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[Floris Reef Tank]

A fellow reefer was nice enough to host the video clips for us so here are links to the surge itself (sorry about the low quality!).

Surge in Tank

[url=http://reeftank.zenmods.com/mpegs/MOV01915.mpg]Surge Device
[/url]

[Floris Reef Tank]

March 30, 2005
8:48AM by Ally
Temperature - 75.5 degrees
SG - 1.024
Since Mr. Lin changed the water the sand is everywhere. It is hard to see in the tank.

11:55AM by Elise, Conner, Ari, Paul, Phillip, and Lily
Temperature - 77.8 degrees
It is really foggy. There is a red jelly type thing on a rock [mushroom].

4:40PM by Mr. Lin
Temperature - 77.1 degrees
The water clarity is getting better as the sand continues to settle down again. I had to adjust the water level down a bit so that the surge would work again (too much backpressure to start a siphon with the water level higher and the length of the return so long). I will ask the students what they think the solution is and have them test it out on the tank if we have time. Otherwise, things are looking good and we might be able to put a fish in tomorrow if I can pick it up tonight. We will most likely request the donations of livestock over the next few days and have them shipped to us for next week!

[Floris Reef Tank]

March 31, 2005
7:30AM by Mr. Lin
I added a fan to the back of the tank from Radio Shack. There were two fans that would fit on the tank, both 12VDC powered, so I purchased both to see which would work out the best. I ended up installing the one that was larger because it fit well over the existing hole in the back of the tank and also, it was on clearance and cost less than $5! The plug to convert the normal wattage to 12VDC was around $16.00 with a wiring adapter. Here are some pictures.

[Floris Reef Tank]

March 31, 2005
9:00AM by Mr. Lin
On the surge device, I ended up drilling a small hole below the water line in the siphon return to alleviate some of the back pressure. With the water line filled up to the top the back pressure was hindering the siphon, so I drilled a tiny hole and it alleviated the pressure enough to allow the surge to function again.

[Floris Reef Tank]

March 31, 2005
12:00PM by Ariana and David
pH is 8.2

4:30PM by Mr. Lin
Temperature - 77.4 degrees
Today was a busy day and we didn't have a lot of time to make observations on the tank. One of the kids did have time to snap a couple of pictures at the end of the day, so I'll post those here. The pictures were taken by Stephen.

[Floris Reef Tank]

March 31, 2005
8:00PM by Mr. Lin and Kammie
Temperature - 77.4 degrees
First off, the fan appears to be aiding in the cool down of the tank after the lights go off (they are on a 12 hour cycle as of a couple of days ago, from 7:30AM to 7:30PM), and having a small impact on the temperature during the day. I put some masking tape over the vents to see if that improved the effectiveness of the fan in keeping the temperature from rising too much during the day. In any case, on to why I was there in the first place.

Kammie and I went out to look at some puppies tonight when I went for a haircut (very much needed, the kids made fun of me today!) and while we were there stumbled across some good prices at a local store, Fox Mill Pets in Herndon. I have been actively seeking out a clean up crew from various retailers, so far without any luck, and found that this store was selling blue leg hermits for $.99 each for 15 and up, so I purchased 15 of them and they threw in some extra shells. I didn't buy any snails yet, but the hermits should help sift the sand bed and get it more settled. They also had a golden banded coral shrimp so I picked that up as well for only $4.99! I also purchased a tiny royal gramma, about 1/2" long, for $18. Kammie and I then went over to school and found an unlocked door and went inside to acclimate the new arrivals. I was not able to acclimate them for as long as I would have liked as it was past Kammie's bed time and she hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we did a quick acclimation over the course of 30 minutes or so and then dumped them into the tank. The hermits quickly clouded up the tank by sifting through the silt at the surface of the sand bed with 1 or 2 adventuring up the rock work, and the gramma and the shrimp quickly hightailed it behind the rock.

