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scissortail

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Everything posted by scissortail

  1. Hi Forum! It has been a long time since we have made a post about our tank; we have had a lengthy recovery process from the neglect the tank suffered during covid lockdown. I am happy to report that things are looking much brighter now after a whole bunch of TLC. Our sinularia coral survived and is flourishing, actually. We have 4 fish- two clowns, a pajama cardinal, and a temporary baby tomini tang to help with algae. Tons of inverts make up our robust clean-up crew: emerald crabs, snails, shrimp, etc. We made a neat diy chaeto reactor, which is chugging along (after a few mishaps- don't ask- let's just say I have been mopping up a lot of water). We still have some caulerpa racemosa in the tank, but so much less than there used to be. I also noticed a few of the emerald crabs eating bits of it, so that is exciting. Now that things have regulated a bit in the tank I'm feeling like we are ready to re-introduce some more corals again. It's been amazing teaching marine biology with a hands-on living lab in the classroom, the students LOVE the tank. We're currently studying mollusks and nothing beats learning about a gastropod's radula by watching firsthand as a snail scrapes the glass. The kids retains so much more when the information is relevant to them, and the tank makes it very relevant! A HUGE shoutout to Jeff and the crew @CuttleFishandCoral for hooking us up with livestock and supplies and helping us problem solve along the way. And to all the PNWMAS club members for making Tanks for Teachers a success! We appreciate you! -Deborah @ The Klahre House School (in Hood River)
  2. Thank you for all of your replies! We are going to bring these ideas to our facilities people and see if they'd like to give the dehumidifier and exhaust fan a try. I will keep you all posted!
  3. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the problem because it is happening inside the heat pump unit. It was discovered by the HVAC technicians when they had the whole thing taken apart. I have attached a picture of the setup in the room. The tank is pretty close to the unit so one suggestion was to move the tank to the other side of the room, which we could do, however our facilities team would like something further to ensure that once the unit gets replaced this won't happen again.
  4. Hi! This is the 40 gallon tank out in Hood River with the black wooden canopy over the top.
  5. Hi Everyone, I am one of the teachers who hosts a tank in their classroom through the awesome Tanks for Teachers program. During some regular maintenance of the mini split/heat pump in our classroom corrosion was discovered inside the unit from saltwater precipitation, which means it will need to be replaced. Our facilities folks have looked into getting us a vent hood above the tank, but that would cost around $5,000(!). Unfortunately, we either have the find some other solution or remove the tank ☹️. Has anyone here had a similar problem with salt precipitate? I am looking for other alternatives before we make the tough decision to break everything down. Any advice would be helpful! Thank you! Deborah Maddux, Klahre House Alternative School
  6. I'm looking for a cheap heater to use for mixing saltwater in a 5 gallon bucket for our classroom tank. If anyone has one to sell and is going to the Cinco de Mayo party, I'll be there!
  7. Thank you all for your generous offers! I am going to try to make it out to some of the events here soon, it will be great to hopefully meet some of you in person!
  8. Thank you @Emerald525! We appreciate it a ton! I'm so glad that we can keep the spirit of the tank alive!
  9. Hi guys! Things are really coming along in the classroom tank! Massive thanks to @Flashy Fins and @Gumby for coming out this weekend to help set up the RODI and bring us some super cool corals! The boys also chose some fish this week and I made a trip into the big city to get them- here is a pic of the crew: So far, so good, all the inhabitants seem to be getting along. The firefish is afraid of the current from the powerheads and only comes out when they are turned off, but the clowns have been very sociable. We also got a cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp, and the boys made quick work of naming everyone. They are super stoked about the tank, and will sit in front of it for great lengths of time "tank gazing" and arguing over who gets to feed the fish. As soon as I get more confident with the tank's maintenance, the real lessons will begin and the guys will learn about the tank ecosystem and take over its maintenance. So many thanks to all the club members who have supported Tanks for Teachers in one way or another, your generosity is inspiring the reefers of the future!
