75G School build in need of donations

Okay, I'm going to try to post a link so that if you are curious on how our tank is progressing you can check it out. I will also post pictures here too. http://www.emsisd.com/Page/17277
 
Our aquarium is going well. We already had our ammonia spike and now it's back to zero. We added 10 hermit crabs, some blue legs and red legs. I'm hoping we can add a fish or 2 soon. Most students still think we have nothing in the tank. (Blue legs very tiny.)
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I still can't take good pictures of things in aquariums.
 
We added our first fish, 2 clowns we got on the board. The students love them! They especially like the black one. [attachment=0]ImageUploadedByTapatalk1349481383.032388.jpg[/attachment]
 
I have serveral updates on the school aquarium.
We took our mother colony of xenia up to school for the clownfish and they seem to really like it. We also took our torch coral up there because it was not doing well in ours. I don't know how it will fair because the tank is so deep and we don't have enough rock yet to set corals higher up. We took a frag of our Orange Rhodactis because it's splitting like crazy. We bought a Sandsifting Dragon Goby and two heads of hammer coral from kingfireandsafety. We do not have many corals at all so the tank is still pretty plain. We have some zoas and palys in our personal aquarium that we plan on taking up there as well.

We bought some Chaeto and it is growing really fast. We have already trimmed it once and sold some of it. (So Chaeto paid for itself now)

Fritz has donated a bunch of salt and supplements. We bought a RO/DI unit from Marc at MACNA so now we make saltwater for the school.

Now here is some VERY troubling news..... :( Our librarian contacted the guy in charge of our energy usage in the district to make sure that our library's temperature stays some what constant. (You can put in a request and they will keep the air/heat on for certain events) Our school does have geothermal heating and cooling so our temperature will stay more constant than other schools...... however, he said that we are not allowed to keep the heating/cooling on constantly and that we can expect to experience temperatures as high as 85 in the summer and 55 in the winter.

We just want to tackle one problem at a time at this point, so my question to everyone is this: will heaters be enough to keep the aquarium at the correct temperature?

Thanks for all your help!
Dorie
 
I heater will work however you will want to also find something like a ranco temperature controller to control it. I would also purchase two new lower wattage heaters, new ones will have a lower chance of failing and the lower wattage heaters will help guard against one of the heaters failing in the full on mode and baking the tank. The ranco controller can also be used with fan's that will help with cooling the tank in the warmer month's also. http://tinyurl.com/8pfb5pk

Cheers,
 
A few of you know I applied for the education foundation grant to help buy things for the aquarium like fish, clean up crew, etc. Well anyway we didn't get it. :(
"It was a very competitive year and the Education Foundation volunteer selection committee was faced with some very difficult decisions about which grants to fund."
 
if you get two heaters it is suppose to make it easier on the single heater to heat the water. check DNA for a chiller maybe and talk to them or local fish stores about your situation and what your are doing and see if they are willing to help out with a chiller or something.

that there electronic note pad
 
having multiple small heaters as prev mentioned is your best bet. I would seek out a reliable controler for sure. Im not sure how well they will heat the tank if the temp drops to 55 in the room. That seems like a VERY drastic change from where they would maintain the temp during "business hours"
 
THIS LINK has some guidelines on heating a tank to various room/tank temperature differentials, but I agree with Matt... keeping the tank cool when the hot weather comes may be your bigger concern.
 
Thanks for the ideas guys. We know we will have to locate a chiller by the time we get out for summer. Two heaters shouldn't be a problem.

We have another issue now. The wave point light fixture that was donated is having issues. One of the bulbs went out so I changed it. I turned the fixture on and it worked great. When I put it back on, it quit working. Just the one slot where the bulb was changed. I took the bulb out and exchanged it with another bulb in the fixture. Basically the t5 slot is not working. The other three work fine. Any ideas?
 
I finally got the time to mess with the fixture. One of the wires has come out of one of the connectors. I temporarily shoved it back in and used electric tape to seal it and hold it in place. Seems to be working fine now.
 
@Fish Outta Water wrote:
I finally got the time to mess with the fixture. One of the wires has come out of one of the connectors. I temporarily shoved it back in and used electric tape to seal it and hold it in place. Seems to be working fine now. said:
Sorry I missed this post ....... I thing I will be coming to FW this Saturday ( 22nd --gun show at Conv Ctr ) ... if you or Matt as a few minutes let's meet and get this addressed to ensure it is safe.
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It's been a long time since we've made an update on the tank at school. We have been very busy with school and the holidays. Honestly there have not been any changes until this weekend. We purchased a coral beauty and some margarita snails to take care of some algae issues. I've tried to get pictures of the coral beauty but it wants to stay in the rocks right now. I think we are going to purchase some firefish as well. We got some for our tank at home last night and we really like the way they look.

Just a quick update.

Matt and Dorie


Matt
 
Its been a tough year at school this year so we haven't dedicated as much time building the aquarium as we would have liked. We have debated tearing down the tank during the summer. However, we decided to keep it going this summer. We added a couple of fish to the tank yesterday. Frank had great prices on yellow tangs and lawnmower blennies. Just adding the yellow tang has improved the look of the tank. The lawnmower blenny instantly went to the hair algae growing on the back glass. The kids will love both of these fish.

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Matt
 
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Full tank shot of the school aquarium taken today right after I fed. We hope to raise more money this year for more livestock, rock, and to replace some of the components. I'd like to get more flow through the system than what we have now. Obviously, if anyone has a return pump they are willing to donate or sell at a price I can afford, let me know. My wife and I have put so much of our own money and time into keeping up with the tank at school. It was a horribly busy year so the tank does not look the way I want it to. However, I am catching up a bit this summer and its starting to look much better.

On another note, we lost our first fish this week when the lawnmower blenny went carpet surfing. While sad, we are pretty happy with our results so far with this tank. All levels are great and everything is healthy. Corals could use a little better lighting but that's a fundraiser for the coming year.

Matt
 
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