In the morning I'll ask the kids to do their normal routine of checking out the levels on the tank and making observations (we didn't have time this morning to do it) and let them make the discoveries. I think it will be much more fun watching them figure out what has been added rather than telling them what I added. Once they have found the inhabitants, I'll have them try and snap some pictures of them and then write descriptions based on research they can do. I'll post their information and pictures once they have finished.

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 1, 2005
8:00AM by Mr. Lin
Temperature - 72.4 degrees
I need to reset the heater!
I received a package of live sand from a friend which included several snails (thanks Anthony!). I dumped it into the tank this morning (which is completely clouded over from the blue leg hermits sifting the sand) and it covered the entire bottom with about a cm or so of sand. Hopefully this will alleviate the problem with the clouding of the tank as the hermits sift the sand.

Also, this morning when the kids walked in they asked if I changed the water again since it was so cloudy, and then they noticed the first hermit crab. Now they're bugging me about what's in there since they can't see themselves. I'll post reactions as the day progresses and add some pictures.

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 1, 2005 (APRIL FOOLS DAY)
8:51AM by Ally, Nat, and Eli
Temperature - 72.2 degrees
SG - 1.024
The hermit crabs are walking around. There are snails, but they're not moving.
Tested pH, but came up with 8.8. Added too many drops. Retested pH.
pH - 8.0

3:30PM by Zach and Katie
pH - 8.2
Temperature - 77.4
SG - 1.024

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 1, continued.

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 4, 2005
7:15AM by Mr. Lin
Temperature - 68.1 degrees
The fan is apparently doing too good of a job in keeping the tank cool. I have hooked it up to the timer along with the lights so that it doesn't cause as much temperature drop and evaporation in the tank. I also reset the light to account for Daylight Savings Time. There was a lot of evaporation so I'll leave it for the kids to look at later. I'll also have them test the full battery (well, at least the ones we have) of tests on the water chemistry to see how the tank has adjusted to the bio-load that is there so far. I also noticed a nassarius snail in the live sand from my friend Anthony. It has been coming out of the sand to eat, pretty neat as I never had them in my old tank and this is my first encounter with them.

9:00AM by David and Anuja
Temperature - 71.4 degrees
SG - 1.026
There are hermit crabs and a fish. The water level has gone down.

9:05AM by Mr. Lin
We had a short lesson on what is going on in the tank and reviewed matter in the process. In looking at the tank, I asked the students what they noticed. Besides the obvious clarity of the tank, they eventually came to the conclusion that the water level had gone down. When asked about that, they concluded that the water had evaporated and turned into a gas, but they remembered that the salt and other trace elements had not evaporated and would still be in the water. One student asked if it would rain in the tank and we then spoke about how the area in the back smelled slightly of an ocean and how the gas was being pulled out of the tank. I told them how the tank was essentially creating "rain" before as the water evaporated and then condensed again on the hood and dripped back in, but now that the fan was installed, it was simply pulling all the moisture out. We then spoke about how the water would be more dense and the SG would be higher. Also mentioned was the fact that the water itself would be able to hold less of other things as it became more saturated due to evaporation. We then discussed how there would be less oxygen available to the inhabitants.

Based on this, we discussed how we could replenish the water supply with fresh water since we didn't need to add any more salt to it. The next part of the discussion had to do with how we would do it. I showed them some Kalkawasser and showed them that it was made of calcium hydroxide, or atoms of calcium, oxygen, and hydrogen. We spoke of how it would dissolve into a solution and then we spoke about how it would be added to the tank by drip so that it didn't upset the levels in the tank. I mixed some for the kids and will drip it in throughout the day.

The kids were also instructed on how to add B-Ionic to the tank. For this, we will be adding 2.5 ml each time, or about 25 drops. This ties in nicely with measurement and the metric system.

