My 180g Classroom Build

[Michael Naegeli]

Several of my Trochus snails died off shortly after adding them, and they were starting to grow some algae on them. Added 10 hermits last night, and they're doing work on cleaning up the shells. I plan to just leave them in there so they can be re-used later by something else. If they aren't, they'll add a little decoration to the sand.

Before of the snails, hard to see the long algae growing off of it because of the blue lights.

There were 4-5 hermits on some of these shells this morning, but they seem to be starting to spread out now.

I would immediately remove dead snails from tank. Super toxic If not. Also u might wanna consider a lid on the tank. Two big issues that will for sure safe you HUGE heartache.

 

[don_chuwish]

Great stuff - so many different ways to learn from this hobby!

 

[count krunk]

yeah, artfully acrylic will make tops that have feed doors for $$$.

But really, the mesh top should be simple and light enough to remove (or shift a bit) easily when you want to feed.

 

[Corey Shelk]

This is such a great idea, I would have loved to take this class in high school. I'm definitely following along :)

 

[Jackony]

How did you manage to get funding for this? Grants? Please let me know, I propositioned a local reef tank distribution center about something similar and they are not doing that. Please share your experience.

 

[Mr.Asbury]

How did you manage to get funding for this? Grants? Please let me know, I propositioned a local reef tank distribution center about something similar and they are not doing that. Please share your experience.

I wrote two different grants to companies offering STEM / STEAM education funding for projects in the classroom. One was funded by Chevron, which is currently investing a ton of money in my area due to their oil & gas drilling taking place here. The other one was through a foundation based in Pittsburgh (https://benedum.org/) that donates a good bit of money every year for science and engineering projects in classrooms. Both grants were only offered locally, unfortunately.

If you're in education, ask your administrators about grant opportunities. Usually, these organizations send out mass emails to the local school administration asking for submissions. My current admin has been great about sharing these with the staff, but there have been admins in the past who have not passed the information along.

 

[Katrina71]

@cromag27 makes beautiful tops. The only way I'd ever consider going topless!

 

[Mr.Asbury]

The home mechanics shop kids made a new stand for my 75g planted tank last week, and I finally got it transferred over on Friday. Not sure why all my fish are hiding, and the wires still need cleaned up but the stand looks a ton better than the old desk it was on before!

They even stained it to match my reef tank’s stand. Maybe next I can talk them into making a hood for over the top [emoji6].

 

[mygsris2slo4u]

Wish I had something like this in school. I may have paid more attention. It’s nice when you can relate the book knowledge to real life and see it in person. Keep up the good work!

 

[Mr.Asbury]

Is my clown trying to pair up with my hammer coral? She's been doing this for over an hour now. She isn't nipping when he goes into it, her mouth stays shut. (I'm guessing it's a female - it's the larger of the two and chases the smaller one off any time it comes near.

 

[Michael Naegeli]

Yep. He’s scoping it out. My Clown (Black) Bo Jangles goes to all my torches and frogspawn and hangs out rubbing all up on them. He also thinks big Zoa colonies are anemone. He makes the Zoa very upset. Torches don’t seem to mind too much. Poor Bo Jangles. He’s never had a real anemone w me.

 

[Mr.Asbury]

Yep. He’s scoping it out. My Clown (Black) Bo Jangles goes to all my torches and frogspawn and hangs out rubbing all up on them. He also thinks big Zoa colonies are anemone. He makes the Zoa very upset. Torches don’t seem to mind too much. Poor Bo Jangles. He’s never had a real anemone w me.

I plan to get an anemone down the road when my tank is more stable. Hopefully this is a sign that she'll be willing to let it host her down the road.

 

[Mr.Asbury]

Some of my coral are doing well. I accidentally knocked over a piece of rock last week, and did a lot of damage to my frogspawn, however. I'm hoping it will recover, but it looks really bad ATM. Here are some updated pictures of the new coral additions (frogspawn is a pre-accident.)

 

[saintsreturn]

Love this thread :D Awesome job and I appreciate you doing the work to get the funding and set this up for your students!

