Cold Water Nano

[Jamie]

My tank is a regular ten gal AGA

 

I have two different kinds of Anthopleura anemones in my tank. The first kind are the typical green and pink, but they have some unusual white banding on the tentacles. The second seem to be a variation, they are a darker green with a ring of white tentacles around the outside edge. Both kinds are about the size of a quarter. If they do anything that appears to have even the slightest intention of hurting the strawberries, away they will go.

 

Thanks so much

 

-Jamie

[Jamie]

My anemones:

 

 

[BennettOZ]

general rule about tidepools is that if you find something alive in it, that something will be very hardy concerning salinity, temperature and nitrates.

 

Also be aware and check with your local state laws about collection of such critters from tide pools. For example, here in Oregon its illegal for you to remove ANY species from tide pools.

[reefsrule]

At a nature center I work at, they had some pipefish from off the coast of LI, NY. I didn't know those were there.

[musicalmike]

Thought I would send some current photo's of the cold water tank. It's been up and running for 8 months now. The current temp is 61 degrees and all the critters are doing great.

[musicalmike]

A couple more.

[adinsxq]

GREAT TANK MIKE.

[Sushi]

I've always like catalina gobies.

[Maeda]

You're living my dream mike. Jerk.

 

Looks awesome!!!!

 

So how realistic is it to aquire some strawberry anems from you?

 

O.O

[adinsxq]

You're living my dream mike. Jerk.

 

Looks awesome!!!!

 

So how realistic is it to aquire some strawberry anems from you?

 

O.O

 

seriously. tom cruise and i have done the research. i could fire up a mean little ice tank if someone were to hook up the strawberry nems

[Maeda]

seriously. tom cruise and i have done the research. i could fire up a mean little ice tank if someone were to hook up the strawberry nems

 

I have a tank all ready to go. It just needs a chiller. o.O

[Jamie]

I just picked up a pair of catalina gobies

 

They're sooo cool. Really hard to take pictures of, too.

[Jamie]

Pics!

 

My tank is currently in transition, but, oh well.

 

 

 

FTS (full tub shot)

 

[Greenstar]

hahaha, very cool looking. How far north in california can you collect without needing to keep the temps below 60?

[musicalmike]

Northern Cal has summer surface temps in the low 60's.

[kingwintergreen]

Northern Cal has summer surface temps in the low 60's.

I'm a bit puzzled that temperate marine aquaria have yet to gain any prominence in the hobby. There appears to have been a mounting interest in the early to mid-1990's, but as a niche it lost traction because, I think, decent selections of coldwater aquarium livestock were so hard to come by. That's unfortunate not only because there is a huge variety of species with a lot of potential for the hobby, but also because they are, in many cases, more sturdy and forgiving of physiochemical stresses (more adaptive to captivity) than their tropical counterparts.

Additionally, an increased interest in temperate aquarium species would relieve pressure on natural tropical populations from overcollecting. Temperate marine ecosystems would themselves be less sensitive to the activities of responsible collectors for the following reason: These ecosystems are nutrient-rich (as opposed to tropical marine ecosystems which are relatively nutrient-poor). They are very highly productive (particularly intertidal and estuarine habitats) and as a result most critters that live there are too-- which means that their populations are not limited by resource availability but for space. When one such creature or plant is removed by a predator, human, natural disturbance, etc. another will very quickly take its place. Thus, collection for the aquarium industry would generally increase their turnover rate, rather than reduce their populations. Collection will be limited, however, once captive populations are established because these species (especially fish) have proven to be much simpler to aquaculture.

I'm happy to see nano-reef.com users engaging in this discussion; I invite any others out there who have a similar curiosity about this woefully underrepresented niche to share what they know here. Detailed and updated information on the subject is sorely lacking, to say the least. In a couple of other forums I have been dinking around on, I have come across some books, sites, etc. that might be of use. The Temperate Reef Aquarium by David Wrobel is a very general but complete approach to the subject (available through Sealife Supply, Sand City, CA). Aquarium Husbandry of Pacific Northwest Marine Invertebrates (available through the Seattle Aquarium) is also a decent reference. Steve Weast at www.oregonreef.com may yet end up becoming the Julian Sprung of the coldwater marine hobby, as his incredible temperate (and tropical) tanks increasingly gain well-deserved attention and admiration. Thanks, man! If anyone out there knows of any good literature on the subject or especially if someone knows of a dealer in temperate marine livestock, let us know about it here...

