Advice on setting up a classroom tank

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Ok, I can set up a small tank tomorrow, that'll let me bring them home over the break too so I can monitor them more closely. I didn't want to do a PWC of more than 20% in an emergency like that, I was always told that it can add stress and end up killing the fish, is that not the case?

I'll try to cycle up the tank during the break. I was planning on making some base rock over the break as well, it won't be ready in time though if I try to reset and start cycling the tank this weekend. I can probably only afford about 10lbs of live rock, can I start with that and add in the base rock I make once it's ready or will the tank need to cycle again once I do that?
 
wow...with ammonia 3.0ppm, surely the live stock will die....why dont u transfer all the live stock u have to the nearest LFS...let them tk care for u...and let the tank cycle first...
 
Ok, I'm setting up the small tank this morning and I wanted to test the water just to check. The water coming right out of my tap after mixing with salt and adding a declorinator is reading 0.5 ppm. What on earth? I'm retesting just to check.
 
There is very little beneficial bacteria in the water column. Bacteria attach to surfaces (Rock, grains of sand, the glass, etc.). With ammonia reading 3ppm and fish in the tank a 50% pwc is in order. Twice daily 20% - 30% PWC's may be necessary to keep ammonia low enough to save the fish.

Take them home over the break and try to maintain the water parameters in a 10 gallon tank with 2x/daily pwc's until the QT tank is cycled.

Take the time to visit some local LFS and ask them about local clubs, and fill them in on your project. Especially at this time of year you may end up getting some equipment (test kits with near expiration dates, maybe even a piece or two of LR or base rock, etc.). Get in touch with the local reef clubs, join them and let them know about the project. Many civic minded people would be happy to help. I know that if you were in my area I would be happy to donate some old equipment, LS and LR to your project. Heck, I'd even volunteer to help the kids out in school as the project got started.

You don't have to do this alone. But, you do need to do it the correct way to turn into a valuable lesson for the students.

The fish you have may have already suffered enough gill damage due to ammonia poisoning that they may not make it. Take that as a learning opportunity. Start again with the fishless cycling method and teach that to the students. It would be great if the end result of the project is a class full of students who decide to have their own piece of the reef at home, and know how to do that successfully.

I think I speak for everyone here in hoping for a successful project for you and the students.

Also, please update your profile with your general location. There may be members of this forum who are close enough to help.
 
New Aquatics Teacher said:
Ok, I'm setting up the small tank this morning and I wanted to test the water just to check. The water coming right out of my tap after mixing with salt and adding a declorinator is reading 0.5 ppm. What on earth? I'm retesting just to check.
Click to expand...

Depending on the dechlorinator that you used, it may be giving you a false positive reading, but even if there was ammonia it would be bound into a non-toxic but still bio-available form. So it's not going to hurt your fish but will still be used in the biological process.

Although you do need to make sure you are using a product that removes BOTH chlorine and chloramine. What product are you using?
 
Ok, QT set up at home and all five remaining fish seem to be doing ok. I double checked and the dechlorinator does remove both chlorine and chloramines so that shouldn't be an issue. The ammonia levels in the tank this morning were down to around 0.25 as well. The only concern I have now is the pH and alkalinity, they're both high. The ph is reading in the 8.4 to 8.6 range at home and the alkalinity is reading in the 2.9 to 3.6 range. Everything I've been seeing is suggestions for if the pH etc. is too low, nothing for if its too high, is this a concern, and if so how do I fix it?
 
Also, the water is cloudy, every other time I've filled a tank its cleared up in a few hours, but I filled the tank up over 24 hours ago and the water still looks cloudy.
 
Tank cloudiness is most likely a bacterial bloom. This often happens as the bacteria population seek the right level to deal with the ammonia/nitrites. It will clear up on its own if that's what it is.

As far as pH is concerned, it will vary a lot when the tank is cycling. Don't try to do anything about it while cycling as it will just be a moving target. Even after cycling, it's debatable as to whether or not you can really do much to alter the pH assuming it's within acceptable levels.
 
