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by **Len** » March 8th, 2005, 10:57 pm

Floris Reef Tank's official thread:
Use this thread to document updates to your Nano Reef Buildoff project.
Please note: this thread is reserved for the entitled registered member only. Open discussion about ideas or specific entries should be posted in the Nano Reefs forum or the General Reef Discussion forum.

by **davelin315** » March 8th, 2005, 11:57 pm

I am a 5th grade teacher at Floris Elementary School in Herndon, Virginia. I used to have a 125 gallon reef and a 300+ gallon saltwater pond, but since I have changed professions and moved halfway across the US, I am going on a much smaller scale.

Anyway, at the beginning of the year I promised my class that we would have a fish tank. They immediately started asking if we would have a betta or if we would have gold fish or tiger barbs and rainbow sharks. I told them that that was not what my idea of a fish tank was and began trying to collect supplies for a tank. In September I bought a discontinued Eclipse line, the 15 gallon tank which has the Eclipse 1 hood on it. Around December I purchased a few bags of Southdown to put into the bottom of the tank along with some salt. In February I was able to secure a donated light to replace the 18 watt bulb that's in the hood (I use a 96W PC Quad 50/50 by Coralife) and finally, I was ready to fill the tank.

On March 3rd I filled the tank with the help of several of my students. After letting the salinity settle down over a couple of days and adding a heater to boost the temperature to 75, the tank was still a little bit cloudy, but the salt had pretty much dissolved. I used a different brand than I normally do and was not pleased with the results (it never fully dissolved even after two days) but the SG settled down to 1.022 so I added the sand.

On March 4th I poured in a bag of Southdown without rinsing it and the tank became a milkshake. I couldn't see through it at all and it had a layer of foam on the top about an inch thick. I left this over the weekend in the hopes that it would settle down a bit. Over the weekend, I was able to secure live rock. I had been asking for donations at Marine Scene, a LFS, since last September, but was never given an answer after they asked me for specifics, so I began asking other stores in the area. Many thanks to the Reef Tank in Fairfax (Vladi and Mike) for their donation of live rock from Vladi's tank. He gave me about 20 lbs of rock for the tank which I stored with a friend over the weekend. On Sunday night, I went and reclaimed the rock and brought it into school on Monday.

At around noon on March 7th, I began showing the students the LR and we discovered pencil sized bristleworm, some decaying sponges, and some pods. I had the kids add the rock to the tank and we ended up removing about a gallon of water (and a lot of foam!). The water in the tank is still very silty but it is starting to settle down. This week I will be receiving scoops of live sand from friends to whom I donated all of my livestock to when I moved from Chicago. Anyway, we have been monitoring the water as we wait for the silt to settle, and we are hoping that it will be done by the end of the week so we can see the rock. It is almost at the point where we can see the rock on the other side of the tank (depth-wise), but it still has a long way to go. It's gone from a milkshake to watered down milk, but it's still pretty difficult to see through. In any case, I will post a picture of what it looks like.

The filtration has been left alone so far in the Eclipse hood, but I am contemplating a tiny surge device for the hood. I am unclear on whether or not it will work or even what effect it will have, but I think it might be a great way to simulate waves in such a tiny system without adding more pumps (I'm still in the process of trying to find some donations in that regard).

On a bad note, I saw a flatworm the other day and I think that I might have found an aiptasia anemone. However, it remains to be seen what they are, and I will inject it with kalk if it is indeed a parasite. The plans are to let things settle down, rearrange the rock work when I can see through the water and then let it sit until after spring break and then add some livestock (I've had many offers from many people for frags of this and that so I'm very excited).

This will be one of the last entries by me as I will start having my students put in the entries here and update this thread.

by **davelin315** » March 9th, 2005, 12:04 am

Oh, yeah, the costs so far...

~$100 for the tank setup.
~$6.00 for the sand.
~$15.00 for the salt
~$100.00 for the lights (donated! woo hoo!).
Estimated Value of LR ~$80-100 (donated! woo hoo!).
~$30.00 for supplements, kalk, dechlor (can't install a RO unit at school!)

So far, out of pocket expenses are under $150.00.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 16th, 2005, 1:59 pm

OK, here are some corrections to my dates and information, I posted from home but have been keeping a log in school.

3-2-05 by Mr. Lin, Katie, Stephen, Sid
4:00 PM Filled tank, dechlorinated water, added salt (Cyrstal Sea Marine Mix - not impressed), SG - 1.021
-Tank was very cloudy, not all the salt was dissolved
-small particles (some from salt mix, some from other sources?) floating in the water (kids asked the question, will they dissolve?)

