Our mission

High School Classroom 150Gal - tank journal

First let me shoot a BIG shoutout to @Cheedo , that supplied this tank in great condition, the stand, a sump, skimmer, algae scrubber, return pump, and dry live rock all for free. The graciousness of BAR members never ceases to amaze me! P.S. @MolaMola I am up and running!
I teach Biology and Honors Chemistry at a south bay high school, and as you can tell this tank is up front right next to students in the classroom! Thanks to a generous grant from the PTA, I was able to set up the tank with a Reefbreeders Photon v2-50, AND a neptune apex ecosystem with a Trident and a DOS, which will be set up soon. I am now in need of hardy, reef safe livestock that can assist with the longer cycling process associated with dry live rock. Now that the lights are on, I have students every day, every period, asking when fish are going to arrive - I need to get these students off my back lol. If you or anyone out there is aware of anyone in the south bay (tough to get anywhere outside of that once the last bell rings) that is looking to offload small fish such as clowns, chromis, cardinals, firefish etc I would love to accept them, and they would be going to a great cause in distracting my students from learning about cellular respiration and photosynthesis haha. I am also in the market for an auto fish feeder!
Eventually, I will be moving into easy corals such as softies and low-maintenance sps such as montis, slimers etc. I have the neptune and the DOS to keep parameters stable, and am definitely excited for the 180 gallons of total water volume to support stable parameters.
A little on my background, I have a degree in Marine Science from Cal Poly SLO, and have been teaching for 8 years. I have kept saltwater for longer than that off and on, but have a journal on my home tank wherein I am slowly transitioning to a frag rack dominated by millies and acros, I enjoy the challenge that humbles me every once in a while. Thank you all for supporting education and the next generation of reefers in the bay area!
-James
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6662.jpg
    IMG_6662.jpg
    34.5 KB · Views: 166
  • IMG_6590 (1).jpg
    IMG_6590 (1).jpg
    151.3 KB · Views: 158
  • IMG_6577.jpg
    IMG_6577.jpg
    166.1 KB · Views: 146
Not trying to be a jerk, but you had a budget for all the gear but can’t buy some fish? Hope there’s a budget for maintenance
Ah fair point - as opposed to a budget, the tech for the tank was written on a grant. The way grants work is really one big order that you write the grant for and then send to the district office, which either approves or denies, then they put the order in on their schedule. Obviously it is unadvisable to have someone else order fish from a website at their leisure and not know when the boxes would show up. Turns out the above mentioned supplies arrived on Tuesday last week when the school was closed, and the boxes sat until this monday - you can see the issue there with live orders. I have been given a small maintenance budget for salt, citric acid, alk/mag supplements for the year, but was hoping that BAR had some members looking to donate to educators for classroom supplies before I start going into my pockets.
 
Right on. I’m sure you’ll find lots of coral generosity
I’ve got a pair of clowns and a damsel left I. The 7 stills tank. Assume that’s too far for you tho
 
I would the pinball machine away from the tanl, unless you are not worried about the rusting effects
 
I would the pinball machine away from the tanl, unless you are not worried about the rusting effects
Hahahaha forgot that made it in the picture. It is an old broken down pinball from a physics teacher who is currently in another room. Not to worry, great call though!
 
Wondering what the high PO4 range for fish is, I have yet to add anything to the tank but have been ghost feeding to build the bacterial load on dry live rock for 6 weeks. No sand bed, and I finally just got the DC skimmer working after a plumbing saga. My current PO4 was at 0.6, nitrates at 33. I am looking to add a small population of fish in early January (reef safe damsels, clowns etc) and obviously no corals other than some tester zoas perhaps until I can get the phosphates down. Thoughts on adding fish? Thanks!
 
Woohoo! Lucky students!
My two cents is don’t feel rushed to get fish. I started with a variety of inverts and live rock, so students got used to looking small and noticing all sorts of changes. Anything in the tank will be awesome!
 
Woohoo! Lucky students!
My two cents is don’t feel rushed to get fish. I started with a variety of inverts and live rock, so students got used to looking small and noticing all sorts of changes. Anything in the tank will be awesome!
Oh I feel rushed haha. Every dang day with these kids!
 
Quick update on this tank going into summer:
I hate our school Wifi.
The tank has been dark for a month now, (both literally and analytically) because the school decided to upgrade the wifi to 5Ghz, and from my understanding, both the Neptune Apex and the Reefbreeders wifi systems are 2.4 Ghz only. I am working through random tips, tricks, dongles and extenders as we speak, but wondering if anyone has tips for me out there.
Second, the tank has been experiencing a pretty severe green bloom in the water column, even with the lights off. I have dosed a small bottle of microbacter, which worked until I ran out, then the water column green bloom came back. The bloom first showed up after I added a whole bunch of dry live rock (what a dummy) so I believe it to be bacterial, silicate and phosphate based.
So I have a heading - buy a huge bottle of microbacter. Over the summer I am considering a strategy of:
1) huge water change
2) dose microbacter as listed
3) set up a UV sterilizer in perpetuity after microbacter treatment
So, about to head over to buy/sell/trade/PIF for a used UV sterilizer. If anyone reading this has a 40 watt UV laying around, hit me up!
 
Back
Top