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Tasha's 3rd Grade Tank, Fed by Mr. Rogers


BustytheSnowMaam

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BustytheSnowMaam

I thought, in light of all the horrible events of this week, I needed to do something positive and do a thread about my little AGA 10 gallon in the 3rd grade classroom where my kids went to school. 

 

About me:  I am the librarian at school, and I often do the “Jack Hanna” thing and bring in different animals for the kids to see.  The 3rd grade teacher, I’ll call her Mrs. V., had been in my house and knew I had a saltwater tank, so she asked me if I would put one together for her classroom.  I am happy to do it.  Many of these kids have never been to the ocean, aren’t aware of the difference between salt and fresh water, and have never seen some of the creatures and relationships that exist there.  I think the more experiences kids have to draw from, the more connections they make as they’re reading and learning. 

 

They do feed it like Mr. Rogers.  As many times as I’ve told them to feed just a small pinch, they like to interact with the fish and dump it in there.  I’ve asked the teacher to keep the food in her desk, but somehow it always makes its way back next to the tank.  I suck it up and do extra water changes. :unsure:

 

I kept it simple, not wanting to invest a lot of money and have a kid mess it up somehow.  For corals, I just put the stuff that grows like weeds because again, I didn’t want to spend money for something that would be destroyed.  So far they’ve been great about taking care of it, so I might take chances and start upgrading things a little.  But for now:

 

Specs:

10 gal AGA

Reef Crystals salt

7 lbs Caribsea Live Sand

20 lbs live rock (I believe in the 2lbs/gal rule) from my LFS

Koralia Nano powerhead

50 watt Eheim Jaeger heater

Current USA TruLumen LED light- has a dimmer the kids like to play with.  I let them. 

Egg crate top with mesh fish-lined around the edges

 

Livestock:

Tomato Clownfish

Royal Gramma

Reticulated Brittle Star

Various hermits (blue-legged, scarlet, Hawaiian)

Green Star Polyps

Pulsing Xenia

Purple Mushrooms

Green Mushrooms

Toadstool Leather

 

Here’s a crappy FTS, taken just after I had my hands in there so everything’s a little mad.   It's also not this blue in real life, but I'm not sure how to make the picture better.  Also a pic of the bulletin board I made so the kids would become familiar with what lives in the tank.  Next week I'm going to put a tank journal next to the tank with different open-ended questions for the kids.  I'll share some of their answers here.  :)

 

 

 

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BustytheSnowMaam

My goal on Friday is to get down to Mequon after class and buy some real corals for this tank.  That's my other problem, and the reason I threw some "weeds" in at first- we don't have a saltwater fish store here in Sheboygan.  It's either 45 minutes to Mequon or 1 hour to Best Fish in Milwaukee.  

 

I'm thinking of a candy cane and maybe some acans.  

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I think that its great that you care enough to do this for the kids. :)  

 

 

 

Mr. Rogers made me want an aquarium........ and a traffic light.   :lol:

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BustytheSnowMaam

Ha- and we never questioned why he had a functioning traffic light in his house.  We just thought it was cool.  Now I'm wondering how he got it... if he stole it :lol:

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BustytheSnowMaam

Well, I never got to my not-so-local fish store on Friday as I was in school until 1 (I go to nursing school), had a vet appt for my aging greyhound, and wanted to see my son race in his cross-country meet in Green Bay.  I did sneak in to school briefly at 3, scraped the glass, added water, and fed the tank some frozen food.  The teacher and kids feed it flake, I come in a couple times a week and feed a little Rod's Food.  Which means I didn't add any new corals or anything exciting.  I did take a lovely picture of this adorable limpet family on the glass.  I'm also posting a gratuitous picture of my flame hawkfish, looking cute as he hangs out in my giant toadie in my home tank.  

 

I made it to the Feed Bag in Mequon on Saturday and I picked up a small acan frag and a candy cane frag.   I'll get in there Monday after school and install them in the school tank.  I'll post pics then.  I usually wait until after school to do any tank maintenance or additions because when I arrive I get mobbed and if the teacher is trying to teach, I'm a distraction.  

 

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9 minutes ago, tashayar said:

Well, I never got to my not-so-local fish store on Friday as I was in school until 1 (I go to nursing school), had a vet appt for my aging greyhound, and wanted to see my son race in his cross-country meet in Green Bay.  I did sneak in to school briefly at 3, scraped the glass, added water, and fed the tank some frozen food.  The teacher and kids feed it flake, I come in a couple times a week and feed a little Rod's Food.  Which means I didn't add any new corals or anything exciting.  I did take a lovely picture of this adorable limpet family on the glass.  I'm also posting a gratuitous picture of my flame hawkfish, looking cute as he hangs out in my giant toadie in my home tank.  

