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Coral Vue Hydros

Hoob's 219 & 135 Gallon Coldwater


Hoobahans

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My workstudy job is caring for all the tanks here at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. The guy that I replaced (he graduated) somehow finagled $15k from his grandparent's will to our aquarium budget, and he got Monteray Bay aquariums to design two coldwater tanks for us. They are built now, and I am in charge of taking care of them and have a lot to say as to what goes into them. Ty, the guy I replaced, is gone and left no directions as to what I should do with the tanks. So... I want to make them into coldwater invert tanks. We don't have much in the budget left, but I want to turn the 220 into a anemone/invert tank and the smaller 140 into a fish/crab tank.

 

Anyone with experience with coldwater tanks should feel free to give me advice.

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Alright, here are some up to date pics.

219 on the right, 135 on the left.

 

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This is the overflow as seen from the front. You can see the water spilling over the top.

 

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Temp control for the aqualogic chillers

 

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Reflector/sockets for the lights that might go over the big tank

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Does anyone know if strawberry anenomes are at all photosynthetic? If they are, I think I will got a bunch of them and have one tank with hundreds of them. We already have a good sized colony of them in the makeshift tank that's set up in the prep room. The things are tiny, they look a lot like zoas. I am starting to think that the 3x250 metal halides would be serious overkill, but maybe the two 72inch vhos would be sufficient. But the tank is so deep (4 feet) that I might need one halide just to light the thing well enough. You should see the grabbers we have to move stuff around in the tanks, and I think I will need a harpoon to feed the anenomes!

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  • 1 year later...

Well, it's been a year but I finally have an update!

 

We're still waiting on all the rock so this is not the final layout, it's just to tide it over until I get all the stuff I need.

 

We got some nice livestock from Monteray Bay Aquarium:

 

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Sump:

 

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Aquarium room:

 

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Lights (might put in a few of those 250 watt mhs)

 

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Jimmy-rigged return:

 

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ETSS Skimmer, it's a champ:

 

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Yay! Very nice. It's cool that the Aquarium sold you stuff; I might have to talk to the oregon coast aquarium sometime. Did you ever get those strawberries in? I didn't see them in the FTS. Also, do you have a stock list? This is so fun, I think coldwater tanks are getting more popular - exciting! :) Also, my sister is applying to Whitman, and might be visiting sometime. If I can convince my parents to let me come, I'll have to stop by and see the tanks!

 

-Jamie

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Alright! Some updates.

 

Jamie,

 

No strawberries, they didn't have them in stock. It was too bad, but I am hoping that next time they will be in stock. Unfortunately you can only get stuff from monteray if you have an educational license. That's sweet that your sister is thinking about Whitman, it's a great school. And now the tanks are finally starting to look decent enough for me to not be ashamed if you saw it.

 

 

The rocks are the only ones that were available to me on our budget. It's not too loose (the budget, that is) so these were the best that I could find. I am hoping that over time they blend in more. The tank looks a lot better in person than it does in this shot:

 

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And coldwater coral! Check it out, I found it in the substrate, I think it was a hitchhiker with the order.

 

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Love your threads man. Wife says your GF has great taste in Vodka, too.

 

 

Thanks man, I do appreciate it. And it is true, Svedka is good--good price, too.

 

Few more pics:

 

Kelp holdfast with nem:

 

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Anemone from the above pic:

 

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Underside of an amazing nudi (wish I had a pic from the other side!):

 

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My favorite anemone in the tank, it looks a lot better in person:

 

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Can't get a good angle on this guy, but it's downing a fish that I think is just a bit too big:

 

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Snail:

 

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Duster:

 

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Great pics, and great scape too. The rock is going to look fantastic once it starts getting encrusted. I might have missed this, but what sort of flow do you have going? as for the coral, I'm going to go with Paracyathus stearnsi.

 

-Jamie

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Hey, spot on with the coral. That looks identical to what's in the tank.

 

For flow first I should say that this tank is a work in progress. We don't get much money so I get by on what I can with what I have.