9:21AM by David and Anuja
pH - 8.2
Ammonia - 0.0
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0.0

[Floris Reef Tank]

10:25AM by Ari, Conner, Elise, Lily, Paul, and Phillip
Temperature - 72.9 degrees
We saw the fish. It's really clear.

1:40PM by Sid and Stephen
The water is getting "foggier" because Mr. Lin put 3000 ml of pure water [I topped off the water and had them watch as it mixed in with the tank water. As it mixed, it caused the water to shimmer a bit].

4:30PM by Mr. Lin
As I did some work I saw the Royal Gramma come out more so I snapped a couple of pictures.

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 5, 2005
9:00AM by Katie and Eli
SG -1.024

10:00AM by Mr. Lin
I added another 2000 ml of top off water. I also noticed that the tank is making a lot of noise and discovered that the fan blade has already cracked. I will remove it soon and try and repair it or try and return it to Radio Shack for a replacement. I unplugged it for about an hour and noticed that the temperature spiked very quickly.

5:15PM by Robert
Temperature - 76.7 degrees
[I decided that in exchange for being allowed to contribute fish, students would be allowed to name the fish they donated and then would need to research the fish themselves and present them to the class in an oral report. Robert purchased a yellow clown goby, a firefish, and 10 nassarius snails for the tank today. He made the decision after speaking at length with an employee over at Marine Scene about fish choices. We told her about the tank and then discussed sizes of fish and compatibility. We opted against a pygmy angel because it might nip at the corals, but I think Robert will keep his eye on that fish in the future if he decides to ever take up reef tanks himself. He was very much intrigued with a Brazilian Flameback Angel and the Pygmy Angels. We also opted against multiple firefish in the tank so that it could remain more peaceful. This is what Robert observed after we floated the fish in the bag in the tank.]
The fire fish is so excited about this because he gets to be with 2 other fish. The Royal Gramma is investigating the Yellow Goby from outside the bag. The Yellow Goby looks very nervous about being with 2 other fish. The Royal Gramma looks scared, too! The firefish is waiting and really wants to come out and meet the other fish. The Yellow Goby really wants to come out and play with the Royal Gramma and the firefish. The snails are just sitting doing nothing except for crawling around in the bag they're in.

by Mr. Lin
The golden coral banded shrimp also adventured out of the rock a bit this afternoon. Although it didn't come all the way out, it was plainly visible under the rockwork, something which it has not been since introducing it. My guess is that in the next day or two it will become comfortable enough to adventure out from under cover and we will be able to snap a picture of it. Robert was very surprised by how it looked as he didn't think a shrimp would look like that. Here are some pictures we took of the fish prior to release.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Here's all of the bags floating in the tank to acclimate. The process was a bit shorter than normal because of the fact that the water chemistry was very similar. The water in our tank was purchased from Marine Scene and is the same water they use for water changes in their own store. Although there are no doubt some differences in the water chemistry, they are more than likely not as major as they would be coming from a different store. The pH is good in our tank, so the major factor was the temperature. After floating them for awhile, we introduced them into the system with some water exchange.

[Floris Reef Tank]

This is something written by Varun in my class. He has been thinking about the tank and wrote about it.

I think our reef is very cool. It looks almost exactly like a habitat of fish. One problem, though, Mr. Lin, when are we getting the fish?!?! [They're in there now!] But I think that keeping a pet will be very fun. Feeding it, keeping the tank clean, and making observations will all be very fun.

I think that it ties in mostly with our kingdoms unit since we learned about where things in different kingdoms like to live. Since habitat is an important part of this project also, it is simlar to our kingdoms project. This project is also different from other units because in this project you actually get to see what's happening. You get to experience what happens live. You get to actually do the project. Actually, it is like our light unit. It is like our light unit because we also saw and experienced what the light did.

Thanks for contributing Varun!

