Nichole Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Hi, I'm Nichole from Salem. I have had freshwater aquariums for 25 years, grew up with fresh and salt tanks. I am now ready to take the plunge and start a reef teaching tank for my Marine Biology class (I teach at North Salem High School). Hoping to learn everything I need to know and pick the brains of the experts! I also spend way too much time at Premium Aquarium, pestering Garrett and Chris lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 The TPA and Garret are a good source of knowledge,soak it up. Welcome to the club as well,great place to be when in the marine hobby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Welcome to the Club. Not sure what direction your going with the reef tank for the school, but Stu Wobbe is speaking at our club meeting next week about Cold Water tanks and some of the animals found right off of the Oregon Coast. It's Next Sunday. It might be fun to teach the kids about what is actually off of our shores and not just the coast of Fiji. I'd love to hear more about the curriculum you are planning, and what level you want to take it to. I might be able to give you some help, or advice on where to look, etc, etc. There are so many directions to go from the natural Ecosystem methods to the more high tech methods, to the proper and improper way to mix them. Personally I think for a class it would be good to break it down to the symbiont level if it is a High School class. There are some great articles on Symbiosis by Todd LaJeunesse out of Penn State. He might help you with some curriculum stuff to if you are interested. He specializes in not just corals, but the smallest workings of corals and how they have evolved over the last millions of years. If you want to get in to the Ecosystem Genre, Julian Sprung and Leng Sy are great people to read about. Leng actually grows substrate in a laboratory designed specifically to filter tanks by developing a complete ecosystem down to the bacteria film. Julian Sprung was one of the first to do this as well. Walter Abby is another good name to read on the ecosystem method as he pioneered a refugium and specific alages to propagate to clean the tank. I'm kind of a fish nerd.... I'm cool with it. Serious if you need help, please let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nichole Posted October 12, 2014 Author Share Posted October 12, 2014 That all sounds great! Since it is an elective class, I get to basically decide to teach whatever I want. I eventually want to set up 2 tanks, a tropical and cold reef so kids can compare them. I want them to know local species as well as others. I am planning to go to the Oct. Talk. Sounds interesting! I think in the beginning the tank will be for observations and as a chance to see so, even of what we are talking about in person. As time goes on and the tank is stocked I'd like to expand its use. It would be great to have a cube system eventually to allow individualized projects. First semester is all inverts, so I want as many examples as possible for them to see. It would be great to have lots of little critters for dissecting scope lessons. Love symbiosis. Will definitely check out Todd L. Thnx! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nichole Posted October 12, 2014 Author Share Posted October 12, 2014 Oh, I'm a fish nerd, too! Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePremiumAquarium Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Nichole, You should write up a short blurp about your Lung Fish and post it here. I think people would get a kick out of it! Welcome to the site! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Ooh! A LungFish!!! That's a pretty obscure fish to have in an aquarium. I'd love to hear about that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Welcome to the forum. There are lots of reefers who are happy to help you out. I wish I had a saltwater tank in my classroom when I was kid. It's great that you are taking the saltwater plunge. You are in great hands with Garrett! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjabeaver Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Its nice to see more teachers starting tanks around here....its a class I definitely would have been interested in. Welcome to the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nichole Posted October 14, 2014 Author Share Posted October 14, 2014 Thanks for the welcome. Super excited to be on a forum with "fish geeks". My bf doesn't always understand my fish obsession I could write about my lungfish if people are interested. He is freshwater, though. Is that ok? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Thanks for the welcome. Super excited to be on a forum with "fish geeks". My bf doesn't always understand my fish obsession I could write about my lungfish if people are interested. He is freshwater' date=' though. Is that ok? [/quote'] Yeah my coworkers do not get this whole fish forum thing! Would love to hear about the lungfish and of course it's okay to share about your lungfish! Freshwater or not! He sounds pretty cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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