Coldwater marine systems

[Diana]

Anyone here have any experience with local marine life? Within the next few weeks i will be setting up a 30 gallon coldwater marine tank. At first i dont plan on using a chiller (the tank will be at room temp).... i will be collecting tidepool organisms. But maybe near the end of summer I will add a chiller in order to keep deeper-ocean dwelling life, granted my "tidepool" tank goes well.

Does anyone have any experience or pointers they could give me? There is tragically little information on the net about setting up such systems.

For lighting I plan on about 40 watts, just regular Hagen florescent bulbs, 1 marine-glo with actinics and 1 power-glo for a fuller spectrum. Ive heard local life doesnt need much light. Filtration will be 1 aqua-clear 200 HOB filter with sponge and carbon, and 1 powerhead 150 (i think its a 150, too lazy to check right now ;) ). Heating is just room temp, so about 71F, and maybe a chiller down the road if nessecary. I plan on getting sand from the beach and setting up some sort rockwork from beach rocks.

I live in north vancouver about 5 minutes from the beach, so i will be collecting locally and also over on Bowen Island where my boyfriend lives.

Thanks for any input!
:)
-Diana

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I've kept shore crabs, hermits, China caps, sand fleas & snails from Barnett Marine park in my 20g (68-70C) before. In the 80s, my dad tossed about 30 sculpins/mudskippers & a bunch of crabs into my 33g salt without telling me & killed everything. I think if you're collecting from tidepools in the summer, then you should be ok. How cold will you be setting your tank at?

Anthony

[Diana]

It'll just be room temperature, so about 70-72F. If i get a chiller i plan on bringing it down to about 65.

Either way, the tidepool life will be ok at such temps? I hope to get a green anenome eventually, and other neat things.

[Willow]

how are you going to light a tank add circulation and keep it at 70 deg without a chiller? my reef tips out at 83 deg's without any heater now.

[Kramer]

Cold water systems have few if any Photosynthetic organisms in them so heat from a large lighting system won't be a problem. Heat from circulation could be. You could allows limit it by running a closed loop instead of internal pumps.

I would just use the money you save on lighting and get a chiller right away.

[Justin]

Save money & buy a small chiller for a couple hundred dollars, and you will be ok. Ideally you could get it really low, like 55, but that will make your tank sweat like a glass of cold water on a sunny day. You need acrylic for that.

Just get Raf to buy it for you. Aniversary present. :razz:

[Diana]

Haha! Raf is spending all his money on furniture for his new place :lol:

I am planning on adding a chiller eventually anyways. I am just looking around for a good one. The Titan 150 i was thinking about apparently only brings the tank temp down to room temp, so it might not be ideal (although its a perfect size). We'll have to see.

I will save tons of money on lighting thats true (also on stocking the tank for that matter! no LR! whew!), so i figure a chiller is definately in budget.

The flourescent strips wont heat up the tank too much. I could always rig a little fan under the hood (its an open hood, one made for those new "rimless" glass tanks), and has quite a bit of air flow around the tubes. I think its pretty much just the powerhead that'll do it, Im gonna try to leave it as far out of the water as possible without it blowing air.

Any reccommendations on chillers for a tank this size? (And not much more than $300?) :mrgreen:

Thanks guys
-Diana

[Justin]

For $300, wait and try to find a used Pacific Coast CL 280. They are actually made by a company called Resun in China, and relabeled for Pacific Coast, so I bet if you had any contacts in asia, you could find a Resun one for a lot less then a new pacific coast will run you.

[Mitch#3]

Diana
Since you live in Van why don't you stop by the Aquarium
in a off time (early am) and see if you can't speak to who ever looks after the aquariums cold water system

I talked to one of the aquariums' staff a couple months ago in terms of general outlines they were most helpful, they told me that due to slower metabolism rates they are, temp aside, easier to maintain than tropical systems :mrgreen:

I hope thats true

Good luck (I think its a great idea by the by)
Cheers
Mitch

[pluff]

Hi I'm from New Brunswick....... My neighbor used to run a 600 gallon Cold water system. It run very well for years,as he was a Scuba Instructor. All he used to keep the water cold,was use the unit out of a freezer. For water changes,every time we went diving we would bring about a 50 gallons of Bay of Fundy water back with us. He used to keep Wolf Els,Lobsters, Star fish Hermit Crabs Flounder fish,and lots of other goodies from our great Bay of Fundy here out east. When the animals got to big for the tank we released them,and caught new ones. It was too easy:) Good Luck,as i'm sure u will enjoy it just as much as a tropical SW setup.

