Brooks Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Greetings! Only took me two years to figure out how to get here, but hey! Better late than never. My name is Lorien Brooks, and I'm the Marine Biology teacher over at Central High School in Independence. I also teach Biology and Anatomy. I currently have a saltwater tank (and a small freshwater one). Posting this from home (and sleepless), but I am rather sure my saltwater tank at school is 75 gal. (If not it's 55.) I currently do not have fish in the saltwater tank and was looking to either get some fish for the tank and keep it tropical or... get a chiller for the tank and get a teacher's collector's permit and get local organisms. I've maintained a saltwater tank before with a variety of fish an even a snowflake moray before moving from FL to OR. Any help is great! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paratore Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Welcome! I’m not too far from you, my family owns Rocky Mountain Nursery just outside of town. The closest place to get fish around here is Garrett at The Premium Aquarium in Salem. Great guy and he has a large variety. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Sounds fun. By local organisms do you mean a PNW tidepool tank? That would be incredible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Welcome! I love that there is a marine biology course at your school! I know there are some folk on here historically that have kept cold water tanks and could perhaps chime in on the idea. One challenge I am aware of having seen a few is that you typically need a fairly thick (usually acrylic) tank to provide sufficient insulation to avoid condensation. Even small tanks 30 gallons or less that I saw had one inch thick walls. Something to consider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted January 12, 2018 Author Share Posted January 12, 2018 Good (almost) afternoon. Now that I'm at school I can say, that I have a 55gal. It's not aryclic. Just a standard glass set-up. I'm not overly concerned about condensation, as my students are used to seeing it on the 20 gal we use for the salmon & trout eggs we raise and release in the other tank. But as I said, I'm at the point where I am open to going either way with the tank. I would love to get a chiller and collect local PNW species with a K-12 permit (which I am working on getting); however, I know that just might not be in the cards at the moment. Looking forward to all the advise and help! Lorien Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 2 hours ago, albertareef said: Welcome! I love that there is a marine biology course at your school! I know there are some folk on here historically that have kept cold water tanks and could perhaps chime in on the idea. One challenge I am aware of having seen a few is that you typically need a fairly thick (usually acrylic) tank to provide sufficient insulation to avoid condensation. Even small tanks 30 gallons or less that I saw had one inch thick walls. Something to consider. Oh geez I never put that together. That is certainly a challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 7 minutes ago, youcallmenny said: Oh geez I never put that together. That is certainly a challenge. If you are either willing to live with the condensation problem or get a sufficiently thick tank they can be pretty darn cool and the idea of collecting your own material sounds really fun. Steve Weast used to have some really spectacular cold water tanks he kept. There are some pics and additional info on the Oregon Reef pages... http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_coldwater.htm I saw these in person back in the day and they were awesome. The boxfish were super cool! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 6 hours ago, albertareef said: If you are either willing to live with the condensation problem or get a sufficiently thick tank they can be pretty darn cool and the idea of collecting your own material sounds really fun. Steve Weast used to have some really spectacular cold water tanks he kept. There are some pics and additional info on the Oregon Reef pages... http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_coldwater.htm I saw these in person back in the day and they were awesome. The boxfish were super cool! Thanks for posting the site! It was a great read. Lots of good things to think about going the coldwater route. Was thinking of going more fish/inverts than anemones, etc but good to know that I am going to have to go back to protein skimmers and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Welcome! Would love to see pics of your setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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