So Doug very generously donated his contest-winning-build to our school so that kids can learn how to properly care for and maintain a reef tank (after Covid, of course). I realized I never posted the build up on here.
It’s a lovely 60g cube that is sitting in the corner of my math classroom here at Aurora Quest. Students love walking up to the tank and examining the different corals and fish. The hat-wearing urchin is a particular favorite. The fish have slowly gotten used to more activity around them, and no longer run and hide immediately when kids come up to look. It’s been such a great conversation starter in the classroom. Please ignore the messy classroom in the photo background - math learning happens here.
Fish in the tank include a pair of yellow tail damsels who are laying eggs, a pair of banghai cardinals who I believe have also carried eggs, three threadfin cardinal fish, and a cute little scopas tang.
Corals are a nice mix of things that came with the tank from Doug, along with other donations we’ve received. The other reef tanks in the building contain angels and other not-reef-safe fish, so this tank receives the nicest corals and zoas. There are several large digi, tort, stylo, and birdsnest colonies. There’s also a giant hammer colony, along with bunches of pretty zoas that the kids really enjoy. Of course the urchin is constantly rearranging anything that hasn’t yet encrusted.
For filtration, there’s a big skimmer in the sump, along with a handful of bio balls. No fuge as the tank doesn’t seem to need it. Dosing is handled by a calcium reactor that clearly has a slow leak, but is pretty far down on the priority list. The leak is slow enough that there’s never really water, but still plenty of salt creep. Flow is an old tunze 7095.
For lighting, there’s a nice halide which comes on for 7ish hours a day. And Mike added a little reef brite strip of leds for a pop of blue. The leds come on for an hour before the halide, and stay on for about an hour after.
It’s been a great addition to the classroom, and I’m really excited to let kids start handling the maintenance on this thing after the Covid protocols are relaxed. Very stable and clean system.
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It’s a lovely 60g cube that is sitting in the corner of my math classroom here at Aurora Quest. Students love walking up to the tank and examining the different corals and fish. The hat-wearing urchin is a particular favorite. The fish have slowly gotten used to more activity around them, and no longer run and hide immediately when kids come up to look. It’s been such a great conversation starter in the classroom. Please ignore the messy classroom in the photo background - math learning happens here.
Fish in the tank include a pair of yellow tail damsels who are laying eggs, a pair of banghai cardinals who I believe have also carried eggs, three threadfin cardinal fish, and a cute little scopas tang.
Corals are a nice mix of things that came with the tank from Doug, along with other donations we’ve received. The other reef tanks in the building contain angels and other not-reef-safe fish, so this tank receives the nicest corals and zoas. There are several large digi, tort, stylo, and birdsnest colonies. There’s also a giant hammer colony, along with bunches of pretty zoas that the kids really enjoy. Of course the urchin is constantly rearranging anything that hasn’t yet encrusted.
For filtration, there’s a big skimmer in the sump, along with a handful of bio balls. No fuge as the tank doesn’t seem to need it. Dosing is handled by a calcium reactor that clearly has a slow leak, but is pretty far down on the priority list. The leak is slow enough that there’s never really water, but still plenty of salt creep. Flow is an old tunze 7095.
For lighting, there’s a nice halide which comes on for 7ish hours a day. And Mike added a little reef brite strip of leds for a pop of blue. The leds come on for an hour before the halide, and stay on for about an hour after.
It’s been a great addition to the classroom, and I’m really excited to let kids start handling the maintenance on this thing after the Covid protocols are relaxed. Very stable and clean system.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