3-3-05 by Mr. Lin and various students
8:40AM Salt still not dissolved, SG - 1.024
9:40AM Added water (no salt)
10:20AM Still not dissolving, added heater (set to 75 degrees)
10:34 AM SG - 1.022
11:30AM SG - 1.024
11:50AM SG - 1.0245
1:05 PM SG - 1.0215
3:09PM SG - 1.024
(I gave a quick lesson on making sure that bubbles were not attached to the hydrometer after seeing the different results in such a short amount of time!)

3-4-05 by various students
8:00AM SG - 1.022, stirred water, particles still not dissolved
8:40AM SG - 1.023
3:15PM SG - 1.023
4:30PM removed a gallon of water, added 40 lbs of Southdown fine oolitic sand
- tank was super cloudy, completely opaque
- thick layer of foam on top of the water
- light does not penetrate at all

3-7-05 by various students
SG - 1.022
-still foamy, dirty
- added live rock (approx. 20 lbs)

3-8-05 by various students
8:30AM SG - 1.022
11:40AM SG- 1.022
3:15PM SG 1.0225
4:35PM SG - 1.0225

3-9-05 by Natalie and Eli
3:14PM SG - 1.023
-saw 2 amphipods
- tube worms in rock
- some kind of orange coral

3-10-05 by King Kong
8:50AM SG - 1.022
- water clear
very quiet and still
4:35PM SG- 1.0225

3-11-05 by King Kong
8:27AM SG - 1.022
- water is transparent, clear
- nothing much noticed
11:31AM SG - 1.022
- clear, still water
- some green things on the rocks (plants?)
3:25 PM SG - 1.023
- some things floating around in water (student used cleaning magnet and stirred up sand bed)

3-14-05 by King Kong
8:20AM SG - 1.023
- water transparent
- some things floating in the water

3-15-05 by King Kong
8:20AM SG - 1.023
- same observations as yesterday

3-16-05 by Mr. Lin, Shack, Josh
8:30AM SG - 1.023
11:39AM SG - 1.023
- found some algae on the rocks
- coral?

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 16th, 2005, 2:12 pm

Here are some pictures I have taken of the tank itself from March 8, 2005.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 16th, 2005, 2:15 pm

Here are some pictures of the tank from March 13, 2005, 11 days after the tank was initially set up.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 16th, 2005, 2:21 pm

Here are some of the inhabitants that were noticed on March 13, 2005.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 16th, 2005, 2:27 pm

March 13, 2005 picture.

Another undesired hitchhiker, but the kids (again) think it's cool to have an anemone. It's an Aiptasia anemone, for more information, visit the following link: http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/aipatasia.htm

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 16th, 2005, 2:30 pm

Here are some pictures taken today, March 16, 2005. The tank is nice and settled and the sand bed has settled down and is not floating around as much. I will re-arrange the rock in a day or two and then let it sit until after spring break, when we will begin to add livestock.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 16th, 2005, 5:34 pm

From Adam and Conner:

3-16-05 @ 1:34PM

SG - 1.023
Bubbles in the tank, can see through it.
Some life - starfish, plants.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 16th, 2005, 6:11 pm

3-16-05 @ 4:30PM by Mr. Lin
I decided to rearrange the rocks so that the sandbed could settle down over the break without being disturbed right before. In doing so, I found some mushrooms and another aiptasia anemone in the rock. The tank is also very cloudy again from mixing up the sand. We'll see if it's cleared up tomorrow. I am attaching two pictures. One is of the tank as it is now, and the other is of the sand bed where you can see some flatworms that are in the tank. However, you can also see that the sandbed residents are beginning to mix up the sand more and more (it's not simply because I rearranged) so the silt is starting to sink in further.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 17th, 2005, 5:01 pm

March 17. 2005
9:32AM by Katie
SG - 1.0235
The tank is still really cloudy, but it is clearing up a little.

11:35AM by Alex and Rohan
SG - 1.024
The tank is cloudy from rearranging rocks yesterday. There is a little red thing on a rock [mushrooms].

3:15PM by Natalie
SG - 1.023
The tank is not as cloudy as before. It is clearing up a little.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 18th, 2005, 5:08 pm

March 18, 2005
8:45AM by Robert
SG - 1.0235
It is still kind of blurry.

11:35AM by Eric
SG - 1.023
Clear, light can penetrate everything! Can see worm-like things.

