Coral Propagation at Berlin Central School District

[xian]

Hello everyone,

A little background on me and the current state of this project, pics to follow.

I am a graduate of the University of Miami. I began my education as a marine biology major but ended up as an biology education major. I moved back to New York in 1999 and I have been incorporating marine aquaria into my classrooms since 2002.

The system I have constructed is two 20gallon high aquaria with 15gallon sump. Each tank has a 150watt HQI sunpod purchased by the school. THe sump contains an old skimmer (Berlin I believe) that I modified to use an oceanrunner 1500 for a recirc pump.

One 20gallon contains a nano reef with two false percula clowns and royal gramma. There is a very lager healthy green star polyp colony in this reef as well as a large red algae and a few other soft corals.

The second 20gallon contains egg crate which is to be used for the coral propagation. This year the students will be propagating a large Sinularia from my home system.

This is the second year for the propagation project. Last year's system was not successful due to a lack of stable salinity. I have since installed an auto top off system.

I will provide some pictures later on this week.

[Gottcha]

sounds good ... cant wait to see pics.

[Elsherst]

I love looking at pic's and following along with projects. This sounds like another fun one to follow.

[specsgirl]

can't wait to see photos! Sounds like a great project!

[Linda C.]

Matt,

Welcome the the 'Aquariums in the Classroom' section of Coral Forums.

Would you happen to have a 'wish list' of any items/livestock that you might want for your school?

I'm looking forward to the photos. Maybe at some point Tom and I can make a road trip out and see the set up.

[Remora 82]

Hey Matt,
Welcome & good to see you on this forum.
Just saw you entered your school tank here. Great News. As Linda said hopefully sometime we can get a chance to see what you guys have been up to.

[xian]

OK here are some pics from this week.

Here is the overall setup. Not fancy, as you can see.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_08121.jpg

Here is a pic of our largest colony an unidentified green star polyp colony
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_08151.jpg


Here are some pics of the inside of the prop tank.

Some stony frags that I am using as a suitability barometer S hystrix, M digitata (green) M digitata (elkhorn), Caulastrea sp.

So far so good

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_08171.jpg


Here you can see the large Sinularia sp that will be this year's propagation coral. You can also see last year's victims...I mean subjects. I was a little too ambitious in wanting my students to propagate a S. hystrix but as I mentioned the water quality was too unstable. The Sinularia is far more hardy and easily propagated. The S hystrix mother colony is recovering in my system at home.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_08161.jpg

[Toyota Guy]

Looking good Matt. Welcome to our board!

[xian]

Thanks everyone

I would love to have a display tank at school where I could plant one frag from each class and have them labeled.

ex. Class of 2010: Sinularia sp. Class of 2011: Montipora sp.

[xian]

Fragging went well today.

I manned the razor the students zip tied their corals to rubble or plastic picks and mounted them on water capsuls. Almost all are open:cool2:

Here is their task:

Each coral has been placed in the front row of the rack. The students will measure their frag every week for the rest of the year. The frags have been labled with a paint pen.

Pics to follow

[gman0526]

Pics to follow

Cough, cough.....

[Linda C.]

Cough, cough.....

I am going to go visit Xian's tanks next week :elephant.gof:

Planning on bringing my camera...wish me luck with getting a few good shots.

[xian]

OK here are pics of the Kids' corals on friday. I have been reattaching many of them for the last couple days and we had a couple casualties over the weekend.

You can see that I've had each student mark their coral on the glass with a paint pen. I believe that this will help us chart growth. Also take note of the progress of the M. digitata and S hystrix frags.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0829.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0840.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0837.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0842.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0843.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0841.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0840.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0839.jpg

[crny11216]

dibs on a frag when the semester ends!!

[Elsherst]

Hey me to, Can I get one from someone who got an A in the class :D

[xian]

I'll be more than willing to send frags out to anyone for the cost of shipping. My request is that you keep us updated on the coral and let us know where it goes.

Of course if it dies, we'd like to know that too.

[Elsherst]

You'll have to let us know when they are ready then.

[crny11216]

have any of the students decided/show interest in setting up tanks at home?

[Darth P]

That is a really neat project, your students are very fortunate to have had an experience like this

[xian]

have any of the students decided/show interest in setting up tanks at home?

