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[Floris Reef Tank]

Some more shots.


Ever wondered what it (cyanobacteria) looks like?


Here's another shot of the cyanobacteria.


Planktonic shrimp that are swimming in my tank at home (banded coral shrimp).


Another one.


Last baby shot.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Thanks to Keith Melvill from over on Reef Central. He hosted the cyano video clip which can be found here: Creepy Moving Cyano - Magnified 200x. No wonder it can take a tank over so quickly.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Stephen had a chance to test the water parameters again today and things are still looking good and stable. Alk dropped a bit and calcium is a bit higher for some reason, but it otherwise looks good.

Temperature - 81.6 degrees
SG - 1.025
pH - 8.2
Nitrate - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Ammonia- 0 ppm
Calcium - 500 ppm
Alkalinity - 8 degrees

The SG has gone up a bit because we topped off the other day with saltwater to increase the salinity a bit to mimic natural sea water.

Other than that, the M. digitata frag that looked like it had been stung to death has the polyps coming out again and everything else looks good as well. The three frags of acropora that suffered from Rapid Tissue Necrosis are now helping filter water in the surge overflow area and the fourth is still alive and doing well in the tank.

We have picked up some flatworms in the meantime, so if we ever invest in another fish, it might be one that eats flatworms like a 6 line wrasse (is that true?). The tank will be on its own for the long weekend, but I'll drip regular RO/DI water to top off since they will probably shut off the little bit of air that we have.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Well, the last few weeks have been incredibly busy and trying at the same time. It left very little time to work on the tank, although when I was out several times, I returned to a well maintained tank. The experience this year was great, and thanks for all of the donations. I was not able to pick up everything that was offered, but in any case, they were very much appreciated.

On Sunday, I went in to my classroom with two students, drained the water into two water jugs, picked up the entire aquarium, popped it all into my car, and transported the entire thing over to one student's home. It'll remain there for the summer, none the worse for the 10 minutes it spent high and dry.

I'll resume posting updates in the fall when I move the tank back into the classroom with a new batch of students. In the mean time, I managed to hook a few, and at least one spent the time and effort to set up a new tank of his own, and I'm sure that number will increase by the end of the summer by at least one. Thanks for all of the positive feedback this year, keep your eye out for new posts over the summer if the student taking care of it is able, and also, possibly some new pictures (I am not sure where I put my camera, it's somewhere in my packed boxes...). Otherwise, we'll begin anew with the same tank in the fall.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Well, picked up the tank from its summer home today and it looked to be in pretty good shape. There is some additional growth on some of the corals and some of the things have spread out a bit. There was, however, a huge outbreak of flatworms, so I'll have to get that under control. The tank itself will be moving to new digs and be in another 5th grade classroom. It will still be maintained by students and some of the kids from last year will be drafted to take care of it until the new 5th graders are ready to take over.

Len was nice enough to give me an extension on the picture posting until after the kids are back at school so I can let them handle most of the stuff, but I'll see if I can get it back into "picture shape" before they arrive. I'll also try and let people see how many flatworms there are in the tank! Need to find something to get rid of that problem...

Anyway, we're back, although it'll be in a slightly different format. By the way, the tank is moving to another room because we had someone donate another tank to me for school and it's larger and more complicated than the 15 that is set up, so the nano is going to the other science teacher (who has no experience so this will be an easier tank to run) and I'll set up the new 33.

Keep an eye out for updates, I'll try and post as I go.

As far as the move, I mixed up some new RO/DI water and used Instant Ocean for the mix, drained all but 1" or so of the old water, tossed the whole setup in the back of my truck, moved it to the classroom with help from Zach (student last year) and his brother Kyle, both of whom are now hooked, and filled it up with the new water. When I left, it was a bit murky from pouring in water form a bucket, but it looked to be OK. I'll be in again at school tomorrow, so I'll update on how it looks. If I can dig out the camera, I'll post the "after" shots and you can make some comparisons to what the tank looks like now versus how it looked before.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Well, after much delay and trying to find time to train students in another class to take pictures, I finally ended up deciding to post pictures I took before the tank was moved from my room to another. I will post new pictures again when I have time to train the rest of them, but for now, these will have to do.

