Reef Tank Relocation!

Biological Oceanography Reef Tank Relocation

Because of refurbishing of the Link Building, it became necessary to move the 250 gallon reef tank from Link to its new home in the Panther Dining Hall lobby.  Students in the Biological Oceanography Program, and also students in related programs on campus, worked together to break the tank down for the move.  The relocation took a great deal of planning, as there are hundreds of living organisms in the reef tank which need to be moved, and some of them have special requirements.  We gathered together numerous buckets to hold the critters, and took the opportunity to clean the live rock, which also has to stay submerged, of some nuisance algae which was growing on it.  The coral Erythropodium is a pest, and we also tried to remove it from the rock.  This may have resulted in some toxins released into the water, which may have stressed out some of the other animals.  In the end, some of the students got scratches and stings, but all had a good time and then we had pizza.  The reef tank took well over 120 person hours to relocate.  The students in the Biological Oceanography Program learned a lot of tricks about maintaining animals on the move and the tolerances of corals in a reef tank.