Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

Pico Oregon rock pool tank


CD_Scapes

Recommended Posts

I have a pico tank, it's the discovery kids jellyfish tank. It doesn't have the hiod as it broke. Anyways I want to have a tidepool tank that's filled with sea plants and micro algae a piece of rock and maybe a shrimp or crab. Here's the tank with the sand I'm using, it will also have the salt water from the coast. I have an airline tube to not have protein film of u can just manually remove it. Comments, suggestions. I can't buy a new tank as money is too short.

Link to comment

Upload a picture so we can see what you are talking about. If you are looking for a new tank, pet smart is running a 1$ per gallon sale right now, and you could get a 20 long tank for 20$

Link to comment

Upload a picture so we can see what you are talking about. If you are looking for a new tank, pet smart is running a 1$ per gallon sale right now, and you could get a 20 long tank for 20$

 

Pretty sure yesterday was the last day for that sale.

I know cause I was keeping an eye on it.

Link to comment

Again, don't have money and don't ant to buy a new tank. Could I pack it with aquatic plants and macros algeas, maybe a shrimp sp. or aquatic sowbugs, small crab? I don't know it's 1 gallon so what would fit life wise

Link to comment

What cold water corals could go in there? And if I don't feed them but provided them with light will they say small, not trek but still live? I'm also going to get a piece of live rock from a tide pool and let what ever is hiding in it to be my tank inhabitans

Link to comment

How will you provide lighting if money is too short? Will the tank be outside or how will the temp be controlled? What about flow? filtration? will you use sea water for water changes? (since $ is a concern).

 

Basically what are your plans to keep everything alive?

 

 

 

Need details to pick livestock.

Link to comment

I have a desk light, it's in my basement where water gets 62 degrees, flow will be an air line with a sponge connected that's also filtration. I want to name pack this tank with plants and macro algea, also a piece of live rock from the tidepool and hopefully not do any water changes

Link to comment

With a tank this size, water changes will be important.

I like the idea of what you want to do, as long as you can find a practical way to make it work.

Link to comment

I might not have any big livestock, I don't know what I could find out there. Are there any corals/anemones/inverts that could go in that size of a tank?

Link to comment

How close are you to the ocean? If you are close, just use seawater for water changes. Limestone can be used as filter material. Just go to a builder's supply or stoneyard and ask for broken pieces of limestone. They will give them to you for free. Treat the limestone as dry live rock. Any small critter that you can catch in a tidepool is a potential inhabitant. Hermit crabs are safe for the tank. Any snail that doesn't have a siphon (long protrusion sticking out of the top front of the shell) should be good. Small shrimps should be okay. Any small red or green plant in a tidepool should be okay. Barnacles are filter feeders that will help clean the water, so are oysters. Avoid any members of the starfish family. Anemones should be okay. The reddish anemones are called strawberry anemones and add a lot of color. But don't rip the anemone off a rock as that will kill it. They need to be gently persuaded off the rock. Chitons and limpets are good.

Link to comment

I have a desk light, it's in my basement where water gets 62 degrees, flow will be an air line with a sponge connected that's also filtration. I want to name pack this tank with plants and macro algea, also a piece of live rock from the tidepool and hopefully not do any water changes

The cold water part I get but at least in my experience macros don't just grow on their own. They need nutrients and trace from the water - thus in such a small tank water changes will likely be important. The sponge filter is fine but that will need cleaning on occasion as well. Cost nothing and be interesting and be maintenance free? That's a pretty tall order.

 

I agree with Weet on this one... I see what you're trying to do but ultimately I think you need to think it through a bit more. Do you have an exemplar you could link to that shows basically what you're trying to accomplish? I think you'll find that tiny tanks that are packed with stuff are more work - they require equipment and care. I would start smal and work your way up. Like start with only a small macro - specifically researching which ones can survive in low light conditions and cool water. Does your basement stay the same temp year round?

 

Ultimately I think water changes are what's going to make this tank potentially work - not a bad thing though. Also you say you live in Minnesota? That's pretty far from the ocean so do you have a shop nearby that deals in cool/temperate species?

 

Lets see what amphipod has to say on this one - not sure I really like his style of keeping but to each his own. He may have some good ideas on what the possibilities and limitations are of your concept. I have trouble seeing this as anything but a neat experiment.

Link to comment

I have a reef shop near me..... I feel like I should have bothered posting

Having a reef shop that sells cold/temperate animals is pretty unique... None by me do.

 

Try to find another tank similar to what you want to set up. This will help you get an idea beforehand of the limitations you'll be facing as well as giving you a grounds for the types of things that work.

Link to comment

If you are not near an ocean, I would advise not setting up the tank in your financial situation. It will be too expensive, and you will get discouraged.

Link to comment

I want it like tamberavhis Nano cold water is just amazing

 

Yeah I like that tank a ton !

 

I also just noticed Tamberav also lives in MN. Do you guys live close since there's apparently a store that sells temperate stuff near each of you?

 

I would make a plan with your LFS. Maybe stop by early one day just after they open and ask for some time. I think they should be able to help you better approximate the costs of such a setup as well as the maintenance and care. To me it just seems like using a flimsy kids aquariums and relying on ambient temp will, at the very least, make it difficult to pull off the temperate/cold water tank you're envisioning.

