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Coldwater Northeast Pacific Seagrass and Bay Pipe Fish.


AquaticEngineer

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I was never able to keep them alive for very long, though they seemed to eat fine. Not sure what the problem was... good luck though!

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AquaticEngineer

They seem to like very small live food. I have several cultures of Tiger pods that I harvested last trip and have been growing out. I'll know better about how well they eating when I can see them more frequently.

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animalmaster6

I'm really tempted to set up a coldwater NE biotope. I want some gunnels very badly. If you can find a really cheap chiller let me know ;)

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AquaticEngineer
I'm really tempted to set up a coldwater NE biotope. I want some gunnels very badly. If you can find a really cheap chiller let me know ;)

 

I find them all the time. If you use SearchTempest to check craigslist and search key words like "Aquarium Chiller" or "Lobster Tank" and look every day you'll find something.

 

Also, don't be afraid to make an offer for just the chiller to someone who is selling a reef tank setup.

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animalmaster6
I find them all the time. If you use SearchTempest to check craigslist and search key words like "Aquarium Chiller" or "Lobster Tank" and look every day you'll find something.

 

Also, don't be afraid to make an offer for just the chiller to someone who is selling a reef tank setup.

I'll start looking on that site, thanks!

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The tank by itself is pretty heavy being made of 1" acrylic, and the stand will be tube steel....but I'll bolt it down just in case you come home for the summer ;)

 

I told you, as soon as you come back up here you are getting hooked up :D

 

 

So, I'm in southern oregon, just finished up a class at the oregon inst. of marine bio, and the temptation of the incredible dock life was just to much for me. I have some metridiums, mussels, tunicates, a shimp and a chiton in a water bottle coming home with me. So I guess I have a tank now? lol

 

but seriously it's gonna be awesome. B) You got any extra dosing pumps laying around? :P

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AquaticEngineer
So, I'm in southern oregon, just finished up a class at the oregon inst. of marine bio, and the temptation of the incredible dock life was just to much for me. I have some metridiums, mussels, tunicates, a shimp and a chiton in a water bottle coming home with me. So I guess I have a tank now? lol

 

but seriously it's gonna be awesome. B) You got any extra dosing pumps laying around? :P

 

I do still have one dosing pump, but I'm puting it into another auto feeder. Let me know when your ready for one and I'll shoot u the link to the guy I got them from on ebay.

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These peristaltic pumps are too darned expensive. We don't need the kind of precision and medical liability protection that most of the buyers of these pumps demand, and they're pretty simple, so we should be able to build something cheap that works for our needs. I've been thinking about finding (building?) a programmable timer that can turn on a little air pump or aqualifter for any given number of seconds, and put air into sealed bottles of food, so that the air pressure will force out an equal volume of food through a tube. AE, have you thought this idea through, and found any problems with the idea? Knowing you, you've found a clever way to get the commercial ones for close to free, and I'd be interested in hearing about that too :)

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AquaticEngineer
These peristaltic pumps are too darned expensive. We don't need the kind of precision and medical liability protection that most of the buyers of these pumps demand, and they're pretty simple, so we should be able to build something cheap that works for our needs. I've been thinking about finding (building?) a programmable timer that can turn on a little air pump or aqualifter for any given number of seconds, and put air into sealed bottles of food, so that the air pressure will force out an equal volume of food through a tube. AE, have you thought this idea through, and found any problems with the idea? Knowing you, you've found a clever way to get the commercial ones for close to free, and I'd be interested in hearing about that too :)

 

I bought a pair of them on ebay for $72 shipped :D Just gotta be patient and watch everyday, :lol:

 

It will be nice to be able to dose food for 5 seconds every hour though if need be B)

 

I didn't even know at first what these retailed for, I just bought them because they were the cheapest I could find on a programable dosing pump that had a 24 hour internal clock.

 

I'm sure something similar will pop up on ebay again soon, just do searches for "peristaltic" and then browse through them and narrow it down from there.

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  • 3 months later...
AquaticEngineer

This may come as a shock to you all, but I completely forgot that I had this tank sitting in my garage. :wacko:

 

I had been focusing so much on getting the big tank up and running and getting my garage looking decent for this weekends local club meeting at my place that I just threw a tarp on it and stuck it in the corner.

 

My neighbor came over yesterday and helped me buff out some of the scratches in the big tank and he asked me what I ever did with this tank. So I pulled it out and I've been working on it most of the day today.

 

I got both of the sides that will be viewable buffed out, and patched over the two existing bulkhead holes. I'm going to drill the overflow and return lines into the bottom behind the overflow wall. Also cut a piece of acrylic and notched it so I can adhere it do the existing overflow wall and raise the water level up another couple inches.

