New Classroom Tank

[awtank2017]

Hi everyone! I am new to reef2reef and new to saltwater tanks. I currently set up a tank in my classroom (high school science) in Lake County, IL. It's at 24g biocube with stock everything. I have added a Jager heater and a Tunze ato. The tank was set up with 25lbs of live rock and 25lbs of live sand. We currently have 3 red legged hermit crabs and 6 trochus snails. We also have some dragon's breath and an unidentified starfish that came in on the live rock.I will be getting a blue tuxedo urchin and 1 turbo snail this weekend. After that we will start adding our corals. The students are test the water parameters everyday and graphing the data. They also have created info card s for each species in the aquarium. We will later be using the tank to talk about symbiotic relationships in my Zoology class and coral bleaching due to climate change in my Earth Science class. I am so excited to have this addition to my classroom.
Due to the fact that this in a classroom, the school has given me a small budget to stock the tank. I am currently working with our lfs (Sho Tank Aquariums in Mundelein, IL) to stock the tank. However, we will very quickly reach our budget. So, is there anyone who would be willing to donate corals or other animals to stock our aquarium? My goal is to make this as maintenance free as possible so I am keeping the fish load down to only 1-3. I am able to pick up items if they are in Lake County and parts of Cook County, IL or in Kenosha County, WI.

Here are some of the corals on our list:
1. Birdsnest
2. Trumpet or Candy cane or Blastomussa
3. Pineapple
4. Duncan
5. Frogspawn
6. Torch
7. Hammer
8. Pocillopora

Fish or Other Inverts on our list:
1. Diamond Watchman Golby
2. Pistol Shrimp
3. Lettuce Sea Slug
4. Clown fish (with anemone but not sure which one)
Any feedback or other suggestions is greatly appreciated

 

[Jason mack]

Bump ! Wish i could help but Im in Holland !

 

[Grey Ghost]

Check out the "Pets in the Classroom" grant sponsorship that Petsmart is involved in. You may be able to qualify.

 

[awtank2017]

Check out the "Pets in the Classroom" grant sponsorship that Petsmart is involved in. You may be able to qualify.

Thank you so much for the suggestion. I applied for the reimbursement, hopefully that will go through!

 

[awtank2017]

Thank you so much for the suggestion. I applied for the reimbursement, hopefully that will go through!

Thanks again, I just got the email letting me know that the reimbursement request went through! Luckily that will cover some of the corals we got last weekend and leave us with a little more to get something else.

 

[DancingShark]

That's so cool by petsmart.
I would try does basement coral sellers. Most are cheap and bigger than usual frags.

 

[awtank2017]

I just thought I would post an update on our classroom aquarium. We recently got a blue tuxedo urchin which is doing well, along with a hammer coral, kenya tree coral, and dunan's coral. We will be looking to continue to add some more from our list since these are doing well. They love watching the urchin and the hammer coral!