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New school tank in Hood River!


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Exciting news! Over the weekend, Tanks for Teachers set up Klahre House Alternative School in Hood River with a 40 gallon tank! Some of you might recognize the stand and canopy, as it came from a previous TFT build. ;)

Deborah, aka @scissortail, teaches marine biology there to teenage boys grades 8-12. I’ll let her tell you more about that, as she has some cool plans for educational use of the tank, and I’ll share with you some pictures I took:

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Feeling thirsty? These collapsible water bags were new to me, but they worked really well! Jim, aka @Gumby mixed up all the saltwater the day before, as well as extra gallons for the first water change once the tank is through the initial cycle. We advised covering over the leftover water with a dark tarp or similar to avoid any algae growth.

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Jim’s son came along to help with the install, and he was able to share opinions about what he enjoys in his own tank and make some livestock suggestions with teenage boys like himself in mind. 

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Ocean life textbooks were stacked in the classroom, a sure sign of interest in marine aquariums! The rock you see is just some of what went into the tank, donated by @IntoTheMystic at Hatfield Science Center. Some of it was kept in Jim’s sump for a couple of months to pick up good bacteria, so the dry rock mixed in will soon be live. 

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Jim giving instruction for the HOB skimmer, donated by @Mchums. We also added a HOB filter to the tank, an AquaClear model that allows for some customization of filter media.

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Since the school is so far out from Portland, making emergency aid nearly impossible, we decided against a sump. TFT did have on hand some very nice canister filters from @IntoTheMystic, so we left one with her and gave her instructions on keeping it clean to avoid it becoming a nitrate factory. The tank doesn’t need it this early, but it will be nice to have once there is a good amount of livestock producing waste in the tank. 

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Lights! LEDs will allow the kids to grow just about any coral they like. 

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Too cloudy to see the rocks in there, but you can giggle at the Do Not Touch sign left on from the Boys & Girls Club. We mentioned taking it off, and the teacher advised we leave it on. 😆 Teenagers!

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There is a sink in the classroom, so RO/DI setup is possible, but it’ll take another trip out to fully set it up. We didn’t know what her sink setup was like going in, so we brought what we had and ended up needing a few extra items.

More to come!

 

THANK YOU to @scissortail for your patience with the setup and your interest in teaching young minds about coral reefs! Your students are old enough that it might only be a few years before they’re setting up their own tanks and trading corals on our forum here!

Thanks to @kknight for trusting and recommending me as the new Tanks for Teachers Director and @badxgillen for making it official - I’m delighted to take on the position!

Shout outs to @albertareef and @lewisriverfisherman for storing rock and equipment till it was needed - much appreciated!

Thank you to @IntoTheMystic & @Mchums for your generous donations!

And, of course, big thanks to @Gumby and his son for doing the heavy lifting and traveling out on a Saturday to get this going. 

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Great to get another TFT setup going and it is especially exciting to have one in Hood River - one of my favorite day trip locations!  A big thank you to Jim and Cherany for spending their Saturday (and a bunch of time before that) working on this build. Sounds like the tank went to a good home - looking forward to see how it progresses. 

Also congrats to @Flashy Fins as the new TFT coordinator. Karen @kknight did a great job for the program (thank you Karen!) but it is great to see it pass into such dedicated and enthusiastic hands - I anticipate great things ahead 

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Dang. This is pretty cool. The chunk of (formerly and soon-to-be) live rock in that picture was the centerpiece in my Coral Reef exhibit. See the angular notch cut out of the front of it? That had a softball-sized green Favia, which now lives in a reef in downtown Portland very capably managed by another member in this collective.. A Favia colony, by the way, that was donated to HMSC, along with a whole bunch of other corals, live rock and a fishie or two, by @Emerald525. Funny how generosity works. What comes around, indeed.

It makes me very happy to see that chunk of rock again and know that it might captivate the eyes and imaginations of future coralheads. A Monti cap plating out and angling up the face of that cutout would be mighty sweet.

God, I miss keeping corals. Budgetary tyranny was the cause of my four coral exhibits coming down and not getting set back up after last year's VC remodel. The remodel was absolutely worth it but my coral keeping learning curve was on exhibit in those tanks and I was proud of what they looked like the last couple of years. Further on down the road, I'm planning on setting up another coral system back in my lab but there are priorities in queue to slay before that happy day.

Thanks for the mention, @Flashy Fins. I'm delighted to see that canister filter contributing to a classroom system. Good onya and to all of you who donate your time and expertise to enhancing learning in these classrooms. 🍻

/Cheers!

Edited by IntoTheMystic
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1 hour ago, IntoTheMystic said:

Dang. This is pretty cool. The chunk of (formerly and soon-to-be) live rock in that picture was the centerpiece in my Coral Reef exhibit. See the angular notch cut out of the front of it? That had a softball-sized green Favia, which now lives in a reef in downtown Portland very capably managed by another member in this collective.. A Favia colony, by the way, that was donated to HMSC, along with a whole bunch of other corals, live rock and a fishie or two, by @Emerald525. Funny how generosity works. What comes around, indeed.

It makes me very happy to see that chunk of rock again and know that it might captivate the eyes and imaginations of future coralheads. A Monti cap plating out and angling up the face of that cutout would be mighty sweet.

God, I miss keeping corals. Budgetary tyranny was the cause of my four coral exhibits coming down and not getting set back up after last year's VC remodel. The remodel was absolutely worth it but my coral keeping learning curve was on exhibit in those tanks and I was proud of what they looked like the last couple of years. Further on down the road, I'm planning on setting up another coral system back in my lab but there are priorities in queue to slay before that happy day.

Thanks for the mention, @Flashy Fins. I'm delighted to see that canister filter contributing to a classroom system. Good onya and to all of you who donate your time and expertise to enhancing learning in these classrooms. 🍻

/Cheers!

Thank you (again) Sid for the thoughtful donations.  Glad we could repurpose some of the items from your displays in a TFT tank - seems like an appropriate way to honor those systems.

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