high school classroom tank

[dunl]

I'm going to put a saltwater tank into my classroom. I have a couple of equipment options, going anywhere from a 4ft (72g) up to a 6ft tank of some time if I wish to purchase. I also have some smaller tanks.

I'd like some ideas on what you think would be the best type of tank for a high school classroom. Interest for the students, ease of maintenance (relative ease, mind you....I'm no idiot ), educational, etc. Hopefully this poll will generate some neat ideas.

Simply think back to your high school times (or current, maybe for our younger members) and let me know what you'd like to see in a classroom tank. Feel free to elaborate profusely below.

Thanks.

[ScubaSteve]

What I think would be incredibly interesting and fun is to do a shallow touch tank, something like a 48" x 48" x 12" (~120G). It would be big enough for several people to stand around at once, you can pick livestock that could be handled (ie. softies, some LPS, sea cuc's, etc) so the students can get more hands on (touching your first coral is really bizarre and cool) and you can get away with less expensive, lower power lights.

Understandably the logistic would be more difficult and you'd have to custom build a tank but I think the education and fun factors would be higher.

I've actually be debating building one of these for myself for a long time!

[JonT]

I would stick with a 4 footer. Plenty of room for fish, and simple corals. And yet still functional for lessons.

Nitrogen cycle (few test kits)
Ph - Calc - Mag relations (hated math with the elements of + that, means - that etc)
Coral reproduction (Biology tie in)
Refraction of light (a nice Brackish water with spitting fish!)

[Madreefer]

a 20g nano. Any bigger would be just too much work and good chance for a tank crash when it comes to taking it down and moving it at the end of the school year.

[DiverDude]

Gee that's a tough one. I'll presume you have the ongoing budget to cover any of the options you laid out so, if Ignore cost..

-The best educational experience would be the one that best duplicates the ocean so I'd say reef. If we say reef then I would say 4' simply because it's more manageable.

-From a practical perspective, a reef tank is hard enough to care for when you're around regularly but when you're not near the tank for days on end (long weekends, summer holidays) so I'd wonder if ANY tank is really practical but I suppose a FOWLR would be a compromise of sorts. Still risky IMO.

[naesco]

A six footer comes to mind.
I don't know why!

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

a 20g nano. Any bigger would be just too much work and good chance for a tank crash when it comes to taking it down and moving it at the end of the school year.

In my experience, the general rule is the smaller the tank, the more work they are to maintain...?

I put maybe an hour to an hour and a half into my 95 a week but my 3 tanks from 12 to 20 gallons take much more time and things are so much harder to maintain at stable levels....

If it were me, I would go with a 40 or 60 gallon breeder tank, sumpless (cuz it's a lot quieter) with zoas and lps and a softie or two and an oversized skimmer.

[Seafan]

Well I have a grade 11 daughter, I had my own ideas about what she enjoys about my tank so I threw them by her to see if she agreed with what I thought. Basically fish are fish to kids, sw or fw. Anytime she goes with me to lfs it's always the bizarre and out of the usual. Urchins, star fish (hitchiker as well as the usual), bristle worms, sea cucumbers and anything else that fits into the unusual category. If the fish are unusual this works too, puffers, lion fish, basically characteristics that most other fish do not have, or fish that will reproduce in captivity, clowns or cardinals, as well as symbiotic relationships. For corals, she finds most boring, until I want to start and do some fragging then she is in there like a dirty shirt with the cutters. For tank size she says a tank in the classroom might prove distracting during times when they really don't care what the teacher is saying, so placement of the tank should be considered. But should be as large as can be reasonably accomodated. Last year she was so taken with the unusuals that she had a fascination in biology class, and kept bringing things like bristle worms, bristle stars, asterinas, and amphipods out of my tank to study them under the microscope. Just our 2 cents, hope you find it useful.

[jorjef]

+1 on the below, I don't know how many times I heard from my 17 year old "dad why don't you get some cool fish". Shock value, and the unusual is what you need to grab their attention and to get them asking questions. My feather dusters always get a gasp when the plume disappears in a blink of an eye.

Originally Posted by Seafan

Well I have a grade 11 daughter, I had my own ideas about what she enjoys about my tank so I threw them by her to see if she agreed with what I thought. Basically fish are fish to kids, sw or fw. Anytime she goes with me to lfs it's always the bizarre and out of the usual. Urchins, star fish (hitchiker as well as the usual), bristle worms, sea cucumbers and anything else that fits into the unusual category. If the fish are unusual this works too, puffers, lion fish, basically characteristics that most other fish do not have, or fish that will reproduce in captivity, clowns or cardinals, as well as symbiotic relationships. For corals, she finds most boring, until I want to start and do some fragging then she is in there like a dirty shirt with the cutters. For tank size she says a tank in the classroom might prove distracting during times when they really don't care what the teacher is saying, so placement of the tank should be considered. But should be as large as can be reasonably accomodated. Last year she was so taken with the unusuals that she had a fascination in biology class, and kept bringing things like bristle worms, bristle stars, asterinas, and amphipods out of my tank to study them under the microscope. Just our 2 cents, hope you find it useful.

[pinhead]

I can provide a perspective that others cannot. I am a high school Biology and Chemistry teacher. I have set up a number of freshwater, saltwater, terrariums and vivariums over the years. The past few years I have set up a little Biocube 8 and would not go with anything larger. It is stocked with softies, LPS and a couple of clownfish.

The main consideration for going small is maintenence. During the week there are always enough kids around that want to help out with water changes and feeding but what do you do during holidays?

The Biocube is just running PC's (non stock lighting) and has a lid so there isn't a lot of evaporation. It can make it through winter break with no maintenence and a couple of little fish can live off any fauna living in the rocks. What are you going to do with a big tank over Christmas break? In the summer, I knock the whole thing down and send it home with a kid or a teacher and set it back up in September.

Educationally, A reef tank is definitely worth it but there are some practical problems you have to consider.