My Students 10g Nano

[BfishLpond78]

I would say a nice cleaner shrimp...skunk or fire would add some great color and be very interesting to the kids, especially if he sets up a cleaning station.

sent from never never land...

 

[johnstonstms3]

my kids love our sea cucumber. It will also clean your sand bed for you while it is roaming around.....

 

[jedimasterben]

I would do your standard cleaner shrimp. I would get a small CUC from Reefcleaners - a few nassarius snails, a couple of nerite snails, a dozen dwarf ceriths, and a few FL ceriths.

I would suggest making this a macroalgae tank and not a 'reef' tank. If you cannot have access to it during breaks, I would not put many (if any) corals in it.

If you are ok with a macroalgae tank, I have several display varieties I can donate to your class. I'll also send you a ball of chaeto to seed your tank with copepods and microfauna, and a piece of porous rock to replace that solid brick you've got in there on the left.

 

[Isoprene]

I'll see what they think during 6th period today. That would be pretty cool, id need some guidance along with the donations, I have never done one like that

 

[jedimasterben]

It's easy. Light + nutrients + flow = macroalgae growth.

I can actually send you some of those snails, too. I've got quite a few of all of those except for nerites and FL ceriths, but I can easily get more of those from the beach and Reefcleaners.


EDIT: You can also do gorgonians, as well. There are lots from the Caribbean that are photosynthetic (and beautiful). Check out Sealife, Inc.'s website.

 

[Isoprene]

Awesome, PM me and we can work out some details. I havent thought about this at all and it sounds perfect for what I want to do. I think the kids will definatley be on board too !

 

[jedimasterben]

Awesome, PM me and we can work out some details. I havent thought about this at all and it sounds perfect for what I want to do. I think the kids will definatley be on board too !

Sure thing. Having a Florida biotope would be pretty awesome. Maybe get rid of the clownfish and stock with a pair of pearly jawfish and maybe a couple of chalk bass and then have macros, gorgonians, and some zoas and ricordeas. All of the stuff is very hardy, very pretty, and all local.

 

[occ_motorcycles]

Could also give homework and have the students think about a few ideas (that you pick ) and see which ones they think would be best. Make them think about why and the pros and cons of each. ( if that's third grade level)

 

[occ_motorcycles]

I am going to start a thread to document a 10 gallon nano my high school AP chemistry students have started, I will have them take photos and ill post them on here. They are all taking mid terms this week. Its the only reason I had time to post so much these past few days and also make this thread

So far the kids have taken a 1000ml Erlynmeyer flask and labeled it the "Fish Fund". Anyone can donate money at anytime in all 6 of my chemistry classes.

However my AP (my only Advanced Placement class) took a different approach haha. I only have 14 students (small for a city school) in this class. They call it the "Jerk Jar" anytime someone makes a mean comment or joke they get a tally mark on my white board, each tally is 25 cents. It works well

So far I have provided:

The tank 10 gallon rimmed
A 10 gallon Deep Blue Heater
A thermometer
Black Carbisea Sand
1 Piece of old dry rock
A small all white led (used for one of those AIO freshwater nanos, not good enough to grow anything or even light the whole tank)
Koralia mini power head

So far the kids have raised enough money to buy:

1 piece of coralline covered live rock from a LFS about 3 lbs
A fluval 20 gallon HOB filter
Fish food (flake)
1 tank raised clown fish (hes at my house at the moment being quarentined and waiting for our tank to cycle.)

so far we still need:

A better light (if anyone has any good suggestions on a cheap light to light this thing let me know!) I was thinking of building a DIY small LED fixtures with my students as a lab one day, I need to make sure I can build one at home first!

More live rock

Bigger Tank!

Test Kits, I want them to understand the chemistry behind these and how it relates to salt water (solutions, acid/base chemistry..ect) I am using my own kits at the moment to test the cycling process of the tank.

Poly filter (to cut up and throw in the HOB)

Frozen mysis

Eventually some easier to keep corals. They are really getting into corals after I had shown them some R2R members tanks so they want a larger tank with lights and the whole deal. I explained the financial difficulties in this haha so that's being put on hold for the moment.

What I would like to eventually do is get some electronic testing equipment to do testing with the tank. I would also like to get a refractometer and get them involved in doing daily parameter test...ect you get the point. I would also like to teach them about error with the testing equipment, calibration, precision accuracy those types of things. I have found as a teacher tying these things in with real life applications makes the concepts and content stick in their minds MUCH better. It also much more fun than book work I tend to be a little different in my methods than some teachers you could say.

I have permission from administration to construct any size tank I want at school however with that comes some difficulties, mainly financial difficulties haha. Also it would be hard to maintain a tank over holidays, breaks and summer time. The school is all locked up with security systems and such. This is my second year here at Leon High School so hopefully once I am more settled I can get that worked out.

I will post a bunch of pictures here in the next few hours, once they finish the midterm we are going to take some.

I was thinking about your light situation.

A cheap DIY led build can come from aqua style online.com they were the providers of my first LEDs and the quality was not bad for my 15 gallon tank.

My suggestion is to get an actinic supplement kit (8-12 LEDs) and ask them to change out half the blues for cool white. It would then be perfect to grow almost anything. I had success with my light growing Lps mainly so would do fine for the things the children could afford.