 

I made it to the Feed Bag in Mequon on Saturday and I picked up a small acan frag and a candy cane frag.   I'll get in there Monday after school and install them in the school tank.  I'll post pics then.  I usually wait until after school to do any tank maintenance or additions because when I arrive I get mobbed and if the teacher is trying to teach, I'm a distraction.  

 

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Baby limpets are adorable.  

 

I love Flame Hawks because they always look like they just got busted doin’ some bad stuff. :lol:

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BustytheSnowMaam
2 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

 

I love Flame Hawks because they always look like they just got busted doin’ some bad stuff. :lol:

I never thought of his expression that way, but you're right :D

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How do you like nursing school?  I'm curious because I'm going for DPT down here in South Florida and my school actually has a pretty rigorous nursing program as well and a few students I know that are in it say it's extremely difficult.

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BustytheSnowMaam

I think it's the hardest thing I've ever done.  My first year, I maintained a 4.0.  This year, it's all shot to pieces.  I was upset about it, but I let it go.  I'll probably end up with an A in pharmacology and a B in everything else this semester.  That probably all comes off as sounding like a humblebrag but I don't mean for it to be that way.  I've always been a good student who tested well and I've been brought down a few notches.  

 

It's not so much the content- if I were being tested solely on content, I'd probably have an A.  It's that they phrase all the test questions in NCLEX style so that you learn to prioritize, delegate, and assign tasks like a nurse would.  You have to not only remember facts but think critically about how to apply them. 

 

Usually if I'm on here in the evening it's because I'm doing homework and my brain is about to explode if I don't look at something different/fun.

 

How is physical therapy school?  That sounds tough too! 

14 minutes ago, Dreichler said:

How do you like nursing school?  I'm curious because I'm going for DPT down here in South Florida and my school actually has a pretty rigorous nursing program as well and a few students I know that are in it say it's extremely difficult.

 

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12 minutes ago, tashayar said:

 

 

It's not so much the content- if I were being tested solely on content, I'd probably have an A.  It's that they phrase all the test questions in NCLEX style so that you learn to prioritize, delegate, and assign tasks like a nurse would.  You have to not only remember facts but think critically about how to apply them. 

 

 

 

The head of our Health Care Professionals is very intelligent and wrote all our textbooks for our A&P 1-2 and makes all the cams for A&P and he follows this exact criteria.  He makes sure that not only do you know the content, but you can apply to content to real life situations.  He wants all the students that are serious about being in health care to be ready and educated.  DPT is extremely difficult but fun at the same time.  Our human disection lab is coming up!  Were going to be looking at how our skeletal muscles interact with our bones and joints in a real human body rather than seeing it in a textbook.  That's just one of the parts of the cadaver dissection, the rest is to really learn about gross anatomy.

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BustytheSnowMaam
21 hours ago, Dreichler said:

The head of our Health Care Professionals is very intelligent and wrote all our textbooks for our A&P 1-2 and makes all the cams for A&P and he follows this exact criteria.  He makes sure that not only do you know the content, but you can apply to content to real life situations.  He wants all the students that are serious about being in health care to be ready and educated.  DPT is extremely difficult but fun at the same time.  Our human disection lab is coming up!  Were going to be looking at how our skeletal muscles interact with our bones and joints in a real human body rather than seeing it in a textbook.  That's just one of the parts of the cadaver dissection, the rest is to really learn about gross anatomy.

That's a definite plus that your instructors are so knowledgeable- some of these people intimidate me immensely with how much they're learned and accomplished compared to me.  I'd love the opportunity to work on cadavers but apparently they had to take the cadaver lab out of our school- I guess they are required to have a certain type of ventilation system and it was too costly to upgrade it (community college :/).  

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BustytheSnowMaam

I did get in today and add 2 new corals- a candy cane and a small acan frag.  Both are easy and I think will survive benign neglect and heaving feeding :unsure:.  I was going to upload a FTS but I think I will wait for another day when they've had a chance to acclimate and extend.

 

The teacher often seats kids with special needs near the tank.  It seems to calm them down and help them focus.  

 

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2 minutes ago, tashayar said:

I got in there today and added the new corals I purchased- a candy cane frag and an acan frag.  I chose them because they're easy, can survive well-intentioned children who feed way too much,  and candy canes grow like crazy.  

 

The tomato clown in there has bonded with the HOB filter intake.  Each time I stuck my hand anywhere near that intake, he attacked me and swished me with his tail.  Don't let their bright colors and cute clownfish waggle fool you- they're vicious! 

