My name is Zen Kent and I live on Via Valmonte. I am a senior at PV High School. One of my AP marine biology class projects is putting together a salt water tank for another biology class. My dad has had lots of saltwater aquariums over the years and I wanted to try it for myself.
I have a 40 gallon tank at school with a Bio-Ball, Wet/Dry system and when I am finished it will be a ”Touch Tank”. That’s an aquarium that has an open top and is accessible to student’s hands and easy observation.
Salt water for this kind of tank should basically be between 7.6 and 8.4 PH so I buy the water. That way I know it starts out OK for the fish. A gallon of salt water costs about $0.69/gallon. (40 gallon tank of water is about $30.00 to start but I have to keep putting more in because it evaporates.)
To get the microbes to grow so the tank can become sustainable, I need “Live Rock”. The rock is not really alive but lots of micro and macroscopic marine life live on and inside it. The rocks cost about $6.00/lb. A one pound live rock is about the size of a piece of fruit and I have 2 of them = $12.00. I put 40 pounds of live sand in there, too. It helps with the PH and the creatures need an “ocean bed”. 40 pounds of live sand cost me about $50.00.
Tropical tanks are warmer than freshwater ones, about 72º-80º degrees F. The fish that are used to this temperature, I think are more beautiful; fish like the Dragon Rass. My plan is to introduce a Dragon Rass into the environment that I make in the tank. This fish has a lot of energy and an egotistical personality; kind of an Alpha male thing. The other cool thing about this fish is that it sleeps under the gravel on the bottom of the tank. It will spend an hour piling up small gravel to sleep under it. It’s like he can turn out the lights when he wants. I think that’s smart - he avoids predation while he sleeps. I’ve never seen anything else like it. I like how the Dragon Rass changes color throughout its life, and I also like its name. They cost about $20.00 each.
Eventually I want to add an anemones and a Clown fish. Normally anemones sting, paralyze and eat fish but some of them pair up with Clown fish. The Clown is immune to the sting of the anemone so it’s protected from fish eaters while it stays close to the anenome. The anemone is protected from polyp-eating fish because the Clown fish chases them away. They have a symbiotic relationship. We humans have a lot to learn from that. A Clown fish can be from $6.00 to $12.00 and the cheapest anemones are about $25.00 each. The anemone can also eat blood worms which I can buy frozen and mix them in salt water before I add a teaspoon to the tank. The frozen blood worms are about $7.00 a package.
I will need snails, crabs and cleaning shrimp to keep the tank clean and habitable for the other fish and a snail can cost from $1.00 to $5.00 and the cleaner shrimp are $30.00 each. Hermit crabs are also good cleaners. They are about $1.50 each.
People have learned a lot about the ocean lately because over the last 30 yrs that they have been able to enjoy salt-tanks in their homes and observe ocean life closely.
I have a school budget of $160 and I’m almost there. If anyone is interested in helping me learn and teach others about sustainability of an ocean ecosphere, I would be grateful. Donations can be left in the school office for my teacher, Mrs. Kuhn, or for me, Zen Kent or at my favorite aquarium store: Neptune’s Reef at 2851 Pacific Coast Highway (near Crenshaw) in Torrance, 90505. Their phone number is 310.534.2323. Ask for John; he’s the owner and is extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the field. He always has some cool thing to tell me about fish or the ocean when I go there. Go have a look for yourself – it costs nothing to look!
Thank you for your support!
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