Ok update, all the fish in the QT are going strong and water chemistry is looking good, continuing with the twice daily PWC.

I've set up a 45gal tub in my spare bathroom with 40lbs argonite sand about 10lbs of BR and 5lbs of LR (I'm making more BR as well, but it won't be ready for at least a week). Tested the water this morning and it was showing 1.0 ppm Amm 0.5 ppm NI and 5.0 ppm NA (that's up from 0 NA just yesterday) I'm planning a PWC today. Should I add an ammonia source again or wait until the ammonia levels have gone all the way back down to 0?

Once I have the rock cycling well, I'll need to move everybody back to the 40gal tank at school, any suggestions on the best way to do that? I can work in stages if I need to.

On a related note, I mentioned way back that I wanted to possibly move up to a much larger tank over the summer. The one MAJOR problem I am forseeing with keeping a really big tank is summer vacations. Would it even be possible to get everybody home safely for summer and if so how would you manage it? I only live about 15 miles from my school so it's not a long drive.
 
If you are going to make your own base rock make sure your cure it in a seperate container because it will cause large changes in your PH. It will take quite a while for it to finish curing as well.

If you wanted to start a large tank it would probably have to stay at school. Moving a large tank can be done but it is a ton of work and not something you want to do at the begining and end of each school year.
 
It depends on whether you want to keep one big tank, or two, leaving one empty all the time. You could to a tank transfer at the end and beginning of the school year relatively easily (it's just labor) if you had 2 similarly size tanks. If it was just one tank, it becomes more difficult. I'm guessing it's the latter. You could keep the smaller tank (that you're upgrading from) at home, and transfer what you can, empty the big tank and move it, then transfer everything back to the big tank. That will essentially double the stress on the fish, but the LR and sand, etc, should all be fine if you do the transfer correctly (keeping everything submerged in 5g buckets during the 15 mile move). Get some students to help you out. Those young bucks and their strong backs...
 
Ok, that's more or less what I was thinking. I can use the 40 gallon, and I'll have a bunch of empty 20 gallons as well since my student tanks won't be in use during that time of year. I'll have them help me clean and set up tanks, move everybody, then just mad dash to get the tank LS and LR moved to the house and set up. I can probably space it out some what so that it's done during the last week of school. Since most of my students are seniors they'll be exempt from the final anyways so no need to study!
 
Quick update, everyone is still going strong in the QT so no worries there. I have the 40 lbs of argonite sand 5 lbs of live rock and 15 lbs of base rock curing in a 45 gallon tub along with some small chunks of salmon to add ammonia. I've been testing daily and here's what I've got:

12/19 Amm - 1.0 NI - 0.2 NA - 0
12/20 Amm - 1.0 NI - 0.5 NA - 5.0
12/21 Amm - 1.0 NI - 0.5 NA - 5.0
12/22 Amm - 1.0 NI - >1 NA - 10
12/23 Amm - 1.0 NI - >1 NA - 20

So it seems to be cylcing, but it looks like maybe it still needs some more bacteria before it will drop all the way down to 0 on the Amm and NI? Any thought on about how long I should keep it going before I'm ready to move it back in to the tank at school?

Also, my DIY base rock is "curing" seperately in the bath tub, pH is reading at 8.6 still, when it drops down to safe levels should I add it in with the rest of the rock?
 
pH will swing all over during curing/cycling. Don't worry about it unless it tanks down or spikes way, way up.

Don't bother to test Nitrate until Nitrite is 0. Nitrate tests convert Nitrate to Nitrite and then test for that so it throws off the test.
 
Oh, I'm just testing the pH on the DIY base rock, I was told that the concrete "curing" (not cycling) will mess with the pH in my cycling tank so I should make sure it's stable. I'm just wondering what pH I should be aiming for with the concrete before I add it in with the rest of the cycling LR and BR?

Is there anything else I should do to help move the cycling along? I've got the PH's going and the temp around 85.
 
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