 

Here's a FTS from today.  I think I'm going to rearrange the rock and maybe take some chunks out to give a little more open space.  It really is a pretty little tank, I just don't photograph it well.  Everything's mad because I just had my hand in the tank so not as extended.  

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No one would’ve looked for “Nemo” if they knew he was a butthole. :lol:

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3 hours ago, tashayar said:

That's a definite plus that your instructors are so knowledgeable- some of these people intimidate me immensely with how much they're learned and accomplished compared to me.  I'd love the opportunity to work on cadavers but apparently they had to take the cadaver lab out of our school- I guess they are required to have a certain type of ventilation system and it was too costly to upgrade it (community college :/).  

I think the same way about my professors a little bit, sometimes I can be intimidated as to how much they know, because it seems like they know an endless amount of pretty crucial information.  But then I think that that's how I wanna be...  To be that knoledgable in the health profession is incredibly impressive and I always think to myself that hopefully when/if I achieve that level of intelligence that hopefully I can use it to make a change or discover some sort of medical breakthrough.

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BustytheSnowMaam
21 hours ago, Dreichler said:

I think the same way about my professors a little bit, sometimes I can be intimidated as to how much they know, because it seems like they know an endless amount of pretty crucial information.  But then I think that that's how I wanna be...  To be that knoledgable in the health profession is incredibly impressive and I always think to myself that hopefully when/if I achieve that level of intelligence that hopefully I can use it to make a change or discover some sort of medical breakthrough.

That's a worthy goal.  Do you ever listen to TED podcasts?  There was one called Open Source World, and one of the speakers was a guy who invented a test for breast cancer. He made it open source instead of patenting it and making a profit- so that anyone could use it and benefit from it.  I believe it was a simple test that could be done anywhere, so people in rural areas of 3rd world countries would not have to travel far to be tested.  I would love to be part of something like that.  

 

Our class of 24 is down to 22 already, and we're only 8 weeks in.  It's tough.  I have a skills test on how to insert a Foley catheter tomorrow.  I'm practicing on a 2-liter bottle :lol:.

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BustytheSnowMaam

Hey all,

 

Took this latest FTS on Friday.  Everything is a little sleepy because the timer had switched the lights off by the time I arrived, but I think it looks nice.  Again, trying to work around the blue from the LEDs but not very successful.  I've added a candy cane frag and a small 4-polyp acan frag.

 

I had to take away the magnetic algae scraper though.  The kids would intentionally cause the inside scraper to lose contact with the outside one and float around.   Of course, in order to fix the situation, they would just HAVE to put their hands in the tank.   Y'know, cause when you're little it's fun to catch and torment a slippery fish with your bare hands.  

 

So, magnetic scraper is gone.  They'll probably put their hands in there anyways.  <_<

 

The fish, understandably, seem to make themselves scarce when a human is in front of the tank, so it's hard for me to get them in the picture, but you can see the royal gramma off to the left if you look carefully.  You can also see a starfish tentacle or two.  

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7 minutes ago, tashayar said:

Also, if anyone is interested in some extra funds to start a classroom tank, this site offers small grants http://www.petsintheclassroom.org/.  I think the max award is $120, but it would help buy some livestock or equipment.  They accept applications throughout the school year.  

That’s kind of awesome.  I had no idea.

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  • 2 months later...
BustytheSnowMaam

Some pics from Friday when I cleaned it for Christmas break.  I added a mushroom leather that I fragged from my home tank.  The candy cane is growing and dividing.  The rest of the tank is doing well.  

 

I let Joe (one of the two boys in the picture) feed the starfish a piece of fish.  As soon as he placed it in the starfish's tentacle, I showed him how the hermits were all dropping down from the rocks and heading towards the starfish in hopes of stealing the food.  He asked me, "Are they having a war?"  So I explained how it's not exactly a war, but the animals compete for food.  

 

After I cleaned, the gila monster and iguanas all admired our handiwork.  

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BustytheSnowMaam
On 12/24/2017 at 9:47 PM, hinnenkm said:

Cool to see another classroom tank on here - it looks good!

Thanks- it's fun!  I think it's not only educational but calming in a classroom.  

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  • 8 months later...
BustytheSnowMaam

A long overdue bump.  Tank was a bit neglected over the summer but everyone survived and seems to be thriving.  New class, new school year.  The royal gramma and clown made themselves scarce for the photo.  Brittle star is thriving.

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11 minutes ago, tashayar said:

A long overdue bump.  Tank was a bit neglected over the summer but everyone survived and seems to be thriving.  New class, new school year.  The royal gramma and clown made themselves scarce for the photo.  Brittle star is thriving.

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It looks good from neglect. 🙂

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