Mrs. Metcalf's Class and Our Awesome Aquarium

We started our year with an empty aquarium and a dream! 

We wanted to host a little piece of the ocean right here in our room. 

Thanks to the awesome folks at Pets in the Classroom and Seascape Studios, we are making it happen!

This will be a record of our journey...

The Beginning

We will be using a 6 gallon JBJ Nano-Cube that I bought second hand.  It seems like a great size for what we want.  I will be using some equipment and supplies from home but most things I purchased from Joe and Adam at Seascape Studios in St Louis.  They have been very kind and helpful in getting this tank up and running. 

Here are a few pictures of our set up from the very beginning of the year...

The Lessons

Before we got started we had to learn about aquatic ecosystems and what makes them tick.  We read all about the nitrogen cycle and  food webs and learned what would be needed to keep our aquarium in a "balance".

We brought in different water samples and learned about TDS or Total Dissolved Solids.  We found out that our drinking water actually has a lot of stuff dissolved in it.  Most of that stuff is good for us like fluoride.  But just because it is good for humans doesn't mean its good for things that live in the ocean!  Mrs. Metcalf has a RO-DI machine at home.  It takes everything out of the water so we can add just what the fish and coral will need.  Here we are taking readings from our water. We are measuring the TDS and the starting ammonia levels.  Both at zero.

We took our super clean water and mixed in a pre-made powder that has all the salt and other nutrients that ocean water has.  We mixed it over night and got it up to the right temperature.  We added some crushed coral sand to the bottom.  Now it was time to fill the tank with our mixed sea water.

After the water cleared Mrs. Metcalf added a solution of ammonia.  This takes the place of the fish wastes and extra uneaten food that would normally need to be cleaned up by our decomposers.  We are trying to get our population of decomposers up so that when we add real fish they will have all the necessary parts of their ecosystem and can thrive.  We also added some rocks.  Some were from Mrs. Metcalf's reef tank at home.  They already have some of the good bacteria that we are trying to grow.  The other rock was dry.  There is one super cool piece that looks like owl's eyes.

After we got to looking in the tank we found a hitchhiker!!!  A small Florida Cerith snail

decided to come along for the ride on Mrs. Metcalf's rocks. 

September 6th

We have great news!!  Our ammonia levels are down to zero!  Now we start to watch for nitrites.

In class we have been learning about how organisms interact.  And how a food web works.  We have been thinking about what kinds of animals we want to have in our tank. 

September 21st

Finally, after two weeks of checking we have news to report about our water chemistry....

One of the students this morning spotted the change right off the bat.  We have green algae growth on the top rocks.  So we used our science inquiry skills to figure out what and why it was before we even tested.  Green = algae; Algae = plants; Plants eat Nitrates; Nitrates must be high and feeding the plants; If nitrates are high, nitrites must be down

And the chemistry confirms our thoughts...

Now we are getting close to being ready for FISH!!!  Boy this ocean keeping is a lot of work! Mrs. Metcalf decided to change some of the water out to help get rid of the nitrates.  She told us that the good bacteria would live for a little while on the rocks, in the sand, and in our filtration without water.  So we mixed up some fresh saltwater, got it up to temperature and did our first water change.  We also added a mesh bag full of carbon and another full of GFO to our filter to help keep our water clean.

We have been seeing a lot more of our snail.  And Mrs. Metcalf taught us today how to stand in line and wait politely to look at the aquarium.  (We used to sometimes crowd around it and push a little, but no more.)  This week we have been learning about parasites and hosts, symbiotic relationships, competition and balance in an ecosystem.  Mrs. Metcalf is going to take a water sample in to the fish store this weekend to see if we are fish ready!!! 

We Can't Wait!!

September 24th

The students of Mrs. Metcalf's class are happy to announce that we now own a horned blennie.  Mrs. Metcalf also added some coral "frags" (fragments) from her own tank at home.  We got several colors of mushroom coral, a small kenya tree coral and some green star polyps.  These are all corals that grow very easily.

Thursday - 29 September -

We have some unfortunate news today.  Our fish died in the night.  We are rechecking our water chemistry, but it looks like this was just a fluke and not a problem on our part.  Mrs. Metcalf is going to call and see what "the experts" think...