Classroom aquarium

Hi!I'm a new teacher in Garland, and I'm teaching Aquatic Science at the high school level. I would love to set up a saltwater aquarium in my room for my students to help take care of, but I'm not sure where to start. I'm a former zookeeper, and I do have marine aquarium experience, but it's all been on a very large scale.I would love some recommendations on what brands/equipment to look at. My budget isn't huge, so cost-efficient (but still good quality) supplies and equipment are essential for me! Basically, any help and ideas are appreciated! Thanks!
 
We should start with the type of  livestock you are going to teach. Fish, corals, or mixed reef. Fish only would be the most cost effective option. 
 
I'd love to do a mixed tank, both coral and fish. If I'm only going to do one or the other, I'll be doing coral only. I have a bunch of freshwater tanks already set up and going that are fish only, so I'm trying to add the challenge and variety a coral tank would bring. I found an all-in-one aquarium in storage which I believe has been used for saltwater in the past, but I haven't tried plugging anything in to see what works.  It's a 38 gallon (according to measurements), and appears to have a built in chiller, potentially a heater? and air pump. I don't know anything about the manufacturer, or how old the thing is. Next step is plugging things in to see if anything needs repairs, I suppose. Assuming everything works, I'll want to add a protein skimmer, but I'm not sure how I'd fit one into the system. Also, I'm not sure how the filtration works on this thing, so I'm assuming I'm missing some parts. It looks like the middle well has carbon at the bottom, but I have no idea how the water is supposed to circulate. Any ideas? View attachment 5924View attachment 5930
 
We have a member who has offered his full system to you for free, it's a mixed reef, stocked and running. I believe it is a 90gl. I let him know it would be sometime Mid September before I could arrange the breakdown of his system and the move to your classroom. Please let me know if you are interested. You can see a pic of it in the general discussion forum.
 
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