 

If you talk to your LFS I'm sure they can help you meet some of your ideas at your budget. I'm guessing it will involve some macros and a piece of LR. I would skip fish altogether and stick with a snail or 2 and see if you can find some other cool little critter like a small crab or star or something. Having simple inhabitants will make up for the lack of equipment and I think you'll be more successful. All you need is:

 

Simple light - use LED or at the very least compact fluorescent so you don't transfer heat to the tank

HOB filter for flow and an area to put filter media

Gravel and a piece of LR

A few sprigs of macro

A few snails

One other small critter like a crab or shrimp - I would skip fish for now

You could probably include a small anemone, or ideally introduce a few collonial corallimorphs such as the "strawberry nems".

Link to comment

Yeah, I scrapped this idea and will now have a 10 gallon all Oregon collected inhabitants. I will go out with stu woobe this summer as I'm going to Oregon. These are my projected inhabitants (numbers are not official)

 

Fish:

Tidepool sculpin (O. maculosus)

Fluffy sculpin (O. synderi)

Saddleback sculpin (O. rimensis)

Sharpnose sculpin (C. acuticeps)

Spinynose sculpin (A. taylori)

Tadpole sculpin (P. paradoxus)

Rockweed gunnel (A. fucorum)

Longfin gunnel (P. clemensi)

Rock prickleback (X. mucosus)

High cockscomb (A. purpurescens)

Northern clingfish (C. nugator)

 

Invertebrates:

Stout shrimp (H. brevitostris)

Dock shrimp (P. danae)

Smooth Mopalia (M. vespertina)

Zoanthid (E. scotinus)

Bering, Blackeye, Greenmark Hermits

(P. berings, armatus, caurinus and hemphilli)

Green shore crab (H. oregonensis)

 

Plants:

Pink feather coralline

(C. vancoverensis)

Sea lettuce (Ulva sp.)

California rose seaweed

(R. californica)

Blue branching seaweed

(F. lacinata)

It will have 1-2 ice probes and a aqueon 40 filter, also rocks from the tidepools

Link to comment

Sweet - sounds like a better idea to plan it out like this at a time when you can get the right equipment.

 

It seems like thick acrylic tanks are preferred for coldwater tanks. Is that something you plan to use? If not, any reason?

 

Finally - I can't comment on your livestock choices but will all that fit in a 10g and get along?

Link to comment

I asked stu and he said they would be fine it will have the shrimps, fluffy, tidepool, spinynose and slender sculpins; a cockscomb the berings and green shore crab. Also all the plants plus a Clinton, aggregate and a green surf nem lastly a red or green urchin

Her it's not berings

Hermits

Link to comment

You're going to keep 11 fish in a 10 gallon tank? I suspect your water quality would be pretty bad with all the food you would have to fed and whatnot. Is there a chance you could cut that list in half?

Link to comment

You're going to keep 11 fish in a 10 gallon tank? I suspect your water quality would be pretty bad with all the food you would have to fed and whatnot. Is there a chance you could cut that list in half?

Yeah I agree but I didn't say anything because I'll get flamed for not agreeing and OP is probably going to do it anyways.

 

Who knows though, I could be misunderstanding and this is just an ambitious wish list? I don't know how hard or legal it is to collect 21 different marine species. The list looks cool though.

 

Maybe since the OP isn't making the trip often he/she is planning to over collect since some will probably die on the way back. Also some will probably die during the first few months because as you said it seems to be an ambitious endeavor and there will likely be aggression and bio-load issues. From what I understand these fish can be aggressive to similar species. So maybe after a few months of losses OP is left with 4-5 of them? Better alternative to collecting 2 or 3 and they all die I suppose.

 

Note that this is just my opinion based on an admittedly small knowledge of temperate species and not intended to be inflammatory or otherwise discouraging so take it with a grain of salt. Better yet someone educate me as to the temperaments of these fish and how to establish a successful, long lived temperate species tank.

Link to comment

I've been talking with stu and he said I can collect that many with him, but I need to over over filter. He's quarantining them and when I'm back he will ship them to me, we might over collect for losses, and we will follow all of the regulations

Link to comment

I've been talking with stu and he said I can collect that many with him, but I need to over over filter. He's quarantining them and when I'm back he will ship them to me, we might over collect for losses, and we will follow all of the regulations

Yeah I would imagine that there's balance with these tanks... If they're too big you can't keep them cool enough, but too small and the livestock choices get tricky. What materials and tank dimensions would hold temperature best? It seems like thick 1/2" acrylic is used for purposes of insulating, and a deeper tank for holding temp stable.

 

The QT procedure is great, and overnight shipping will probably work better than trying to travel in plane/car with livestock.

 

One question - the ice probes are cool (pun intended), but for the cost of 2 of them do you think you could get better performance/efficiency out of a regular external chiller that may cost only slightly more? That might also allow you to get a larger tank if you wanted to sometime.

 

Another thing I was thinking about is gas exchange/dissolved oxygen. So in a tropical tank it's usually not an issue because many are run open top with skimmers and sumps. But in temperate tanks you'll probably want a lid, right? Granted cooler temperature water can hold more oxygen but I still think that might be a limiting factor as to how much livestock you can accommodate. You might want to consider adding an airline?

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...