Marcel

[Skimmerking]

Marcel I thought you were dead ,havent heard from ya in awhile.

mike

[Diana]

Yeah im really looking forward to a new challenge. Hopefully everything will work out. Im emptying the tank on sunday and will begin the transformation then. Ill put in beach sand and rocks and ocean water, and see how cold it stays. Then I'll asses the chiller situation.

I used to volunteer at the Vancouver Aquarium and got to go back and check out thier systems (i even once went above the shark tank, which is only accessable from the roof!). I will try to talk to someone about thier coldwater setups, but im sure they have a huge system for them. I really want those little lumpsuckers.... thier so cute!

I make a thread to detail my steps with pictures... i promise! ;)

-Diana

[StirCrazy]

Cold water systems have few if any Photosynthetic organisms in them so heat from a large lighting system won't be a problem. Heat from circulation could be. You could allows limit it by running a closed loop instead of internal pumps.

I would just use the money you save on lighting and get a chiller right away.

well not really, considering almost all the neat stuff you want to keep in there is non photosynthetic they feed on things that are like algae (hence the dark greenish color of our water compared to down south, a lot more algae, which in turn translates to heavy algae type plank-tonic feeding which mean big heavy skimming to keep the water quality.

as for chillers a small one won't be enuf, you are looking at an aproximat 30 degree pull down for 30 gal of water and more if ther eis a sump ect.

Diana couple problems, around the Island where ever there is a good water flush the average temp in the summer rarely goes over 55 and if it does as in tidal pools it is not for a long time, so in reality you need a chiller to keep water temp under 60 degrees to be successful in the long run. also as mentions above tons of skimming/filtration and good lighting to actually keep food sources alive for the filter feeders. after you do all this you won't be able to see in your tank due to all the condensation so you will have to run out and buy an acrylic double walled tank to take care of this.. also the fact that it is more expensive to cool a tank via a chiller than to heat it with a heater by a large amount, see where I am going.. to do a proper "cold" water tank it is very expensive, but if you are fin with that it can be very rewarding as I know where there is some feather dusters I would love to have in my tank, they are purple and steel Grey striped and out of this world, but I digress. Look into it a lot more as you may decide that isn't what you expected.

Steve

[Diana]

Thats the trouble, I have been looking into it but there really isnt any information on the net. Its really just an experiment, Im going to see how it works out. I know I will add a chiller down the road, but for the summer Ill just collect tide-pool stuff thatll be okay at just under 70F. I know some of them tide pools get HOT HOT HOT under our sun. yes I know, not for long though. I dont want to take the temp down so far that condensation starts on the glass :cool: My friend's dad is into refridgeration and i know he's made chillers before, so i am going to look into him making one for me.... hopefully to save on some moola.

Ill keep everyone posted.
-Diana

[Mitch#3]

I used to volunteer at the Vancouver Aquarium and got to go back and check out their systems (I even once went above the shark tank, which is only accessible from the roof!). I will try to talk to someone about their coldwater setups, but im sure they have a huge system for them. I really want those little lumpsuckers.... their so cute!

I

Way COOL :razz: :razz: :razz:

you should have the inside track on info, even if their systems are huge it will provide a model to replicate and modify. :rolleyes:

I love the sea pens and the anomies, so much cool stuff :lol:



I will make a thread to detail my steps with pictures... I promise! ;)



I will be watching for this one and will hold you to your promise :mrgreen:
Cheers
MitchMc

[Scavenger]

Hey Diana,

If your going to start a tidepool, I suggest you check out this link. Great info on the species you may want to concider. For quite a few critters it has max size, substrates and enviroments and even average temp for species you may like to try to keep.

Good Luck and keep us posted!

http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/projects/msap/index.html

[Diana]

AWESOME link! Thanks so much, this is gonna help big-big :mrgreen:.


-Diana