My 180g Classroom Build

Victoria M

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He helped set up the RODI to the trash cans, but he didn't know about the pumps I now have in them(until last night). He was just talking to me yesterday about how easy it would be to put a pump and a water line coming out of the garbage cans instead of using buckets, but I don't really have room to store that much pipe or hose without it being an eye-sore, and I don't want to have it permanently running across my room. The area the cans are in is a storage area shared by 6 other science teachers, and I'm already taking up a ton of room with my new stuff ;Sorry.
Place the brutte on the roller made for it and it will be a much easier chore. A MJ 1200 power head with about 5-6 feet of aquarium hose connected to it make water changes a lot easier and less risky. A cabinet in the class room dedicated to the aquarium equipment will probably be very helpful down the road. check out the water change stations threads on here and on RC.
 
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Mr.Asbury

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Place the brutte on the roller made for it and it will be a much easier chore. A MJ 1200 power head with about 5-6 feet of aquarium hose connected to it make water changes a lot easier and less risky. A cabinet in the class room dedicated to the aquarium equipment will probably be very helpful down the road. check out the water change stations threads on here and on RC.

That's what I currently have for my salt water can, but the fresh water can (I have a 75g planted freshwater tank in my room as well) is not on wheels because it is directly hooked to my RODI & has a float on it. I'm nervous to have that one on wheels and have something mess up the float or the RODI line & flood the room (I'm on the 3rd floor and that wouldn't go over well!) I'm carry 3g buckets for the freshwater to top off my ATO and to do water changes in the 75g tank.

I do, however, have a 37g storage tote that I use to take waste water out of both tanks to dispose of. It's on a cart so that I can just wheel it to where it needs to be.

I'll have a cabinet in the room for all the maintenance stuff & salt, but the back room currently has things like lights and whatnot that I haven't had a minute to hook up yet. Hopefully they'll go up this weekend, even though I probably won't turn them on until the cycle finishes. On a side note, I do have my skimmer hooked up but currently off. When should I start running that?
 

Victoria M

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That's what I currently have for my salt water can, but the fresh water can (I have a 75g planted freshwater tank in my room as well) is not on wheels because it is directly hooked to my RODI & has a float on it. I'm nervous to have that one on wheels and have something mess up the float or the RODI line & flood the room (I'm on the 3rd floor and that wouldn't go over well!) I'm carry 3g buckets for the freshwater to top off my ATO and to do water changes in the 75g tank.

I do, however, have a 37g storage tote that I use to take waste water out of both tanks to dispose of. It's on a cart so that I can just wheel it to where it needs to be.

I'll have a cabinet in the room for all the maintenance stuff & salt, but the back room currently has things like lights and whatnot that I haven't had a minute to hook up yet. Hopefully they'll go up this weekend, even though I probably won't turn them on until the cycle finishes. On a side note, I do have my skimmer hooked up but currently off. When should I start running that?
That sounds like a decent system. Can you post pictures of the set up? You can begin running the skimmer when the cycle is complete. Some folks start them right away, but I have found there is no need until you have heavier biological activity going on in the tank.
 

Victoria M

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I've been considering adding on a "visible" refugium down the road to talk about all of that. Going to gage it on how the kids do with the tank this year - that tank wouldn't have a canopy over it and I don't want things to be able to "accidentally" fall into the tank. For now, we can just open up the stand to see it and to get some of the pods & algae out to look at under scopes when we talk about ecology.
A display refugium would be fantastic.
 
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Mr.Asbury

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Do you use ro di water in the fresh tank? Or do you use additives first? Post a full tank shot of your fresh water tank too please!

I mix a powder into the RODI water as my bucket fills up. I can't remember the name off hand, but I can look this weekend. I just started doing that about a month ago, but i've already noticed a nice change in water clarity and some new growth on my plants. I'll post a shot this weekend when I go in to set up the new tank's lights.
 
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That sounds like a decent system. Can you post pictures of the set up? You can begin running the skimmer when the cycle is complete. Some folks start them right away, but I have found there is no need until you have heavier biological activity going on in the tank.

Here’s the stuff I use for water changes. I have the cart with a tote for water on it, then I keep things like replacement filters and carbon bags and whatnot on the bottom. Second picture is the stuff I add to RODI water for the freshwater tank, then there’s my tank.