Thanks to Len for extending the deadline for my special circumstances.

The names are those of WAMAS members who have donated to the tank. Some of them are also members here as well.


Full tank shot.


Full tank shot with the two yellow damsels from Bob (Rocko918).



Two shots of the montipora digitata from Adrienne (Sugar Magnolia). There was some die off on one because it fell into the sand over the summer, but they've shown excellent growth so far and are looking great.


Capnella from Lee Stearns.


Zoanthids from Steven (dchild). They have really spread well and are growing on the pump intake.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Here's the zoanthid and mushroom rock from Adrienne (Sugar Magnolia) last year. The mushrooms have exploded and I even tore some of them off for one of my students, Zach (koopa ninja), for helping me move the tank twice. I'll try and frag some of these and put them into the 33.


Green star polyps from Adrienne. They are doing very well and are isolated to the one rock in the middle of the sand. Can't do any damage if they can't go anywhere!


Another shot, closer up.


Here's another colony of green star polyps, from Lee Stearns I believe, that are somewhat browner. When I got them back from the summer, they were covered in planaria, so I shook them off and vacuumed as many out as I could and it has recovered some what from not being open at all. Again, it's also isolated from other rocks so it can't spread.


Here's a frag of cabbage coral from Lee Stearns and a red mushroom from Steve (dchild).

[Floris Reef Tank]

One last shot of the candy cane coral/trumpet coral from Steve (dchild) nestled in front of the zoanthids. I don't know if it has grown any new heads, but I'll check and frag if it has to spread it to the 33.

The 33, by the way, is what has taken the place of the 15 in my classroom. When another teacher with no experience in reef keeping asked me to set up a tank, I thought it would be best to give her the existing tank and set up the new one in my room. In the name of education, I am about to set up two more systems in two more class rooms, bringing our total to 4 classrooms (two 5th grades, one 6th grade, and one 3rd/4th grade class). Also, I may even set one up in our lobby or office that is much larger so that we can become the reef tank school! I'll keep you posted on this thread about any new news for our school, but will try and keep it as limited as possible.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Well, this has been an incredibly busy quarter and I haven't had as much time to see the old tank as I would have liked and also haven't had too many opportunities to help out the teacher who has it. However, I will try and do some work on the tank on Monday/Tuesday and take a few pictures. It's in line for a water change, but I haven't had time recently to mix any water up. It's had a slight problem with cyanobacteria, but I peeled it off yesterday and added a small queen conch. It'll make it's home there temporarily and then it will move on to other tanks in the school as algae is depleted.

Some news on the school itself, I have applied for some funding from the PTA and will be looking into grants next year, but we now have the 15, my 33, a 38 in a 6th grade class that is waiting to be set up, a 20L that will be a Chesapeake Bay biotope, and at least 3-4 more teachers who want tanks! I'm also setting up a reef club at school for students that I'm hoping to link up to WAMAS.

Anyway, when I get a chance, I'll post some more here.

[Floris Reef Tank]

It's been a while since I posted anything here, but this tank's not in my room anymore, so that's a big reason why. The other day, though, I did spend some time with koopa ninja (Zach), my former student, cleaning out the tank and doing some rearranging. Here's some shots of the tank I took after school today since it's nice and clean again (also did a massive water change since I don't get down there too often).


Here's a shot of the cabbage leather coral in this tank.


Here's a picture of the capnella. I'm actually thinking it's sinularia, but I'm not great with identification.


Here's a shot of one of the types of green star polyps.


Here's the other. They look very different in both coloration and in habit. The teacher who has this tank says that they come out opposite each other. When one's out, the other's not.


Here's a picture of some of the zoanthids in the tank. This colony is spreading all over the place.


