SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY – Students of South Huntington’s Summer Science Research Enrichment program visited Polo Reef, what is considered to be the largest privately owned reef tank in America, the school district announced.
Walt Whitman HS science teachers Fred Feraco and John Karavias coordinated the tour of the custom-built tank, which holds 17,000 gallons of water and measures 16x15x9 feet.
“It’s called a rock tank because it’s so much more than a fish tank,” the school district wrote in a news release. Reef tanks are a type of aquarium that includes live corals and specific species of fish to mimic the natural environment of a coral reef in the ocean. And this one looks like it would fit right in at any public aquarium in any major city. But this one is in somebody’s house here on Long Island in Old Westbury.”
Polo Reef is the extreme result of what started as a hobby. Andrew Sandler’s passion for aquariums began when he was a child with a 10-gallon water tank and a few fish from the local pet store. Over the years, tanks got bigger, freshwater turned to saltwater, fish became more exotic, aquascape became live rock on reefs, and everything turned into plans for “a wall of water” in spacious work/study basement level. area of the large Sandler estate.
Sandler spends his days dealing with the stress of Wall Street. The rock room and his hobby of keeping rocks help him relax and escape all the hustle and bustle. He sees the rock tank as living art – a photograph of nature. But it takes a lot of time, money and planning to imitate nature. The Polo Tank was created in 2019, and now that the system that maintains it is well established, Sandler is on a mission to give back to the hobby and turn it into a learning experience. To that end, he has opened his home to hobbyists and science students, hoping to inspire them.
“I especially like it when a school or schools have an aquarium science and marine biology curriculum for the kids to be here to inspire them, to see what can be done, to learn and to make sure that the hobby to grow up,” Sandler said in one. news release. “I think it triggers a bunch of things in their brain.”
Walt Whitman High School offers courses in marine biology and oceanography. Whitman also has something few other schools have: a 600-gallon reef tank with live coral and several species of fish. The tank is 10 feet long, 4 feet wide and one foot deep. Students help maintain the system and use it for specialized scientific research projects of their choosing, which often allow them to team up with outside researchers at Stony Brook University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Feraco was first introduced to Polo Reef through the Long Island Reef Association, and he was able to arrange a trip during the school year.
“[Sandler] we’re welcome to bring students when we want,” Feraco said. “So when John Karavias and I were planning the summer research enrichment program, we wanted to bring those students here as well. But there wasn’t enough money in the summer program budget to pay for the cost of transportation for all the students attending four separate sessions. When the Polo Reef team learned of this, Sandler offered to pay for the buses and provide food for the students’ visit. It was so generous. So we were able to bring about 120 kids there this summer.”
The students were welcomed by the Polo Reef operations team as well as Sandler. They were then given a tour of the entire operation, including the rock tank and the complex system that maintains water temperature, treatment, circulation and filtration. Special lighting is also required to help the coral grow.
Whitman senior Beckett Loomis is interested in marine biology as a career. He was an advisor for the summer program and is planning an independent research project this year at Whitman.
“A hands-on experience to see this kind of architecture and art alive is an amazing experience for students,” Loomis said. “And seeing these kinds of things can spark an inspiration for them. With the help of local companies and organizations like Polo Reef, our school has been able to create a really warm educational program that helps kids figure out what they want to do.” do in life.”
To learn more about Polo Reef, visit their website. And to learn more about the Long Island Reef Association, click here.
