The Coral Reef Project At Stratton Elementary School

[Brandon Rutherford]

We're still working hard to meet our $3,000 gofundme campaign to purchase salt, food and new livestock. Online donations have slowed to a stop but we're still busting our butts to sell baked goods, both at a recent open house and at our weekly bake sale at Sailfin Pet Store in Champaign Illinois.

Last Thursday, Stratton had an end of the year open house and I was able to meet the parents of many kids who are interested but don't directly participate in my project. It was nice to hear that students who have tanks in their classrooms talk about them frequently at home. My students created some informal, interactive presentations including microscopes showing our plankton cultures and some inverts to touch.

I was particularly impressed with my student's ability to explain complex marine biology concepts to the adults who were interested in our project. In this photo Elyes is talking about symbiosis with a parent whose daughter will be in my class next year.

Kabeer and Nipun discuss our marine biology curriculum to an interested person at Sailfin Pet Store

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

Also thought I'd share this picture of a banggai cardinal with an eye infection. A well meaning student purchased a unhealthy fish for me as a present. My quarantine tank was full and the only tank compatible with the new fish was a 25 gallon tank I'd been using to grow out some young banggai's The new fish promptly died and almost crashed the tank. The next day I noticed one of the fish had this infection and isn't eating. I'm going to hold back on antibiotics for now but hope to keep ya all posted on it's recovery.

 

[chickofthesea]

I am so happy about the tropic marine salt donation. I started using it because they are your sponsor and will keep using it because it's great. I will get ahold of you sometime this week. I plan on baking some goodies and dropping them off or staying and helping if you need it this Saturday.

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

I moved on of my tanks to my local Montessori and will volunteer over the summer to teach marine biology lessons.

Tank had an excess of filtration and equipment to make it really easy to maintain. Just got the new tunze nano osmolator, I really like it.

Special thanks to Tropic Marin, LRS foods and Tunze (plus my other sponsors) for helping me do this kind of thing.

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

Setup two jellyfish art tanks at my local library. Interest from the children has been huge so far. The librarians have been fearfully caring for them. It's been fun teaching them about aquarium care. They mean well but put the 5 gallon white tank into cycle again from over changing the water.

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

Starting my seventh try at hatching out or saddleback clownfish eggs. Moved the three fish that have survived the last 6 weeks since my last attempt. Still having trouble at the 5 week mark. Think it's an issue with h feeding. Transferring them from brine shrimp to dried food.

Harvested the eggs at 8 days, post spawning. The eyes on the larva look huge. Still experimenting with flow.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

Larry at LRS Reef Frenzy came though with another generous donation. Best part about ordering from him is all of the freebies and surprises he puts in each box. Candy, tattoos and new blends of food including his fertility blend for spawning fish. I keep this exclusively for my two pairs of spawning clownfish.

Larry was thoughtful enough to provide tattoos to multiple classrooms. Kids are always proud to show off their tanks.

 

[NBcoralreef]

Hi R2R,
My tank is pretty much established now. My clownfish have made a small pit under the live rock. They,at times sway themselves over the sand,and have moved a good amount of sand from this spot. Do clownfish usually do that? Does this indicate something?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Looks like fun. Keep up the great work everyone!!!

 

[jsker]

Hi R2R,
My tank is pretty much established now. My clownfish have made a small pit under the live rock. They,at times sway themselves over the sand,and have moved a good amount of sand from this spot. Do clownfish usually do that? Does this indicate something?

Some do dig.

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

I've been volunteering to do a number of marine biology lessons at summer camps and other events around my local community.

Worked today at the DREAAM academy with a number of preschool boys. None had ever been to the ocean before.

Initial lessons focus on developing basic observational and measurement skills. We looked at differences in coral skeletons and talked about the tile coral plays in the ocean.

I filled tubs with macro algae and inverts from my refugium. Students looked through the algae for them and then we viewed them through the microscope. We talked about how many important living things are quiet small and have much simpler bodies compared to vertebrate mammals (the animals most students are familiar with).

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

Lou from tropic marin came though with an amazing donation of ProReef salt, the best salt there is. His donations this summer coupled with our fundraiser is enough to keep our project in salt into the next year!