Here's a shot of the candy cane coral that is fragged from the 33 gallon tank. It was a smaller head that had split before acquiring it.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Here's the frag of candy cane coral from Steven Cottrell. It's splitting into two heads and it looks like there's a third mouth forming in the middle as well, so maybe it'll turn into 3 heads. You can really see the difference from earlier pictures.


Here's a closeup of the above coral.


Here's a shot of one of the m. digitata frags. I took it from where it was before and reoriented it. I'm hoping to encourage more growth in a different pattern again.


Here's the other frag of m. digitata. Unfortunately, it had three branches that were also split up into multiple branches, but in cleaning it the other day, it took a tumble and snapped off most of the branches. You can also see where one of the branches had grown onto the rock. This will turn into another colony and already has some new buds on it.


Here's a view of the frag above, but it's less zoomed so you can see the overall coral and where branches broke off.


Here's some zoanthids and some of the caulerpa which grew out of nowhere last March.


Here's another shot of some zoanthids and a piece of algae (can't remember what it's called) on the right that grew out of the rock as well.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Here's a shot of the same zoanthids that have grown onto the filter tube.


Here's a shot of some of the striped shrooms.


Here's another shot of the same kind of shroom.


Here's a shot of some of the spotted shrooms that are growing off of the same rock. These are all on the rock donated by Sugar Magnolia long ago. These shrooms have made it into other tanks (the striped ones - they seem to be the quickest reproducers).


Here's a shot of some of the yellow zoanthids that were on the same rock. They have changed their color since introduction into this tank, as you can see from some earlier shot comparisons.


Here's a shot of some of the red rimmed zoanthids, again, from the same rock.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Here's a shot of the chaetomorphia that I transplanted into the tank. It's all from the original clump that I received from Rocko918 (Bob) over the summer.


Here's a shot of the red mushroom from dchild. It hasn't done much growth wise, and it's now nestled in with the other striped shrooms. Behind it you can see a red zoanthid or palyothoa (most likely the latter).


Here's a white centered red rimmed zoanthid.


Here's a shot of "Bob" peeking out from behind the rockwork. It's one of the two damsels donated by Rocko918 before. The other one disappeared mysteriously one night, no one seems to know where it went. It's name was given to it by the teacher in the room and he was part of the "Bob" and "Marley" pair... Unfortunately, Marley, as we all know, has moved on...


Here's another shot of Bob out on the reef.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Here's a full shot of the tank.


And another.

[Floris Reef Tank]

I haven't had a chance to clean the tank recently, but I did snap some pictures today. We seem to have lost our snails and hermits, so I'll add some to the tank to get rid of the algae. It's basically a tank with no clean up crew right now, but that will change soon enough.


Here's a full tank shot.


Here's another with the damsel out.


Here's a shot of the m. digitata that was damaged before, it has grown over the damaged area.


Here's a shot of the trumpet coral that is splitting. The heads are more pronounced and the third mouth is starting to become more apparent in the middle.


Here's a shot of some of the zoanthids that are growing in there. They have spread all over the place!

[Floris Reef Tank]

Here's a nice shot of the red mushroom. It has grown a lot since I moved it.


Here's a shot of one of the speckled mushrooms. It's splitting in half and the mouth is growing for the other half. It's looking really nice.


Here's a closeup of the green star polyps. They have not spread beyond growing a bit on the glass (I fragged that part off) as they are isolated on the sandbed.


Here's a shot of the fish in the tank. They are doing well together and are pretty peaceful considering one is a damsel.

[Floris Reef Tank]

Well, now that the contest is over, I have to say it was a lot of fun seeing everyone's projects. I was really impressed with what many people did. I regret that the tank went to another home as I would have liked to see it through to the end, but since it was just in another classroom I still got to see things. It made the growth stand out even more for me (although I certainly did not experience the same type of growth as some others). That said, though, it's really been a wortwhile experience. Good luck to everyone and thanks for all of the knowledge and experience that was shared.

Dave Lin