Probably the Most Inexperienced Person To Ever Sign Up...

[Blesum]

Hi - Name's Paul. Live over in San Diego county, and am a teacher.

In the process of setting up a "local marine life" aquarium using local items only - Sand, water and rocks all collected locally while in the water. No animals yet, other than whatever hitchiked in with the rocks/sand. Tank is a classroom tank with everybody working on it and is/will be incorporated into various lesson plans.

120 gal with about 65 gallons in it so far, 100 pounds of live sand, 60 pounds of live rock. Will be getting about 40 more gallons of water, and some more rocks today. Putting in another powerhead to move the water around some more while it cycles/settles. Still looking for a good protein skimmer.

Not 100% sure I will keep an octopus in there since I'm not sure my students and I would be able to provide the attention one requires. Will start out with other items first and see how that goes.

-Paul

 

[Castor]

(8 arms waving in unison)

The tank looks great! My sister is also a teacher, and you guys don't get paid nearly enough.

Felix

 

[Steve O'Shea]

there Paul. The tank looks jolly good, but ..... I'm just a little worried about that stand; it seems rather high and flimsy for that weight, for a glass tank, especially around kids. (Any experience I've had with 'tables' like that is that the welds are prone to breaking and/or corroding; have you got a honking big cabinet somewhere [made out of wood as opposed to chipboard]that you could put it on instead, against a wall?)

 

[cuttlegirl]

You are going to need a chiller to keep local marine life. I kept local Southern California animals for 10 years in Long Beach. I had no problems with any animals unless my chiller broke down, then everything perished. I ended up always having a back up chiller. Do you have a collecting permit to collect animals?

and good luck. Let me know if I can help.

 

[Feelers]

At least here in NZ, most rock pool animals generally do ok in a non chilled tank. Some of the fish may be more temperamental, but on the whole they will survive easily if the temperature is kept under 72F. (It might be different in California though!)
Chillers are very expensive, and with a tank that size it would be at least(likely more) than $600US.

However there are some cheaper methods of keeping the temp down, starting with making sure the tank is out of the sun. You can also run a household fan above the water but it will mean you need to top up with fresh water more often.

Good luck!

 

[aNmLlUvR09]

Wow...what your doing is so great..just recently my biology teacher got a 20 gallon tank and she has like 4 fish in there...its so boring, but anyway we've already learned a lot from it...good luck oh and i love the shoes

 

[cthulhu77]

Welcome to Tonmo! Great photo, now we just need some of the class, too !

greg

 

[Cephkid]

 

[Jean]

and I second what Steve said about the stand! We've just replaced all the stands in our teaching lab with heavy steel and wood ones!

J

 

[Cephkid]

there Paul. The tank looks jolly good, but ..... I'm just a little worried about that stand; it seems rather high and flimsy for that weight, for a glass tank, especially around kids. (Any experience I've had with 'tables' like that is that the welds are prone to breaking and/or corroding; have you got a honking big cabinet somewhere [made out of wood as opposed to chipboard]that you could put it on instead, against a wall?)

Yeah about that, so, am I not the only one who has had corrosion around things that were just near the aquarium plumbing then?

Sorry to hijack the thread Blesum, it's just this has been bothering me lately w/ my tank. In my defence, this info will aid you as well from the looks of things.

 

[joefish84]

ok now heres the hard part... what you need to do is kind of like the table cloth out from under the glasses trick... except with aquarium stands. first place the new stand in front of the old. then get all the kids to run into it really fast knocking out the old and pushing the new in...

 

[Blesum]

Thanks for the warm welcomes and advice.

The stand... I thought it looked kinda flimsy considering the tank weight with water in it. However it's been used for over a decade with no problems by at least two different teachers before me so... I do worry about kids running into it and what have you. However, as I'm sure many have heard, schools are broke, I don't have the books I need for my class, etc so buying another stand isn't on the top of my list. I inspected it for rust damage, found only minimal surface rust, sanded that off and repainted the stand before I had it put in my classroom so hopefully everything will work out. No other supports/cabients/etc in my room. It's not a science classroom. I wish it was. There's just a flismy table that wobbles something wicked. I wouldn't dare put the tank on that thing.

Collecting permits: I've sumbited my paperwork to the state and am still waiting for them to process/approve it. It may be another 3-4 weeks.

Chiller - I've wondered about that myself. Another teacher here who runs a 110 gallon cool water tank said I did NOT need one here. We are near the beach, have air conditioning, my room is not exposed to the sun, etc. I have been having my students keep close track of my tank temperature throughout the day, and when I'm working late into the night I keep on recording the temperature changes. So far in the past week, the highest the water has hit was 67 degrees. The lowest is 61 degrees. Holds pretty steady at 64-65 degrees.

Thanks for the shoes comment - 10 pm on a Sunday night.

-Paul

 

[sorseress]

Hi Blesum, Welcome to Tonmo. I second what Castor said, we need more money for schools and teachers. This is going to be great for the kids.

Sorseress

 

[aNmLlUvR09]

Yeah...what your doing is really really cool...they wont let us have live animals in school...well except the drug dogs once a week lol its such an awesome learning experiece

 

[monty]

Yeah...what your doing is really really cool...they wont let us have live animals in school...well except the drug dogs once a week lol its such an awesome learning experiece

That's pretty weak-- I thought it was entrenched in, if not a foundation of, the American school system that every biology teacher had some sort of tank or cage with an unusual critter in his or her classroom...

Sigh.