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 6, 2005
8:58AM by Robert
Temperature - 77.2 degrees

3:10PM by Michael and Eli
pH - 8.4

4:30PM by Mr. Lin
Temperature - 78.4 degrees
The kids were very excited today about the new additions to the tank. They saw them right away in the morning and it was instant mayhem. Everyone was around the tank trying to see the new fish. At the end of the day I let them feed them as well and they were awed again when all of the nassarius snails came out of the sand. Very exciting for the kids, but it meant that tests went unfinished today so not much to report besides the pH (which could be wrong due to the excitement). The temperature has leveled off a bit after messing around with the various parts of the tank and accounting for the room temperature and has not varied by more than 2 total degrees during the day. It is time to let the tank inhabitants get used to each other for a bit and then we'll try again to test the full battery of tests (that we have) in the morning. If the opportunity presents itself, I'll teach the kids a bit about the nitrogen cycle of the tank.

The fan itself is still not working too well, but it's not as noisy as it was before. I haven't repaired the crack yet, but if it stops making noise and the crack stops getting bigger, I'll leave it as is until I need to fix it. Other than that, here are some pictures of the fish now in the tank.

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 7, 2005
9:06AM by Ally, Eli, Nat, and Katie
[We had some time this morning so I had the kids run the full battery of tests that we have.]
Temperature - 79.2 degrees
SG - 1.023
pH - 8.1
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm

by Mr. Lin
I had to unplug the fan this morning as it was getting way too noisy. I will try and repair or replace it later. Also, I added a blue background to see how it looked. I don't know if it'll stay on there, so I'll play it by ear. Here's how it looks with the background.

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 8, 2005
9:00AM by Varun
SG - 1.024
pH - 8.4

3:28PM by Stephen
Temperature - 79.0 degrees
pH - 8.4
SG - 1.0245

5:10PM by Mr. Lin
Temperature - 79.0 degrees
I added 2000 ml of RO/DI water as topoff in preparation for the weekend. I don't know how much will evaporate over the weekend as I had to unhook the fan until I get a replacement due to the noise factor, so I also started dripping kalk today. I found some large chart paper so I will try and start a chart for the students to begin filling in.

I also have begun writing some activities for the students to complete as extensions of learning. I will post some of them when I get a chance as they are all tied in to not only our science curriculum, but also reef keeping information.

Also, at least one group of students has decided that they will do a report on our reef tank as a science project. They are not getting any credit for it, so it's nice to see that they are becoming more interested in the tank.

Eric Koch or Reef Savers, Inc. (I was confused before about which Eric it was) is also seeing how much it is for a box of frags to be shipped to me, so the tank should undergo some major changes next week. Also, a fellow reefer is donating some mushroom/zoo rock next week (on Tuesday) so I'm excited to add a bit more color. The mushrooms we have in our tank right now are still very small and were a bit bleached out when I received them, so my guess is they were in a shaded area before. The donations should really change the complexion of our tank!

In regards to the temperature of the tank, with the fan off it seems to really have leveled off at around 78-80 degrees. The only problem is all of the condensation that is occuring inside the hood. I will replace the fan and then work on stabilizing the temperature again to be closer to 78 all of the time.

Keep on the lookout for new pictures next week!

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 11, 2005
9:00AM
pH - 8.1
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Added B-Ionic 2.5 ml part 1 and part 2

1:45PM by Mr. Lin
Temperature - 78.1
The tank is showing signs of being very healthy. The shrimp and at least one hermit crab shed over the weekend and from what I can see the shrimp looks like it did well with its molt. It didn't have any abnormalities in its carapace and looked like all of its antennae were fully formed and straight. Also, there was a slight film of green algae on the walls of the tank so it looks like its time to put in some algae eating snails. There are also some tiny sprigs of money plant (possibly) growing out of the rock, and no sign of any nuisance algaes. The fish are also looking good and haven't shown any signs of distress.

[Floris Reef Tank]

April 11, 2005
Photos by Ally

[Floris Reef Tank]

Some more shots by Ally.