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!)

[paddyob]

I say 4' reef.

As you wont be there to monitor 24/7 (weekends).... go easy softies (zoas, Leathers, Kenyas and so on) as they obviously need less attention and grow quickly. The movement they have will also be eye catching to your students.

Go easy peaceful community fish as well. Some that can handle overfeeding if a student accidentally dumps the food in (ha ha).

Should be exciting.

What ever you do.... PLEASE start a build thread. I'll follow it!

[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.

[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.

[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!

[sitandwatch]

Tank for high school I say predator tank, things that kill and eat other things would be fun... just like school.

[ponokareefer]

I hate to say it, but I would think a classroom tank would be a major distraction for the students. I know I wouldn't be paying a whole lot of attention in class if there was a fish tank in the room, fresh or salt water.