Transporting the Mini75 palmtop reef to a Public Display

[brandon4291]

This was a fun event this summer, in June, and was great timing as this display opened some doors to getting these pico reefs in professional settings. I am building several reefbowls, free of charge, for a few high school and middle school science teachers I met as well as transporting this one for a display at Texas Tech University this fall. It was just fun to talk about marine dynamics with hobbyists and the like, a long weekend of very, very harcore geeking.

 

[brandon4291]

the above shot is me trying to negotiate the reef, completely full of water, through the busy streets of Lubbock. It is resting on the armrest of my car and swishing about as we snake through the streets.


This one is of the crowd of people gathering to enter the Science Spectrum for a major summer event called Critterfest, about 4000 show up over the course of June 20-21.

 

[brandon4291]

an upclose of the people taking in the detail of the M75, there were many hours of discussion and reef talk when the aquarists walked by! Many times I was accused of having fake corals until I pointed out the tiny moving xenia and that convinced em.

 

[brandon4291]

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[brandon4291]

this was what they saw after standing in line for a long time waiting for tickets... I figured this might fix the attention and ease the boredom and it worked! Most fun Ive had in a year...

 

[Bleeding Blue]

Wow that is really cool B. I am glad it was so easy to transport. I am glad you had a great time.

Out here in Cali I helped a high school bio teacher, who used to work for with me, set up a temperate tide pool system. The university donated him a decommissioned chiller, and he set up a system of rubber made tubs with a sump and a couple of pumps. He says it generated the most interest he had ever seen in his students. Kudos to you for hooking up some teachers.

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Methinks you needed an assistant on that car ride
Cool pics, but can we see more where you look like Henry Rollins, like in the Rogue's Gallery?

 

[brandon4291]

He he I remember that pic, it was a tiny avatar I once used. Matt it would be great to get a Nano Forum Rogues Gallery (credits to SeaMaiden for thinking up the name RG) so we can see all the people who post in this forum. Henry eh? been compared to worse... Ill take the middle ground somewhere around socially isolated pico reefist.

The ride over was a trip, someone behind honked at me when the light turned green and I was sitting there watching the pulsing xenia move about in the full sun. I had asked my buddy to give me a lift, but the 23 block drive was simply asking too much for someone in the throes of a cuervo-inflicted hangover so I had to go it alone.

The people from the middleschool that I am building a reefbowl for are ordering the lights, pumps etc from www.aquaticeco.com and shipping them to me. I build the setup and get it balanced, then in late August we'll take it over to their school and set it up. Even if the new bowls aren't mine, its still terribly fun to build them at someone elses' cost!

Also, I think I will not include a DSB in these picos. Ill leave a clean floor for them to vaccum up all detritus and keep it as clean as possible, lest they wreck the setup when it gets fed too much. Imagine all the 14 yr olds saying "its my turn, let me feed it!" Theyd better have a way to export all the leftover crumbs if its going to remain alive and balanced without my psychotic tender care. A school should have a very reliable AC system, I figured that is the main concern when telling someone how to maintain a pico reef. Plus, Ill make the setup very simple, probably use caulastrea and blastomussa as the centerpieces.

 

[Anonymous]

Heh, did anybody ask you about Nemo(tm)?

 

[brandon4291]

Yes they sure did MathGuy! as a matter of fact that is how the parents would explain it to the children that were up on the small pedestal looking into it... they pointed at the small ricordea and mentioned that was like the home the clowns lived in and it was a model of a tiny ocean reef.

Last year when I did not use a descriptive sign I would say 40% of the public did not know what it was. Many thought they were bright colored plants, and many others thought they were not alive but plastic decor.


Blue that is neat you got to work on a large scale setup with your professor. When I was in school, we kept a nice 125 setup. It was nearly a $7000 tank because it was on top of a cabinet with both a flow-through heater and chiller, all acrylic tank. I had very little input for SW systems back then, I was mainly just watching him do all the work and trying to pick up on the finer points.

 

[Anonymous]

brandon429, i just have to say again that your nano's rule the school. i want.

 

[brandon4291]

Gracias Hwarang! Let me tell you this, I bet fewer than 10 people in this forum will recognize your avatar. I certainly do, as I was a young kid in 1986 and that movie ( I and II) was the best I'd seen at that time. We would have sleep overs and watch them over and over trying to do what they do. Anyone have a guess just by looking at the avatar?

 

[Anonymous]

HF!

I changed it because someone was dissing BD'ing.

 

[Anonymous]

Brandon,

if you ever come into the store i work at i will kiss your smelly feet,-really.

you rock

now please go write the friggin' nano book :wink:

Al

 

[brandon4291]

Either you are clairvoyant or you have been in my sock drawer

Ill just work out a trade with you for one of those fancy brain corals, I saw your thread about the store--you work with quite a selection. Ill trade you boys a bubbling reefbowl for one green t. geoffri