 

One of my friends is going to weld me up a stand for it in trade for a skimmer I got laying around.

 

Lets hope I dont forget about it again :lol:

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Happens. You should see my Freshwater planted. It may not have a tarp on it, but it's pretty neglected. Does ok, though.

 

Look forward to an update.

 

:)

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AquaticEngineer

Had some time today to work on this tank, I was able to get the inside and outside of the the tank buffed and polished on the sides that will be visible. Its looking pretty nice, next up is the spray foam rock work and drilling the new bulkheads.

 

Havn't decided if I am going to run this tank with a skimmer or an algae scrubber.

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  • 3 weeks later...
AquaticEngineer

So out of necessity I've decided to turn this tank into a native seagrass bed tank with my remaining bay pipfish.

 

I noticed that some of the pipefish had started showing up with missing tails. I first suspected my school of juvenile black rock fish, so I removed them. ( actually I fished them out with a small treble hook ;) )

 

Still the pipefish where getting beat up, then they started disappearing. So I stayed up late one night and watched the tank. Turns out the pipefish have been meandering into the aggregating anemones and green anemones in the dark when they cant see where they are going.

 

Long story short, I have the remaining pipefish temporarily in my octopus tank (dont worry he's well fed on crabs :D ) until I can get this tank up and running.

 

On the plus side, I can just take like 40 gallons of already cycled water and a bunch of bioballs out of my other tank and this one should be ready to go.

 

Now if only the pregnant wife will let me go to the coast and get some more seagrass.......

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animalmaster6

Sounds like a cool idea. I can't wait to see it!

 

Now if only the pregnant wife will let me go to the coast and get some more seagrass.......

Congrats btw!

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This tank will be sick! Let me know when she does let you go to the coast. I've been dying to go! and I'd like to catch some more pipe fish if I end up in the bay again.

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AquaticEngineer
This tank will be sick! Let me know when she does let you go to the coast. I've been dying to go! and I'd like to catch some more pipe fish if I end up in the bay again.

 

I will for sure let you know, I'm going to try and sneak in a trip to the coast over the new years weekend but I'll be in Eugene visiting family so I'll probably end up going to Florence or somewhere in that area. Other than that I think the only good minus tides are on the nights leading up to Xmas, so I dont think I'll make those. I'm probably going to focuse on getting dive certified over the next couple months.

 

After the first of the year all my trips will be a business expense, gotta start keeping track of those B)

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AquaticEngineer

It has begun.......

 

 

Well, I glued the new overflow wall in place, so at least I started working on it right. :D

 

Spray foam background should be done by later today.

 

I'm not going to any anemones or stinging celled animals in this tank what so ever, that way the pipe fish are safe. I am leaning towards a whole lot of feather dusters on the back walls and a whole lot of seagrass in the sandbed.

 

I did just learn that the LFS that I did the large rock for can get ahold of "Cortez Stingrays" which I'm pretty sure are not Urobatis maculatus, and are in fact Urobatis Halleri which are found in temperate waters off of California :D Maybe one of those?

 

Any other suggestions for livestock?

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  • 2 weeks later...
AquaticEngineer
Lumpsucker and or Lumpfish :D

 

Those things are proving to be my white whale :lol:

 

I know exactly where to find them in Washington, problem is, its totally illegal to take them.

 

I've found places that they should be here in Oregon, but no dice finding them.

 

If you can believe it, I was able to find a freaking perfect sized baby octopus but I cant find a single god dame spiny lumpsucker :angry:

 

Ok.......time to calm down.

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  • 5 weeks later...
AquaticEngineer

Well its been slow moving getting this tank going but finally I got another fire under my @ss to do it.

 

Got the drain and return relocated and drilled behind the overflow wall with schedule 80 bulkheads.

 

Tested my $40 chiller and it works just dandy :D

 

Contacted a guy on craigslist who builds custom stands and he's going to build me a corner stand for my tank that is extra tall to allow me to use the mini fridge auto feeder and the chiller on a closed loop and keep it under the stand, for $55 :D

 

Sea grass and pipefish are getting collected tomorrow.

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Well its been slow moving getting this tank going but finally I got another fire under my @ss to do it.

 

Got the drain and return relocated and drilled behind the overflow wall with schedule 80 bulkheads.

 

Tested my $40 chiller and it works just dandy :D

 

Contacted a guy on craigslist who builds custom stands and he's going to build me a corner stand for my tank that is extra tall to allow me to use the mini fridge auto feeder and the chiller on a closed loop and keep it under the stand, for $55 :D

 

Sea grass and pipefish are getting collected tomorrow.

 

Where are you going to collect pipe fish tomorrow??? There isn't even a low tide

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