Winter comes to brook trout land! The new picture I'm using for the VTTIC blog (left) is one of several photo I took this past Sunday while I was out with my 13-year-old grandson looking for "partridge," AKA ruffed grouse. We found none. Here's another photo of the same beautiful stream. How's the pre-cycling going? I trust that many Vermont teachers are into the middle of the pre-cycling process. Thus far I haven't gotten much feedback, but I'd like to hear how it's going. I'm also hoping that you're keeping good track of your data so that you can share that with us once your tank has fully cycled. I have heard from two teachers, however, and I'll share some of those exchanges. Devon Schrock's situation Devon Schrock, of Lincoln Community School, reached out to TU-TIC volunteer Paul Urband and reported the following (this past Monday): Thanks, Paul. Today I added more ammonia and Nite-Out because my morning test showed nitrate was 0 and ammonia level was 3. I passed the exchanges between Devon and Paul on to "our science guy," Robb Cramer. Robb wanted to know what the nitrite levels of Devon's tank were. Devon came back with this (on Tuesday). Hi Joe, Numbers as of today are: pH: 7.5 ammonia: 6.0 Nitrate: 10 Nitrite: 0.5 KH: 120 GH: 60 A student who filled water to add to the tank dumped it into the tank this morning untreated. I added the dechlorination solution to the tank and hope that will work ok. Thanks for everyone's advice and help! Here's Robb's response: Without fish in the tank the lack of the dechlorination step is fine and not problem. The cycle is working but their ammonia is too high. You need to do a 25% water change ASAP and add fresh Nite-Out II. So, got that? Never let ammonia or nitrite get above 5 ppm. If either does, do at least a 25% water change AND, after you've done that, add more Nite-Out II. Why do we add more NOII? Because ammonia or nitrite levels of 5 ppm will have killed your bacteria. By the way, this is a good opportunity to let your students practice their math skills in a context where it could be a life and death matter! Let's say your ammonia hits 6 ppm, as the Lincoln Community School's tank did. Robb recommends you do a 25% water change. How much is that of a 55-gallon tank (or whatever size your tank is)? That's one "real life" computation. (I get 13.75 gallons.) So, if you remove 13.75 gallons of water with an ammonia reading of 6.0 ppm and add the same amount of water with ammonia of 0.0, What should your new ammonia reading be? (I get 4.5 ppm.) You can also turn this into a number of "what if" exercises: What if we did a 30% water change? How about a 50% water change? Etc. Tiffany Tucker's Tank Here are four photos Tiffany Tucker, at Elm Hill School, took of her pre-cycling date. Here's what Tiffany said to Robb Cramer: I started the precycling process last week on 12/3. I still haven’t seen a nitrogen cycle, and I’m curious what I may be doing wrong or that I’ve missed. Robb responded with: (1) Is the Nite-Out II fresh and new? Add more if it is a new bottle. If an old bottle, get a new one. There is plenty of ammonia there for the cycle to start. (2) The tank temp is a bit low .. ideally should be above 70 F. (3) My gut tells me something is wrong with your Nite-Out II or that you have not added enough. Everything else looks fine! Tiffany answered: Yes, the Nite-Out II is brand new. I’ve got the heat cranked in our classroom. I can try adding a heater. Should I add more NOII? Or add food?? Here's what Robb said in response: To start — add more NiteOut II today, then also again on Friday. You have plenty of ammonia in the tank to kickstart the cycle. If you have an aquarium heater, by all means add it and bump to 72 F. What did we learn from this exchange?
Nitrogen cycle graph While I'm on the subject of beneficial TIC-related math assignments for your kids, let me challenge you to have your students graph the nitrogen cycle that takes place--we hope!--in your tank. I've pasted below the "classic" nitrogen cycle that's featured on page 32 of our TIC Manual. The problem with that representation is that in actual practice, the nitrogen cycles TIC classrooms see are almost never so perfect. It'd be helpful to be able to show teachers a representative collection of more realistic nitrogen cycle graphs. Interesting, educational videos that your students may enjoy Our VTTIC web site contains numerous videos that help explain trout life cycle and habitat as well as what our trout will eat in the wild, threats to their existence, etc. Here's one of many examples. It's part of the Vermont PBS Outdoor Journal series. Here's a link to that series's home page: Outdoor Journal. I've also provided a link to the Other Trout Videos page on our VTTIC web site below. Here are some of the topics that videos available on that page address: Videos about:
Data sheets As those of you who have been in the TIC program for a while know, we've been using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, both as a template for data entry and as tools that you can be used to predict or control the very important "swim-up" stage. Over time, I've come to realize that many VTTIC teachers don't typically have access to Excel and, more generally, the Microsoft Office suite of applications. So, recently I've recreated the Excel files we've been using as Google Sheets files. Here's what the folder looks like on our VTTIC Google Drive: (That image above is also a link to the real folder.)
The first two files (below the folder) are the ones you should use for data entry. The one with the "X" is the Excel version; the one with the cross is the Google Sheets file. The third and fourth files (below the folder) are the ones to use to predict or determine when swim-up will occur. Once you've opened one of these from the drive, you should "Make a copy" (on the File menu) and in that process (a) rename it so that it's recognizable as your school's spreadsheet and (b) move it to the "Individual school spreadsheets" folder. The final thing you need to do is to "Publish to the web" (that command is also on the File menu).
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Joe Mark is Lead Facilitator of Vermont's Trout in the Classroom program.In June 2012, I retired after 40 years in higher education, having spent the last 32 years of my career as dean at Castleton. One of the first things I volunteered to do in retirement was to work with a parent-friend to help the Dorset School, where his kids and my Vermont grandkids attend, start a TIC program. Gradually that commitment grew into my current role, which is both demanding and highly rewarding. Archives
December 2019
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