[tunicata]

I am Tunicata/ Ms. R/Ms. Romney. I started teaching in Newark, NJ last fall. I am stationed at East Side High School in Newark, NJ (Ironbound section, which is just minutes off of the Path Train). I teach biology, environmental science, and earth science. Last spring semester I set up a 20g marine tank in my classroom. It was a hit! The kids loved it, I made personal donations towards it, plus had donations of goods as personal donations from 2 other reef clubs and vendors (njreefers, r**ferscafe, Aquatic Obsessions and reefcleaners.org! Great places and great people!)

This semester, now in my second year of teaching, we have some new opportunities. I unfortunately teach in 3 different classrooms which makes it near impossible to set up a tank within one class as it is then shared by 3 other teachers and consequently 75 children I do not know. But I have been granted permission to put a tank in the school's main lobby. This tank is on security camera and right in front of the security guards office.

Since this is a place of high traffic (We are also a voting center), I figured instead of a 20g tank like we had last year, I would find a bigger tank.

I found a 55g tank. It is now going on its third week running.

We have many items left over from last year but some things need to be upgraded like:
Lights, more sand, more rock, more stock, HOB skimmer, HOB fuge.
Essentially, just things for the size upgrade. The tank will be sumpless, just like last semester, and just like my personal tank at home and many tanks on this board.

I am trying to get in talks with my supervisors to see if there are any concrete funds available from the school, and also if they would give us permission to fundraise (we are not a club, I don't think they even looked at my proposal for one..., but I have teaching and now going to grad school, so I'm ok with just doing it during my classes).

But the students are excited. We're using the coralidea link, some marine husbandry books, and slides from my tank build, as well as visiting websites such as MR to see and learn about our potential critters. The students are linking the tank to marine sustainability issues, learning basic chemistry, biology, and of course how to set up and maintain this particular type of marine tank. During the semester as the children learn more, they will be responsible for doing presentations to other classes. Our goals are educational for ourselves and our community.

We are more than open for having members come to the school to do presentations. We also are open to field trips (months in advance).

If you have something you would like to give, please check out our wishlist. Items not on this list can be considered. Please remember we will be sumpless, this is a 55g tank, we prefer to keep it a softy and low need LPS tank. We can feed frozen and flake food. We are harvesting pods (within main tank as well) and brine shrimp in the old 20g tank.

	Manhattan Reefs Manhattan Reefs, the best aquarium community on Planet Earth!

	LPS Large Polyped Stony corals – In the aquarium hobby this is a common division of the species of stony corals based upon the visual assessment of the size of the polyps. Corals in this category were among the first stony corals to be kept successfully in captivity and include many very beautiful species. Commonly kept Genera include Euphyllia (hammer/frogspawn coral), Favia (brain coral), Plerogyra (bubble coral), Lobophyllia (meat/tooth coral), and Caulastrea (candycane coral). LPS corals also include the popular solitary non-colonial stony corals such as Fungia (plate coral), Cynarina (button coral), Trachyphyllia (open brain coral), and Herpolitha (tongue coral). Like their SPS counterparts, LPS corals require good water quality, intense lighting of the appropriate spectrum, adequate water movement and regular supplementation of calcium.

[tunicata]

Here are some pictures of our tank last semester. This was a 20g tank with crushed coral substrate. Everything was donated by fellow reefers, vendors, self, and even a reefer in MD!

I set it up with the students, had them do most of the work. We had students and teachers and staff popping in throughout the semester to see it.

The beginnings!


Student adding the water


One picture of what it looked like


Water chemistry analysis!!!


Showing/explaining the hydrometer


After I modeled appropriate acclimation, student performs this action for a critter


More students doing the acclimation process themselves after teacher lesson/modeling


They are so attentive. Some times I have to do some serious coaxing to get them to get on with our other projects/subjects


I will have some shots from the current tank in the lobby. I've been bad and keep forgetting to take shots of us setting it up.

[tunicata]

WishList:
Current
40lbs of fine sand (sand that will be good for gobies)
20lbs of base rock (not large pieces, we will create a few caves and arches)
MagFloat
2 Koralia 2 or Maxijet 900 powerheads
4 FT Lighting system T5 is just fine. If in a canopy that is also fine/even better
We could use a hangon skimmer


In 3-4 wks we should be able to start collecting/adding:
(the tank was started with LR/LS and water from last years tank, and my own personal established tank
Soft Corals/Easy LPS (we have 2 heads of frogspawn, 1 rock with about 6 purple mushrooms, 1 patch of brown polyps, 1 patch of yellow polyps
Hippo Tang
Clown fish (we have 1 that survived from last semester, he is a small true percula less than 2inches, he should have a friend)
Cleaner shrimp
Blue Chromis (3?)
Chaeto and Pods

After our Pod culture boosts: Mandarin fish

We are going to put in an order with John from Reefcleaners since his site has educational discounts for a cleaning crew package (he gave us an urchin last year!)

But we'd also like a Blue Linkia Star Fish and a cucumber that is compatible (the students LOVE the random starfish and also want a bigger, and prettier star).


We will constantly update the thread on what stock we have so that folks can be aware of compatibility issues as they consider possible donations.


(If we get a fixture that sits on top of the tank, perhaps I can work out with the Shop instructor a plan to build a canopy for the tank/light combo and get computer fans installed and vents for air passage. This will help deter random people from...disturbing the tank). The shop instructor should be able to modify any canopies to fit our hang on equipment.


Letters can be given on school letterhead for those who wish to make a charitable donation and have documentation for tax purposes. It is a public school.

This year we should not have a heating issue. Towards the end of the spring the room reached over 100 degrees. Many of our critters died one long weekend when someone closed all of the windows, and doors, and the power to the mini fan failed. Fortunately, the school lobby is a stable airconditioned environment.

	LPS Large Polyped Stony corals – In the aquarium hobby this is a common division of the species of stony corals based upon the visual assessment of the size of the polyps. Corals in this category were among the first stony corals to be kept successfully in captivity and include many very beautiful species. Commonly kept Genera include Euphyllia (hammer/frogspawn coral), Favia (brain coral), Plerogyra (bubble coral), Lobophyllia (meat/tooth coral), and Caulastrea (candycane coral). LPS corals also include the popular solitary non-colonial stony corals such as Fungia (plate coral), Cynarina (button coral), Trachyphyllia (open brain coral), and Herpolitha (tongue coral). Like their SPS counterparts, LPS corals require good water quality, intense lighting of the appropriate spectrum, adequate water movement and regular supplementation of calcium.