Elementary School Aquarium Club

[Cool Cat]

Hi guys and gals! This school year I’m starting an aquarium club with my 3rd graders. I will have 15 students that will pair up (well one group of 3) to create and maintain 7 nano reefs in different classrooms throughout our school. Each team will have a Evo XII marine AIO tank, a small heater, power bar, timer, small gravel vacuum, thermometer, gallon ice cream bucket & gallon jug for water changes (and top off), about 8 lbs of argalive sand, 10 - 15 pounds of LR & bleached dry rock combo, an 11 oz. bag of chemipure blue, of course salt water and $60 for live stock. Currently we have a 210 Reef with softies and LPS in our media center, a 32 biocube reef in our principal’s office and a 100 reef in my classroom. I’ve been keeping Reef tanks for about 20 years, but I’ve never kept one this small before! The plan is to teach my kids about the basics of reef keeping...biological processes, some chemistry, good husbandry (water changes, proper feeding, water tests...) researching animals and what they need, learning about habitats and adaptations. The kids will keep up with their testing data, observations and any actions they took when things were off (like algae blooms, cyano, ammonia spikes, high nutrients...) in a journal. We will be meeting every other week to do water changes, test our water, take photos to document progress of tanks and upload information to share on a google classroom blog. Area reefers are going to talk to the kids about their experiences, we are taking a tour of a local Saltwater fish store, and going on after school field trips to aquariums at science centers in our area. Students will also be making videos to teach other grade levels about the ecosystems they’ve created. I have high hopes for this club and everybody at school is super excited. So to make this as successful as possible I need your advice and expertise!

1. Is there anything I’m missing with the set ups? I would love to have a small power head for each tank to increase circulation but I couldn’t fit that in the budget. I’d also love to set up a chaeto chamber but doing that for 7 tanks is pricey. Maybe next year.

2. Do I need to dose a two part if we are doing biweekly water changes and keeping mostly softies?

3. Easy care coral suggestions that will work with the stock lights? Kessil offered us some a80s for a pretty good discount, but multiplying it by 7 is too much for my small budget. I was thinking some zoas, GSP and Xenia. Maybe an LPS like Duncan’s? Something faster growing that the kids could observe through out the year.

4. What fish would be a good fit and how many? Keep in mind they have $60 to spend on coral, CUC and fish. Something hardy for true beginners. Any cool combos that the kids could observe working together.

5. Clean up crew? Would 5 be too much? Like a trochus, a cerith, nassassarius (sp?), shrimp and a hermit? Or do we need less?

6. Any cool ideas you think kids could do with their tanks? Or anything you see I’m overlooking. Really want to avoid disaster

Thanks in advance! This community is awesome!

 

[sfin52]

For small power heads talk to local reefers and lfs you may be able to scrounge enough.

Gsp,shrooms,zoas,Duncan's,xenia are great corals. I would suggest leathers they can grow quickly as well.

Clown gobies, clowns, fire fish, chalk bass, royal gramma and some smaller gobies.

You mentioned that you have established reefs around the school is there a possibility of fraging some coral for the tanks.

You may be able to get lfs to help out with some costs .

 

[WVNed]

My only suggestions are you source some live rock for biodiversity and that you include a microscope because all sorts of things in a reef tank cant be seen with the naked eye.

 

[sfin52]

@WVNed microscope is a great idea and agree with bio diversity.

 

[Ly78]

Just damsels for fishes will be nice....colourful, active n bombproof.

 

[James M]

Just damsels for fishes will be nice....colourful, active n bombproof.

And cheap

 

[OrionN]

Many years ago, my son (2nd year college at this time) 2nd grade teacher requested a small salt water tank in her class room. My son and I set up a 20 gal tank with HOB skimmer where I place the heater in the room for her. We did maintenance monthly on the weekend. My son brought RO water for top off and feed the tank when he was in school. We did not do any water test other than Salinity once in a long while. My son keep meticulous watch on the water level aided by marker on the side of the tank, and clean up the skimmer several times a week to keep it function well.
The tank was a standard 20 gal with Reef-Orbit (cant remember the exact name now) light (150 MH and LED moon light). We used the return from the skimmer and two small Koralia PH for circulation.
In this tank, we keep an Ultral Blue Crocea, a Rose BTA, Rod Onyx Percula pair that spawned regularly, and a Porcelain crab. Clean up crew only a few snails. Bare bottom except for a thin layer of crush coral. The teacher have other classes come and I talked to them about various aspect of reefkeeping, and the symbiotic relation ship of various animals in this tank. It was very educational for the kids, and the teachers.

We did have a little problem. Initially we have temperature instability and we have to arrange with house keeping to have the air-conditioning system for this particular classroom to be on all the time. The policy of the school is to turn it off in evening and weekend which would be disastrous for aquarium in South Texas. Good skimmer is a must to keep the tank aerated.

My advice to you is you need to keep it very simple. I would not use complicated nutrient export methods. Simple light on timer and do not skim on the heater and skimmer. You need to ensure power supply and keep air conditioning going to keep the environment stable. Have one capable and interested child in charge of the tank. If you have multiple, perhaps rotate every 3 months. You can have multiple children share responsibility but 1 must be accountable at any one time. Most of them like reef tanks, but not enough to really learn about or put in the time or work to maintain it. You may not want to start more than one or two tanks. Keep simple hardy bullet proof animals. It will not be good experience of all the children involved if there is death of the animals, or heaven forbid, multiple deaths of the animals.

I am not familiar with small tank cheap equipment. Small Koralia should be great for circulation, good well maintain Skimmer is a must, as is Heater with digital controller with remote temperature sensor. Light depends on the animals you want to keep
Good luck

 

[Cool Cat]

Thanks! We have a huge finger leather that I was going to frag and a large GSP colony that I can use.

 

[Cool Cat]

@WVNed microscope is a great idea and agree with bio diversity.

Great idea!

 

[Cool Cat]

My only suggestions are you source some live rock for biodiversity and that you include a microscope because all sorts of things in a reef tank cant be seen with the naked eye.

Yep, we are using some live rock I got from a tank break down that was donated for the project that I’ve been cooking all summer. I have some base rock that I bleached as well that will be mixed with the LR...that way the kids can watch it change throughout the year. The microscope is an awesome idea!!! Thanks!

 

[Terry Mulhern]

Biodive said:
Not many elementary schools have marine biology at school. How to get the oficial funding and where to look for sponsors? I'm a teacher from Arlington Elementary School (we are located in Torrance). I'm planning to do my essay elementary school project and use The Terramar Project guides now. Do you have any similar examples?

We recieved $3000 from our local Schools Foundation to organize an aquarium club with nano reefs and later we were awarded a Pets in the Classroom grant. We have a marine biology course at school too and I could share some materials.
A brilliant example of the elemntary school project is a school's coral reef project by Brandon (Stratton Elementary School).

 

[Katie M]

Wow, just finding this thread and it seems like an awesome project (but I'm willing to bet that things are on hold for the time being). I have a Nuvo 10 in my 5th grade classroom and ran a small 5 gallon frag tank right next to it. We have aquarium club every Monday and it's been a lot of fun! I would love to see some pics of your systems! I am going to start a build thread on there within the next couple of days as well. Thanks