3:24PM by Kevin
There is a starfish on the sand in the bottom of the tank.
by Mr. Lin - Actually, it's the formation of some slime algae. Time to change the water (and avoid tap water this time!). May do a complete change of the water during spring break if I can get in to do it. The tank is looking good except for the presence of the algae. It also might be due to some minor die off from the LR that was donated since it sat dry for some time and then was transferred a few times as well.

4:00pm By Mr. Lin
Received some live sand from a friend, but unfortunately it took too long to get here and it smelled quite bad when I took it out and I could see a lot of dead worms in the sand itself. Too bad, there was a ton of life in it! By the way, thanks for the donation Mike!

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 28th, 2005, 2:19 pm

March 28, 2005
7:15AM by Mr. Lin
Added a surge device to the tank (details are forthcoming) and a digital thermometer as well. I also brought in an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. The kids will spend time this week testing not only the SG and temperature but also will make sure that the tank is cycled by looking at the water chemistry. There was a lot of evaporation over the break and the tank will need to be outfitted with a fan, but otherwise things are looking pretty good. I will also add a lighting timer sometime this week.

9:15AM by Ally and Michael
SG - 1.026
Temperature - 75.4 degrees
Two red things are on rocks [mushrooms], there are two anemones and there is a green bush on a rock.
pH of tap water - 7.9
pH of tank water - 8.1
Ammonia - .025 [between 0.0 and .025]

10:40AM by David and Ariana
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10ppm
The two tentacle like things are growing longer [anemones]. Three small bushes have been found. Small splatters of blue "jelly" on rocks [coralline algae]. A green fan like plant is growing on a rock.
Temperature is 77.4 degrees
SG - 1.025

1:15PM by Mr. Lin
The surge device is working well. It is cycling very regularly right now and is agitating the water very well. The current is not turbid but is gently flowing in alternate directions. It's better than having powerheads because it has a definite ebb and flow to it! Also, it's on about a 1 minute cycle or so. It is different from when I tested it in my sink, perhaps due to the mass of the water due to the added salt. I will post pictures of the construction when I get a chance and also try and post a brief mpeg movie.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 29th, 2005, 4:46 pm

Here's the surge device I installed on the tank. I will try and post some mpegs showing how it works.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 29th, 2005, 4:49 pm

More pictures.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 29th, 2005, 4:55 pm

More.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 29th, 2005, 4:58 pm

More.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 29th, 2005, 5:06 pm

All of the parts above are 3/4" fittings. I used some electrical conduit as it had some good shapes and fittings that resembled bulkheads. The parts are as follows:

2 electrical conduit liquitite 90 degree elbows - nipple on one side, threaded bulkhead fitting on the other - ~$5.00
1 PVC sched 40 threaded 90 degree elbow - ~$.50
1 PVC sched 40 90 degree elbow - ~$.50
3 PVC threaded/slip female couplings - ~$1.50
6" of 3/4" PVC sched 40 pipe - ~$.20
2 #15 o-ring washers - ~$.25

All of these parts were very negligible in price. It took a few days of experimentation to get it working right, but as I said before, it's on about a 1 minute cycle and it flows regularly from one end and then surges from the middle for a few seconds and then goes back to the regular flow.

by **Floris Reef Tank** » March 29th, 2005, 5:10 pm

March 29, 2005
8:57AM by Ally and Michael
Temperature - 74.5 degrees
SG - 1.026
There is some junk floating in the water.

1:55PM by Ally
Temperature is 77.5 degrees
SG - 1.025
pH - 8.1
Same stuff as earlier is floating around. Two sea anemones [aiptasia - need to get rid of these!] and little coral (orange).

5:30PM by Mr. Lin
I took a water sample over to Marine Scene to get it tested and found that it had .58 (?) phosphates in it, which regardless of the fact that I don't know exactly what that means, was high. The tank had shown some signs of slime algae and and a small layer of brown diatoms on the sand, so it was time to change the water out. I purchased 12 gallons of pre-mixed Instant Ocean RO/DI water and then went back to school and drained the tank. When it was drained I stacked the rock work a bit more and then added the new water. It was very cloudy when I added it, so I'll let it settle over night and see how it is in the morning. We should be adding our first fish soon as I have someone who has promised us a maroon clown. I also decided that we'd leave the asterina stars in as Marine Scene said that they have them in all of their tanks and have not seen them do any harm, instead, they have seen them clean the glass in the morning.
Temperature of New Water - 68.8 degrees

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