 

[Mr.Asbury]

Love this thread :D Awesome job and I appreciate you doing the work to get the funding and set this up for your students!

Thank you! It's been a lot of extra work, but a lot of the kids seem to really like it. I'm hoping to add more fish this weekend, however, because the clowns need some new neighbors!

 

[Mr.Asbury]

Had my first casualty today. Bought a diamond watchman goby on Thursday, and ordered a screen top. Came in this morning to feed and he was dry on the floor.

 

[Mr.Asbury]

My new goby is loving the tank. He's built about 7 burrows under every rock he can find and has done an amazing job of cleaning up my sand. The kids love him too because he's always out and about sifting through the sand, pulling snail shells around, and spitting sand at anything that he can.

 

[Sandbox]

Hello! Welcome love it so far!

I have a 180g reef tank in my classroom for use in my Environmental Science classes (Grades 11&12). This thread will follow the building, filling, and growth of the tank. I have permission from the parents of my students to post pictures on a school Twitter account which is dedicated to the reef tank, and you are more than welcome to follow it to see updates on students work alongside any experiments or labs we do using the tank (www.twitter.com/monarchs_reef). I will not be posting students' pictures nor their work here, as I did not include this site on the permission slip.

Here's a breakdown of what's in my tank:

Tank & Stand
Tank: 180g Aqueon w/ 2x corner overflows (6" x 2" x 2")
Stand: Custom 180g Stand w/ canopy & glass top from LFS

In DT:
Sand: 180lbs Fiji pink live sand
Rock: ~160lbs of what started as dry rock (ordered 180, have some left over in storage)
Circulation Pumps: 2x WAV adjustable pumps
Lights: 2x Kessil AP700


Sump Stuff:
40g Breeder Custom sump (created myself)
Skimmer: Reef Octopus 202-s Protein Skimmer (placed on a 2" Tupperware container to raise it up)
Refugium Lighting: Kessil H80 Tuna Flora LED + gooseneck mount
Return Pump: Reef Octopus Varios Controllable DC Pump
Reactor: BRS GFO & Carbon dual reactor (not yet hooked up)
Heaters: 2x 300w Heaters (controlled w/ apex)
ATO: Tunze Osmolator ATO (using a 10g tank as RODI water holder)
Macro: Chaeto in a hampster ball to keep it from clogging return (was having strays slow down pump)

Water:
RODI: BRS 5 stage 75g per day RODI
Salt: Instant Ocean reef salt (changing salts once I run out of current supply)
Test Kits: API Master Reef Kit & API Saltwater Test Kit (getting better test kits when I run out)
32g Brute Trashcan - mixing saltwater (have cheap thermometer & pump)
32g Brute Tashcan - RODI water storage (use for freshwater tank & transfer to other can to make saltwater)

Other:
Apex Controller
35 Gal tank for Quarantine

Fish (in the order they were added):
2x Ocellaris clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris)

Coral:
Xenia (Xenia sp.)
Orange/Green Zoa (Zoanthus sp.)

Inverts:
10x Nassarius Snails (Nassarius sp.)
10x Trochus Snails (Trochus sp.)
10x Dwarf Hermits (Clibanarius sp.)
10x Cerith Snails (Cerithium sp.)

Progression Pictures:​

Empty tank in the classroom:

​

Aquascape in Empty Tank:

Tank full, lights added!

First Fish!

Thanks for taking the time to look![/QUOTE

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

My new goby is loving the tank. He's built about 7 burrows under every rock he can find and has done an amazing job of cleaning up my sand. The kids love him too because he's always out and about sifting through the sand, pulling snail shells around, and spitting sand at anything that he can.

Most entertaining critter in my tank.

 

[Mr.Asbury]

Put 2 cardinals and a one spot into QT today. Hopefully they can go into the main tank here soon. We also started a lab Thursday where the kids are creating devices to try and grow some phyto. Plan on having them use that to try to grow pods. We’re currently discussing ecology, and making a food chain is a lot more fun than just reading about it!

Edit: it won’t let me add the pictures from my phone, so they’ll be on here tomorrow! I’m adding them to the (very empty) twitter page now if you want to see them now. The link is on my signature for it!