New Teacher/Classroom Tank!

Hello! My name is Ryan and I teach general and AP Environmental Science in West Des Moines. We have had a reef tank set-up for over a year now and we use it for research and observation in the classes. We also have brine shrimp culture that we keep going for food and other experiments. Our classroom tank is a 40 gallon breeder with 30lbs live rock and an eshops skimmer. There is also a biowheel for extra water flow and to help make up for our lack of live rock. The lighting is a 4 ft 4 lamp t5 fixture hanging from the ceiling with 1 actinic and 3 full spectrum. We have 1 resident percula clown, 1 large anthelia colony, and 3 small pulsating xenia colonies. The clean-up crew is 2 emerald crabs, 2 blue-legged hermit crabs, 2 peppermint shrimp, and 4 turbo snails. The kids really enjoy the tank and many of them come in early just to check it out and it has inspired a few to start up the reefer hobby! Most of what we have was either donated from past students or purchased using grant money.


I hope to network and perhaps get some experiment ideas from this group!

 

No, I teach at Dowling, I'll try to get some pictures posted soon. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif

 

Here is a link to a live stream of the tank. It will be on all weekend. Its a practice run for a nocturnal observation lab I will have my students do - this way they can see all the cool crabs and shrimp that normall hide during the day (hopefully!). This might fail big time, so if you happen to check it out leave me some feedback so I can trouble shoot before I assign it as homework. The day of the real assignment I will bait the tank in front the camera in hopes of getting more action. Last time I tried this the computer shut down on me!


http://ustre.am/14zNv

 

It is a little cloudy right now, a few weeks ago I had a powerhead come loose and stir up a bunch of sand and then I had a phytobloom that is *slowly* going away... I also just checked it and it is pitch black since the timer went off so I'm going going to try to rig up DIY LED moonlight out of some old blue LED christmas lights. Hopefully it will be enough to allow for some night-time viewing!/DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif The lights should come back on at 8am.