It’s a light bio load atm, I’m slowly adding stuff because I upgraded from a 35g a few months ago. I had 3 angels in there that I added back in July but only 1 made it out of the first week and I haven’t had a chance to go get more. I’m a Harry Potter fan, and we had an orange one (Ron), black & white one (Hermonie), and solid black one (harry), but harry is the only one still alive - the boy and the fish who lived. Other than him, there are 6 mollies of various colors, 3 albino Cory catfish, 3 upside down catfish, a common pleco (huge - like 12-13 inches long), a ghost knife fish, and a few little shrimp. The water looks a little brown ATM but it’s just from the new driftwood off to the right releasing some tannins, nothing harmful to the fish. It’ll clear up after a few more water changes.
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Victoria M

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That is a pretty freshwater tank. Nice set up for water changes too. We have an axolotl tank that we use ro di water and a seachem water mineral supplement for a pH of 7.4. This axolotl has turned into one of my all time favorite critters.
Harry Potter is the best. welcome to R2R. you will fit right in. Seems this site is full of all kinds of nerdom and it is awesome.
 
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Here's my water testing results so far during the cycle. Each green square means I dosed ammonia back to 2ppm after completing the testing.


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Going to set up a quarantine tank today and hopefully get a fish into it this weekend. Tank's taking me from 2ppm - 0ppm in two days atm in a 180g, should be good to go by the time my quarantine finishes on the two clowns I want to have as a first addition.

Side note, I tested and dosed at one point between 9/1 & 9/7 as well, but forgot to write down those results.
 

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I have a 100g penesula reef with a 40 g breeder acting as a refugium on a stand beside the the tank plumbed into the display in my classroom with 3rd graders. It’s been running for 2.5 years. So far I haven’t had any problems with fingers, trash or anything else ending up in the tank. Each week a different group of kids manually dose the tank, spray down our mangroves and turn our chaeto.
 
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These are some earlier pictures of the tank to give you an idea... now there is a wooden frame that goes over the fuge where I hang a Mars Hydro light and it’s full of chaeto.

Very nice looking tank. I like the idea of the visible refugium - so much happens in there that people don't really pay attention to due to it not being "pretty." What are the kids' favorite things in the tank? I'm still finalizing my fish list, and would love to hear what's working!
 

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Very nice looking tank. I like the idea of the visible refugium - so much happens in there that people don't really pay attention to due to it not being "pretty." What are the kids' favorite things in the tank? I'm still finalizing my fish list, and would love to hear what's working!

Thanks! They love our peppermint shrimp “Patrick Swayze”, urchin, crabs and snails. As for fish they like our watchman goby in our schools 210 in the media center. But really they love every part of it. I have a magnetic magnifying glass on the tank and I’m constantly having to clean nose marks off of it because they really get into looking at corals close up.

Here is a fish stocking list of my 100 in order of addition:
2 false percs
4 green chromis
1 purple firefish
1 bicolor blenny
1 azure blue damsel (started as 3 but down to one, they were not aggressive towards each other at all. Lost one the first night and the second several months later for unknown reasons.I love these fish!)
1 Tomini tang
1 Sailfin tang
1 Yellow tang (added all tangs at the same time)
*last addition will be a watchman goby/ pistol shrimp pair.

I’ve had a lot of success without green Star polyps, zoanthids, galaxia and euphilia corals. I’ve had trouble keeping royal grammas for some reason.

Our 210 has:
2 false percs
1 yellow watchman goby
2 bangaii cardinals (breeding pair)
1 Azure blue damsel
2 purple firefish
1 Yellow tang
1 sailfin tang
1 yellow eyed Kole tank
1 gold rim tang
1 lieutenant tang

Hope this gives you some ideas!
 
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Mr.Asbury

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Tank update: My wife and I spent several hours this weekend working on the tank. We finally got the lights all hooked up and we organized all of the controllers and wires under the stand (well, she organized them, I just pointed a drill with a screw where she told me to ;Shamefullyembarrased). I'll post a picture of the lights tomorrow because we moved the powerheads and sand around some, which really clouded up the tank. We also got the quarantine tank set up and will be ordering our first fish and the cleanup crew this week! Now, this should mark the end of my wife and I's (weekend long) "projects" with the tank, and I can start to get the kids involved with more than just water testing.

Side note, I will not be posting any pictures of students on here, but if you would like to follow along with any of the work the kids are doing in class, please feel free to check out our (work in progress) Twitter account: https://twitter.com/Monarchs_Reef. I sent a permission slip home to be able to post the pictures on the Twitter account because it is associated with the high school.

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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 73 37.6%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 66 34.0%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 12.9%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 14.4%
  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.0%
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