inherited big tank- need edu. ideas for kids

[BustytheSnowMaam]

I forgot all about Drs Foster and Smith. I'll have to write and see if they'll help. That's a great suggestion. And thanks Dave for the salt offer.

 

I'm not much worried about people who think they know better undermining me- so far no one seems to know anything except me, which is scary considering how little I know.

 

I'm thinking of keeping zoo's and hardy soft corals- what kind of lights would work for that? I'm thinking 5 w per gallon, but taking depth into consideration, any suggestions?

 

Thanks again,

Tasha

[Dave ESPI]

Go 2 Icecap 660s and 4 x 6 ft VHO. Best bang fer buck.

[FlyGTI]

In terms of lighting, if you're planning on keeping really easy soft corals, you might be able to get away with regular output flourescents if you place the corals near the top of the tank. I had a roommate who was able to keep a gorgeous open brain (which I have now inherited), green star polyps, a lot of mushrooms, a big bubble coral, and for a little while, a gorgonian in a 55 gal with 3 40w regular output flourescents. It's something to consider, at least.

 

If you were up for a trip to Des Moines, I'd gladly donate some shrooms, frogspawn, and some green stars to the cause, being a teacher myself. I would also say that you could probably fairly easily find a shop that might underwrite the renovation of the tank if you sell the idea the right way. An LFS near Korbin (Preuss' Animal House) has underwritten a 75 gal. reef in Williamston, MI for the middle school there, and from what I understand, the reef club there is doing very well.

 

Also, as an addendum to Dave's post, I used to service some tanks too when I worked for a store in Midland, MI. We had this charity tank that my boss had set up in his church in Mt. Pleasant, and we had to lock that tank up every time we maintained it, or some well meaning idiot would add something that would hurt the tank or do something else that would endanger the animals. It ended up that there was only one person who we would trust at the church, and he had the only other key and was in charge of adding proper chemicals. Moral of the story? After the tank has been established, everyone will think that they are being "helpful" by contributing their efforts to keep it nice. They don't realize that they're not only endangering the animals, they're making your job harder. Bear this in mind.

 

If there's anything else I can help you with, contact me privately and I'll be glad to help you with whatever I can.

[SteveC]

Just out of curiosity, how do you lock a tank? I don't think I'll ever have to lock one, but I'd like to know how it's done. Who knows, it may come in handy some day...

[Xavier]

Let the corals grow around laptop theft prevention cables.. heh heh... j/k

[FlyGTI]

We secured ours with a fairly ordinary lockset like the type you might find on a filing cabinet. One for the fliptop canopy, one for each of the doors on the stand below. I suppose that if someone had really wanted to sabotage the tank, they could have pulled the canopy off, but being that the tank was six feet long, it was almost too bulky to do alone. My boss didn't build any quick disconnect style wiring into the light fixtures (don't know that there's much of anything like that available), so anyone who tried to pull the canopy off would end up with a fair bit of wiring to deal with.

[UofAHog]

I second Dave's suggestion for lights. On a tank that depth you are gonna need some power. If I was cash tight I would go with 2 Icecap 660s and the 4 x 6 foot URI bulbs. Unless you can get a discount through some of the begging you will be doing, I have found that the cheapest 660's can be had used on RC. If you have a little more cash to push or you can get a good discount then start with 3 x 250w MH and see what you can add to that.

 

What other equipment is on the tank like skimmer, sump, anything? I might have missed it, but did you ever mention if there are any balasts with the tank? Or is there really nothing in the way of lights.

 

You need to test the water first of all to see if anything is wrong. If there isn't anything wrong with the water then why worry about changes just yet. Most large tanks like this don't get the weekly waterchanges. They tend to be plenty stable at this size.

 

I haven't seen this over at RC so you might consider posting something up there. Those folks are all about big reefs. Just make sure to explain what this is in the way of funding and experienced help.

 

Also before you do anything (well maybe after the water testing) start looking at this from a financial standpoint. This will take money. If it isn't gonna be possible then consider applying the grant in another way that will help the children. I don't want to sound like the bad guy but a poor tank really won't be a good learning tool.

[BustytheSnowMaam]

FlyGTI-

 

I used to live in Tama/Toledo, so we might be up to a WDM trip if we're out that way for a visit. Thanks for the offer. Also Dave I made note of the lighting suggestion.

 

I did buy some seaweed, Selcon, and a feeder clip for the tang and if the museum is open tomorrow I might sneak in there and feed it. How often should he be fed? 3x weekly (he has HLLE)?

 

I need to look at the tank real hard again and figure out what equipment it has, then I can post some more.

 

I realize that the tank won't be a good learning tool unless the kids have some ownership in it and are able to interact with it. I want to create some kind of intergenerational educational display around it, with information for the adults and questions for the little kids to make them think- like What does a fish use its tail for? How does a fish breathe? - things like that.

 

I'm not worried about the money, although I know it's expensive. I think that as long as the kids are involved, I can convince my boss to use some money for ongoing maintenance (salt, test kits, food). This is 21st Century Grant money, so any after-school educational activity is fair game. The expensive items I'm going to try my hardest to get donated.

 

Thanks again,

Tasha

[Satchmo]

Tasha, this is a great thing you're doing. The PetWarehouse suggestion is a good one. I can't imagine them turning you down. You also may want to put a post in the RC wanted ads. I know there are no reef clubs in your area, but for a noble cause like this, I'm sure you'll get some local reefers to come out of the woodworks and offer help/donations. Let me know when you get the lighting issue settled. I'd be happy to send some frags your way to help stock.

[Masoch]

I didn't see this mentioned, but another way to involve kids is to have 'em take pics of all the inhabitants. Print and laminate the best of the lot and make a display near the tank.

 

Learning how to take pictures of moving targets inside water and through glass should provide hours of entertainment, along with figuring out niceties like zoom or macro lens. For the computer-oriented, adding some PhotoShop magic could add interest. You can even have the kids do much of the work of figuring out what all you have in there and write out captions to go with the pics.

 

Once the kids have put their own time and effort into the project, they will be awfully vocal if anyone tries to take it away from them ... which in itself is a form of fundraising.