I hope this helps you.

 

[jedimasterben]

I was thinking about your light situation.

A cheap DIY led build can come from aqua style online.com they were the providers of my first LEDs and the quality was not bad for my 15 gallon tank.

My suggestion is to get an actinic supplement kit (8-12 LEDs) and ask them to change out half the blues for cool white. It would then be perfect to grow almost anything. I had success with my light growing Lps mainly so would do fine for the things the children could afford.

I hope this helps you.

While it's a good value, I would never, ever, ever suggest someone use cool white LEDs.

OP, if you'd like a DIY LED array, we can talk about that as well. I'd be more than happy to put together an array for you. I don't have any spare LEDs that are mine, unfortunately, or you could have some of those too.

 

[occ_motorcycles]

While it's a good value, I would never, ever, ever suggest someone use cool white LEDs.

OP, if you'd like a DIY LED array, we can talk about that as well. I'd be more than happy to put together an array for you. I don't have any spare LEDs that are mine, unfortunately, or you could have some of those too.

Please give more detail as to why not to use cool whites.

 

[jedimasterben]

Lack of spectral output, especially in the knockoff cool whites that Aquastyle sells, which are some of the worst LEDs I've ever had the displeasure to see.

Even Cree and Luxeon cool whites need to be avoided. Only neutral white and warm white need to be used.

 

[occ_motorcycles]

Lack of spectral output, especially in the knockoff cool whites that Aquastyle sells, which are some of the worst LEDs I've ever had the displeasure to see.

The cool whites are only meant to be 10000k temp not a full spectrum led. That's why you add in the blues to give other wavelengths.

I can be a man and admit they are cheap and may not have good par ratings but for a ten gallon tank you don't need LEDs with a high par rating because your only lighting a 12 inch deep tank.

Lets talk over pm Jedi

 

[Isoprene]

While it's a good value, I would never, ever, ever suggest someone use cool white LEDs.

OP, if you'd like a DIY LED array, we can talk about that as well. I'd be more than happy to put together an array for you. I don't have any spare LEDs that are mine, unfortunately, or you could have some of those too.

This would be awesome. Idk what we can afford for LED's at the moment, i'll talk with my kids. But I think thats something we will look to do, they will be real excited to here some ideas today in class.

 

[jedimasterben]

The cool whites are only meant to be 10000k temp not a full spectrum led. That's why you add in the blues to give other wavelengths.

I can be a man and admit they are cheap and may not have good par ratings but for a ten gallon tank you don't need LEDs with a high par rating because your only lighting a 12 inch deep tank.

Lets talk over pm Jedi

They are most certainly not 10,000K. 10,000K doesn't actually describe anything, anyways. Color temperature does not matter, spectrum does, color temperature is an old approximation based on what the light 'looks' like when shining down on a white piece of paper. Heck, even PAR doesn't matter a whole lot if the spectrum isn't there. I can make a light that puts out 500 micromol of PAR, using only true green (530nm) LEDs, and it absolutely will not grow coral. And it would be butt ugly to look at LOL! And conversely, I can make a PAR monster using four LEDs - hyper violet (430nm), royal blue (445nm), cool blue (470nm), and deep red (660nm). It would probably be pretty ugly, too, to be honest lol

 

[jedimasterben]

This would be awesome. Idk what we can afford for LED's at the moment, i'll talk with my kids. But I think thats something we will look to do, they will be real excited to here some ideas today in class.

I'll see what I can come up with as far as an array goes, something that won't be too horrible to look at, but will also give good light with excellent color rendition (which is very important and what makes our corals look colorful). And to not break the bank

 

[Isoprene]

I'll see what I can come up with as far as an array goes, something that won't be too horrible to look at, but will also give good light with excellent color rendition (which is very important and what makes our corals look colorful). And to not break the bank

Awesome! thanks!

 

[Isoprene]

ALL my snails / conch died after 1 day of introduction! I introduced the snails on 1/4/2013 and then the small clown fish on 1/7/13. The snails curled up into their shells and stayed that way until death sometime over the weekend. I will list my water test results.

12/19/12
Nh3 - 0.50 ppm
pH - 8.4
NO3 - 5.0ppm
salinity - 1.025

1/4/13
Nh3 - 0.00 ppm
pH - 8.8
NO3 - 10.0ppm
salinity - 1.025

1/7/13
Nh3 - 0.00 ppm
pH - 8.8
NO3 - 7.0ppm
salinity - 1.025

1/9/13
Nh3 - 0.00 ppm
pH - 8.5
NO3 - 11.0ppm
salinity - 1.025

1/9/13 (3 gallon W.C.)
Nh3 - 0.00 ppm
pH - 8.0
NO3 - 4.0ppm
salinity - 1.025

1/14/13
Nh3 - 0.00 ppm
pH - 8.8
NO3 - 5.0ppm
salinity - 1.025

 

[jedimasterben]

What temperature does the tank stay at?

 

[bairdimusprime]

sorry to hear about the snails. this project is great. i had an oceanography class in high school which we started FOWLER tanks up in. it sparked my interest and now 13 years later im still doing it, wonderful inspiration to the kids