Oddly (or maybe not) one of my students from last year has started his own tank. His class's corals died last year. His girlfriend is in the class and they plan on putting her coral in his tank at the conclusion of the experiment. I set them up with a prizm protein skimmer that LindaC had given me.

I forgot my camera this morning so this week's photos will have to wait, I may try to snap a quick one with my cell phone but no promises on quality, I'll get my good camera in on Monday. The growth is already apparent.

Some corals seem to be having trouble attaching.

I moved some rocks in my tank at home and ended up with frags:frown:

So I brought more test subjects in for future candidates. Pocillipora is my favorite. In my opinion it is the coral that best resembles what a coral should look like, in the manner that we describe them to students. I'll be thrilled if it thrives in this system.

That is a really neat project, your students are very fortunate to have had an experience like this

Thanks

Yesterday the commissioner of the State department of Education visited our school as well asSir Michael Geyer who accompanied the Commissioner worked as an advisor to former Prime Minister Tony Blair in his role as an educational consultant and I showed him all of the projects. I believe they were impressed I'm hoping that the school can get a Bill and Melinda Gates grant to improve the science department. I want a new physics lab.

[gman0526]

That's great news on that visit, I hope you get that grant $$$$. FWIW I've had better luck with pocillopora over any other "SPS" coral and have seen many others that even report non-sexual reproduction in their tanks, so chances are that if water parameters are there you should have no problem with it.

[xian]

The pics I took were terrible. We'll have to wait till Monday, possibly Tuesday if we get hit with a Nor'Easter.

[xian]

OK so on top of the Nor'Easter, I also got the flu.

Here are this week's pics. I picked these because of their exceptional growth. Take not of how much these frags have encrusted in only a few weeks

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0844.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0845.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0846.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0847.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0848.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0850.jpg

[Elsherst]

looks like they are comming along nicely xian, The kids should be Proud.

[tcreef]

Looks good Matt. Nice to see pics of the progress.

[xian]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0859.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0860.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0861.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/IMG_0862.jpg

[Elsherst]

Great growth in almost a month there.

[xian]

OK found my camera. Updates :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/4-17-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/4-173.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/4-17-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/caulastrea.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/pocillipora-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/testfrags-1.jpg

[Elsherst]

Awsome growth on those. Are the kids excited at all? They should be, they've done a nice job there.

[xian]

Is anyone still interested in adopting one of these?

[Elsherst]

Any guess what shipping would be to Southern CA?

[Gottcha]

Is anyone still interested in adopting one of these?

Id be happy to help ya with any of them ... Linda i believe is up your way... maybe she can get them and i can meet up with her.

[Elsherst]

Which ones are avalible for adoption. I like the Sinularia sp. and the Trumpet (Caulastrea sp.).

[xian]

Elsherst The student grown leathers are up for adoption. I'd love to spread them around. Sorry the kids won't let the caulastrea go. Its very popular. :) However I have the mother colony at home so I'll see what I can do about getting you a frag. The rest will move into the 175 PM me an address and I'll figure out a shipping cost.

Gottcha,

I'll ask Linda to bring one down to you.

[Gottcha]

sounds good ... thank you

[Jimbo205]

Xian, good to see the photos of the tanks in your school.

I hope to see them in person someday.

Thank you Linda C. and Michael Andrews for letting me know about Coralforum.

Jimbo205

[xian]

The old coral propagation system met with an unfortunate but thankfully foreseen end on Monday

Here is its replacement
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/mchristia80/0715081412.jpg

All specimens are accounted for.

[Elsherst]

Good to hear you changed it, instead of it making you change it. Are there still any coral left that need adopting?

[xian]

There are three leathers two are spoken for one by you, so I can send you two.


Yep I got your PM let me see what I can do today about setting up a shipping date for next week.

-Matt

[Elsherst]

Works for me. PM with the details whenever you get them.

[xian]

So...
We are about to embark on this year's coral propagation project.

My 10th grade biology class will be growing one of two species this year.

Pocillopora damicornis or Montipora digitata

Currently sps species are not doing well in the prop tank. My marine biology students are working on the water quality, which is disturbingly good.

My feeling is that the tank desperately needs water flow. All this will need to be solved before we can start this year's project.

I intend to work with sps this year for a couple reasons

The first is the ability of the students to quantify their data. They will be able to weigh the frags so that they can record the growth. They also will be able to make an association between coral growth and reef building.