 

There are two returns from the closed loop system that passes water through the UV, chiller, chemical and mechanical tubes. That runs around 900 gph but it's distributed through two pvc pipes drilled with holes, so it's a mild flow.

 

The main flow comes from the sump return, that runs around 1400 gph and comes out of one tube. I am going to replace it with a spray bar across the front of the tank.

 

Soon, if I can get the money, I am going to put in three maxi-jets 1200 moded for high flow (forgot the name of the mod, uses pvc pipe) on a cheap wave timer. That will give me something akin to tidal motion that the kelp needs to grow.

 

So, moral is that the tank can only get better. That's what I tell myself. If I were doing this on my own I would go about things very differently, but it's just a fact that a couple of coldwater tanks are not the highest priority in the department, which makes sense. I am hoping to make them look good enough to deserve more attention.

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Just stumbled across this thread (love your zero edge of course) and what a turnaround you've done with the tanks. I was at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium this past November and it reminds me 100% of what their coldwater tanks look like. Of course yours isn't completely covered in strawberries but then again I think they might have a tad bigger budget to play around with :)

 

I think you are doing a great job and its awesome that your college has such unique tanks and a great caretaker. My marine biology department had some really nice tanks but definitely nothing as unique as a coldwater anemone tank.

 

Great job....looks like you are creating something really nice with limited funds.

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divecj5,

Thanks a lot man. The tanks have come around a bit, it's amazing that my first post was over a year ago and they still have just barely getting started.

 

I wish that these tanks were covered in strawberry anemones! They didn't send them even though we ordered. I am hoping that next time they come through.

 

 

 

On another note.

 

I am an idiot.

 

I have been really sick and tired all weekend and I had a lot to do today so I got myself a 4-shot latte at the campus center and went to check on the tank. I was in the back room and set the coffee down on a ledge only to knock it off the ledge with a bucket and into the sump. Now there's the entire latte mixed into the whole 300 gallon system of the bigger tank. Fortunaly there is not yet any affect on the animals. The anemones were eating at the time and finished their meal, the dusters are still going and the mussels look fine. The skimmer has completely stopped working (too much fat in the water I bet) and the tank smells like an espresso bar.

 

I am not worried about the coffee itself or the milk, but when it starts to degrade and rot it could be bad. I can only mix 50g of water at a time for water changes so that can't completely solve the problem. I did one 40g water change today and will do another tomorrow, I hope that does it. Luckily there's around a gallon of activated carbon and 10 baggies of chemipure (the cure-all) in the tank so that should help. I just can't imagine losing anything to such a stupid error.

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Looks good - I think you may be helping to stock a lot of little tanks around here in the future, hopefully even one of mine. :)

 

These animals are remarkably resilient, just keep an eye on everything and do what you can, I don't hink it'll end in disaster.

 

A random shot from SIO for inspiration:

 

birch.jpg

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jeremai,

 

Yeah, they are pretty tough aren't they. That picture is pretty incredible, where is that again? I've got to get some of those strawberries...

 

BKtomodachi,

 

That's cool that your friend goes here, what year are they?

 

 

 

 

And a couple updates. I was working on this since 5 today and now it's just past midnight.

 

All piping is once inch. I put spray bars in both tanks and both are connected to the sump. I drilled an extra bulkhead into the big tank and there's about 1200 gph going through each spraybar.

 

View into the overflow of the big tank showing the new bulkhead:

 

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Spraybar on the big tank:

 

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New bulkhead overflow:

 

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Sump shot, really messy. Too many tubes.

 

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Scratched the acrylic...almost made me cry:

 

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I was doing some work for the college today and had to check out your tanks, man those nems are very colorful in person. There were some other creatures crawling around in there that I've never seen before. Very cool stuff man.

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  • 3 months later...

Whoa, it's been too long! I have been putting a lot of work into the tank recently and it is looking much better than it ever has. I added three modded mj1200 on a timer for some really good movement; unfortunately the bright red anemone got caught in the prop and was a little chopped up. But all is well now.

 

I will get pics up asap.

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