  10. Thank you all for the advice! We looked up ball anemones and I think that is a good match! Definitely looks like the little guy in our tank. It hasn't really grown at all but I will keep an eye on it for now. We're also keeping an eye on the sponge substance, and will take a sample to put under the microscope when we have a little extra time. There are several tiny aiptasia, but it doesn't seem to be too much of a problem right now and I think the addition of peppermint shrimp when the tank is ready will be a good remedy. We do have all the test kits we need, and feel pretty confident about getting accurate results with the Salifert ones, so that is good. Since our tank is just snails and shrimps right now, there isn't much using calcium and alkalinity- I think we will wait on the kalkwasser and see if another water change later this week will help bring the ph/kh in line. Thanks again for all the input, more updates to come later! 😁
  11. Howdy everyone! I made it into Seahorse today, the folks in there are awesome and super helpful. I brought a sample of my tank water in and we tested it, the ammonia is indeed at zero, and so are nitrites and nitrates. Hooray! I do have some other issues however, like the pH (7.6) and alkalinity (5.4) being too low. They recommended adding kalkwasser, so I picked up some of that and mixed it up, but when we read the directions we realized that we need to have some sort of slow drip system to add it to the tank. So that's our next project, making a homemade drip system and hopefully getting the ph/kh on track. I also picked up some snails and crabs, which are making themselves at home, and we did our first 5 gallon water change. Hopefully that will help combat the algae, we ripped a bunch of the green hair out but not all, and there is also some turf algae and bubble algae around as well. All part of the process! Here are some pics highlighting some of the weird things we've spotted on the live rock: is this some sort of anemone? Weird squishy white stuff- a sponge? The dreaded aiptasia? some of our leafy green algae under the scope. That's all for now! Thanks for reading, guys!
  12. Ahhh! Thank you! I would have been super bummed!
  13. Oh good to know about Seahorse, maybe I'll try Cuttlefish and Corals. I have been testing alkalinity but it's really hard to match the color on the test strips- in any case, I can definitely say it has been lower than it should be- it's been around 40-80 ppm. I'll bring in a water sample to the store to get a good read on things, and maybe pick up some of the dropper type test kits so things are a little easier to read. Thanks for the advice!
  14. Hey guys! Would Woody's Seahorse be able to test a water sample for me? I'm thinking about making a trip into Portland on Monday since we don't have school. I pulled off a bunch of hair algae, but it is still plentiful- do you think it's time to add some clean up crew? Nitrates and nitrites were zero today, ammonia was at approximately 1ppm (as best I could tell from the color strips). Ph and alkalinity are still kinda wonky and low, not sure if I even need to be testing those right now without any livestock in there. @Gumby- Quick question for you- I have been keeping the filled saltwater bags under black plastic to block the light, but it looks like some fine algae growth is happening inside the bags. Will this impact my water quality in a bad way, or should I just not worry about it? @SuncrestReef- thanks for the tip on the smartphone adapter- I got it and it's awesome! Here are some pics of the green hair algae (derbesia genus I think...) and a little bitty nematode. Love that we can see the green chloroplasts inside. Super cool! @Flashy Fins- I am around the next few weekends if you guys want to make the trek out- just let me know what works for you! Thank you SOOOO much for your help!
  15. That is so awesome! What do you use to take your pics? I am just trying to hold a cell phone up to the viewfinder and it's really difficult.
  16. Oooh I have always loved all the shapes of diatom skeletons- didn't even think to look at some of them under the scope! They're pretty much gone now but I will see if I can find any hanging on...
