop by the store anytime. I’ll do that next week. Also, a member of this forum is setting us up with a frag from his giant frogspawn. Next week is going to be a big step forward for our aquarium.

I need to pick up some additional RODI tubing so I can hook up the new AutoAqua triple TDS meter and I’ve had my eye on the Hanna Phosphate ULR checker. I put it on my secret Santa wishlist. Maybe I’ll get lucky.

Stepping away from salt for a moment. I hooked up the Oase BioMaster Thermo 350 to our 40 gallon tropical aquarium. What a beast of a filter. The engineering is incredible. I love that the water follows a dedicated pathway through the media and the integrated heater is awesome. When I plumb the BioMaster Thermo 600 and UV sterilizer to the 65 gallon Cichlid tank I’ll document the unboxing and do a review in case anyone is interested.

Next update should be about coral.