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.

[Diana]

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

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?)

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

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