  17. Hi guys! I just wanted to update everyone on the status of our classroom tank! We are passed the brown diatom phase and have entered the green hair algae phase: Ammonia has been staying consistently 3 ppm, nitrites 0, and nitrates between 10-20. The pH has been low- 7.4- I am wondering if I need to add pH/alkalinity buffer to my distilled water during top offs? I have been topping off with either distilled or salt water depending on where the specific gravity is in order to try to keep it consistently around 1.025. An exciting discovery in the tank this week are little copepods crawling around on the glass! I suctioned one out and put it under the microscope and snapped some pics- the students and I were super amazed! Here is a pic of a female harpacticoid copepod with an egg sac attached (I think): The little red blob at the head is her eye- she has a compound eye with 3 ocelli (subunits), which we thought was pretty cool because we also do beekeeping and honeybees have compound eyes as well, and duh, they are both arthropods! We think the elongated brownish blob at the back is a fecal pellet, probably full of phytoplankton. Here is a closeup of the eye with 3 ocelli: And look at how amazing and beautiful the details on the side of her body are: Anyway, so the copepods are very cool and hopefully a good sign that things are cycling in there! Thank you for all the responses to my last post! Suggestions and advice are always appreciated, especially because I am a newbie ☺️
  18. Hey everyone! My name is Deborah and I am the science teacher at the Klahre House! I wanted to introduce myself, share some pics of the new tank, and ask some questions, so.... here she is: We got all the rock in and placed and are happy with the layout- also updated the "do not touch" sign for those teenage boys- haha. There are some tiny feather duster worms who hitchhiked in on Jim's live rock that the students are really excited about- they have been searching every inch of the rock for any additional life hanging about. It's so amazing how the tiniest thing like a minuscule feather duster worm could captivate them- I can't wait until we have corals! Things seem to be going pretty well, the ammonia level is sitting at about 3ppm and so we are patiently waiting for the bacteria to do its thing. Some brown algae has started to grow, which I know is to be expected. I got some tubing to fit the canister filter, I just need to pick up some aquarium suction cups to attach the hoses to the back of the glass and I will fire that thing up and see how it goes! A few questions I have: The water temperature is a bit warm- around 80.5 degrees- should I adjust the heater a bit to get it closer to 77? How much water evaporates off your tank each day? To get to my water level marking on the tank, I have been adding a gallon of distilled water a day. As soon as the RODI is working, I will use that. Do you all usually just keep a big bucket of RODI water on hand for daily top offs? Despite adding a gallon of fresh water each day, the specific gravity is lower than 1.025, it is around 1.022. Should I top off with salt water to try to get the numbers a bit higher? One quick question for @Gumby- when you were here on Saturday the air intake control valve for the protein skimmer was twisting fine. I went to fiddle around with it, and when I try to twist the value, it won't budge. Could it be jammed with salt or something and that is why it is stuck closed? That's it for now on the questions, but I know there will be more! 😁 Thank you so much to everyone who has put in their time and effort to make this tank a reality for our class! Thanks to @Flashy Fins and @Gumby for prepping things and coming out to set us up on Saturday, and to all the behind-the-scenes volunteers who have helped put this tank together. My students will not only benefit from the educational side of the aquarium- but also it will be very therapeutic and relaxing as well because most of them have experienced significant abuse and trauma in their lives. Tanks for Teachers is an amazing program- thank you all for contributing!
  19. No worries! We don't have space for a tank that size anyway. Thanks!
  20. Great! I have been watching this forum for years, and am super excited to finally make this happen. Just keep me posted on any updates- thank you so much!
  21. Awesome! 40 gallons would be great. Our school is very hands on and experiential education works best for our kids, so maintaining the tank and posting on the forums would be a big component of our marine biology class.
  22. Hello! I am a high school science teacher at a very small alternative school in Hood River for teenage boys in foster care. I am working to create a marine biology class and my students (and myself) are very interested in starting a reef tank. Our school is year-round, so I think it would be a good fit for us because we don't have the problem of maintenance over summer break. I have a little bit of experience with saltwater tanks because I had one about ten years ago, but, full disclosure, I was foolish and insisted on it being a 12 gallon nano reef that promptly crashed and was impossible for a newbie like me to save. Being older and wiser, I am ready to do it right and start with a bigger tank- somewhere in the 55-60 gallon range. I have a good understanding of some of the basic marine science, i.e. water chemistry and nutrient cycling, but I am really overwhelmed as far as equipment goes. I have read the "Tanks in Classrooms" article about Stratton Elementary and am trying to create a straightforward build that is conducive to teaching. Does anyone have any advice about specific equipment that would work for my situation or how to get started? Thank you for your help!
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