Thanks Lou!

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

I had been making great strides in supporting the clownfish fry over the summer. My most recent hatch had over 100 and was thriving at 6 weeks. The secret seems to be starting powdered food early around day 7 and always having a ton of nauplii in the tank as well so they have a constant food source. My fear of ammonia spikes was causing me to starve them in previous attempts. This time around I didn't test for ammonia and added crazy amounts of food.

Things were going great until last week when i came to school to find this.

Water splashes tripped the GFI and cut the circulation to the tank. With the high amount of biomass in the ten gallon tank, things quickly crashed.

 

[DracoKat]

1. So sorry to hear about your clowns! You were doing so well with them too.
2. Wow, that's a lot of salt!
3. Wow, that's a lot of tanks!

Seriously.. this is amazing what you're doing for the school.. the kids and parents alike. I got a bit emotional seeing how happy these kids are and how excited they are about learning new things! I am so glad you have some amazing donors too!

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

1. So sorry to hear about your clowns! You were doing so well with them too.
2. Wow, that's a lot of salt!
3. Wow, that's a lot of tanks!

Seriously.. this is amazing what you're doing for the school.. the kids and parents alike. I got a bit emotional seeing how happy these kids are and how excited they are about learning new things! I am so glad you have some amazing donors too!

Thanks friend. Going into school everyday over the summer isn't always fun but knowing how important this is to the kids keeps me motivated. And we do have great sponsors I couldn't do this project without them.

I also had someone donated a really cool Colombian rainbow boa. It's something of a rescue animal. It's super tame and I'm excited to show my kiddos when the come back in August. Reptiles are a whole other skill set.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Loving the classroom stuff. I will be taking some of your ideas with me to schools. Thanks for the updates and the ideas.

Sorry about the clowns.

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

I visited my student Cornelius today. Early this year a generous R2R member bought him a 29 gallon aquarium set up for gold fish. The fish are all alive and well and Cornelius is very excited to return to school next month.

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

The jellyfish tanks I set up in the children's section of my local library has created a lot of interest in my project. The department has purchased dozens of books on jellyfish and at their request i gave a marine biology presentation geared for kids.

The focus of the presentation was on invertebrates and discuss the way that body structure and physiology can influence biological functioning. Many kids are more familiar with vertebrate biology and use this lens to try to understand jellyfish and other inverts.

I tried to explain that simple body structures can actually be a big advantage and that while invertebrates can come in many shapes and sizes but share some similar physiology.

We got out microscopes and looked at Rotifers and Artemia then sifted through some macro algae from my refugiums to find other critters.

I think many kids started to broaden their understanding of marine biology and left with more questions than when they started. (Sometimes a sign of a successful learning experience)

The library was expecting 15-30 people but over 70 showed up and were engaged for over two hours, twice the allotted time.

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

The jellyfish tanks I set up in the children's section of my local library has created a lot of interest in my project. The department has purchased dozens of books on jellyfish and at their request i gave a marine biology presentation geared for kids.

The focus of the presentation was on invertebrates and discuss the way that body structure and physiology can influence biological functioning. Many kids are more familiar with vertebrate biology and use this lens to try to understand jellyfish and other inverts.

I tried to explain that simple body structures can actually be a big advantage and that while invertebrates can come in many shapes and sizes but share some similar physiology.

We got out microscopes and looked at Rotifers and Artemia then sifted through some macro algae from my refugiums to find other critters.

I think many kids started to broaden their understanding of marine biology and left with more questions than when they started. (Sometimes a sign of a successful learning experience)

The library was expecting 15-30 people but over 70 showed up and were engaged for over two hours, twice the allotted time.

 

[Brandon Rutherford]

I also did another lesson with kids of the dreaam program. The more I work with these kids the more I realize how important it is to connect urban kids to nature. This project is run on a shoestring budget by volunteers but everyone involved gives 110% because they can see the positive influence it's having on the kids.

This little dude spent 20 minutes and collected all of these bristle worms from one piece of live rock. I had no idea I had such a worm 'problem'. The program is exclusively for boys but I was allowed to bring my 4 year old daughter (in background) as an instructional helper.