If you were a student...

tangboy · Aug 1, 2013

Hello all!

Haven't posted on here in awhile because of lots of life transitions!

For those who don't know, I'm a principal/teacher of a small private school in Knoxville TN. I teach Bible, Math, and Sciences for most grades and I love what I do.

A fellow reefer in the K-town area that is upgrading to an 800g display tank is donating his 324 custom tank, stand, sump, skimmer, pump, and a few other misc pieces to my school. I plan on setting the tank up (sand, water, LR & cycled), getting 2 mp40s, 2 mp10s in the tank, then saving my pennies to purchase some LEDs. Once that is done I will move my 2 clows, YWG+Tiger Pistol shrimp, short spined urchin and few remaining hermits into the tank. My buddy will also get a few frags in the tank to start the coral colonization.

After my students have seen the process of setting up a tank, learning about the cycle, importance of refugiums, filtration, etc etc, I will start gaining input into future fish & coral specimens from my students who have shown an interest in the hobby.

So the million dollar question is: If you were my student, what fish/coral would you like to see in the classroom tank?

Reef Pets · Aug 1, 2013

Wrasse for sure, maybe some Christmas wrasse. They are colorful and add a lot of movement. Also anemones, everyone enjoys watching clown fish host in them

Dylan J. · Aug 1, 2013

starfish, Clown Fish "Nemo", Royal Blue Tang "Dory", Pulsing Xenia is always cool to watch as well as frogspawn/hammer coral, perhaps a small sting ray even?

Squishie89 · Aug 2, 2013

Something neat would be a monthly vote on what fish/corals/inverts to add. And have a suggestion box for well, suggestions. And if a suggestion gets picked, maybe give that student something? This could get the kids researching possible ideas. Maybe try and get your LFS's in on it so like, the kids can visit the store and learn about a fish they like and the store maybe helps pay for the fish (I know this is a very broad idea). I think I could go all day with ideas for this =P Depending on the age of your students, getting a hippo tang may be good since that is Dory from Finding Nemo. Oh maybe stock your library with fish books, so the kids can try and pick some out. I don't know, too many ideas.

ohio reefer · Aug 2, 2013

I'd go for something eye catching or strange. If you wanted to do a reef you could do a zebra eel (small fish safe but not invert) a dwarf lion fish, some tangs to control algae and add color. Clownfish and further down the road an anemone for them to host and you could go into their relationship. If you don't get an eel you could also do a goby shrimp pair for more education on symbiosis relationships. A cleaner wrasse or two to show how they help clean the other fish, and maybe a flame angel to add some more color. These are what my friends mainly focus on when they see my tanks. Coming from a 15 year old who also attends a private school. Good luck with the build!

tangboy · Aug 3, 2013

The purpose of the tank is reef and coral propagation education.

So anything none-reef safe is out but that makes for some good research!

tangboy · Aug 21, 2013

I'm getting ready to start thinking about putting my aquascape together. I don't have many "stand alone" pieces but mostly medium to smaller chunks of LR. I was going to make some towers with ledges and possible an arch connecting two of the towers. Has anyone had positive success (longer then 6 months) with the fiberglass driveway markers? Input would help!

SeahorseKeeper · Aug 21, 2013

This is awesome!! Great to see kids learning about the hobby!! I would suggest having some species that demonstrate symbiotic relationships such as clownfish and anemones and shrimp gobies and shrimp.