[el_vulture619]

WOW! This thread is exactly what I was loking for! I, ve been wanting to start a cold water for a long time! But you guys are taking strolls on the beach to collect animals, I cant do that in Michigan!!

 

One question I have is that is a chiller necissary in a cold place like MI, its 65 degrees in my house right now! In the summer it will get up to 90 degrees. I know that my old FW temperate aquarium would get up to 80 degrees in the summer, bu they were native fish I collected. Will the animals die if it is this warm for a month or 2 in the summer?

[musicalmike]

I totally agree, KWG. You would think the interest would be high, but CW tanks several problems associated with it. First is the "pretty fish" syndrome. There just aren't enough vibrant colors in them. The second is the cost for a decent chiller and last is the availability of livestock. Although they are a much more stable enviornment and there inhabitant much hardier, If my chiller failed, I'd be up that creek with just one paddle.

What is amazing for me, is the enourmous variety of life that a CW enviornment posesses. Much more IMO then WW.

EV619, the heart of a CW system is the chiller. It needs to run on a consistant basis and alow fluctuations of less then 2 degrees. You may be able to get away with some tidel crittters in your enviornment, but 90 in the summer will cook them. Even if your house is 65 in winter, don't forghet about the heat your pumps, powerheads, and light produce. Although the water in my area of California gets to 70 in the summer and 50 in the winter, the temperture change is less then 1-2 degrees in a month period of time.

I keep my tank at 61 degrees.

You can sometimes find varieties of fish from DFS on line that have come from areas of Baja or more temperate waters. I have purchased Catalina gobies and Abalone that were CW aquacultured. They are doing great in my tank.

[kingwintergreen]

WOW! This thread is exactly what I was loking for! I, ve been wanting to start a cold water for a long time! But you guys are taking strolls on the beach to collect animals, I cant do that in Michigan!!

 

One question I have is that is a chiller necissary in a cold place like MI, its 65 degrees in my house right now! In the summer it will get up to 90 degrees. I know that my old FW temperate aquarium would get up to 80 degrees in the summer, bu they were native fish I collected. Will the animals die if it is this warm for a month or 2 in the summer?

You will absolutely need a chiller (puchased or constructed-- you'll find that it's just better to go ahead and buy one in order to control (rather than simply lower) the temperature. "Temperate" isn't really snyonymous with "coldwater," as the word ""temperate" itself means "moderate"-- though arctic/antarctic could be taken as "coldwater," it's still just a relative term and doesn't mean much. "Temperate" doesn't even directly mean a specific temperature-- it refers to latitude (albeit latitude does, of course, does place average water temps within a limited range). "Coldwater" reefs can be found in the tropics, in fact, because they occur at great depths. For the sake of maintaining a temperate marine aquarium within an acceptable temperature range, buy a decent chiller (you'll just save that money by NOT having to purchase expensive lighting/bulbs and supplements, etc. as you would for a tropical reef tank) and keep the temperature at about 55F (60F at most)-- yearround.

Encourage your LFS in Michigan to offer temperate marine livestock. A supply will undoubtably follow clear demand. You may obtain livestock (as well as more info) online from a few sources. Try:

 

www.gulfofme.com

www.foreshores.net

www.aquaticbiodiversitygroup.com.au

 

Oh yeah... If you have been looking for threads or even forums on temperate marine aquaria, there's a poll in the General Discussion section you should check out (hint hint). Thanks...

[kydsexy]

i haven't really read anything of the posts on this forum, but i have a question for the OP and all others. When speaking of cold water nanos, what temperature are we talking about. it seems like a good deal of people on this thread are from socal, where your cold water is different from New England cold water. Along with a species difference, the maintenance of the tank is different. i guess my question is, during the dog days of summer, what is the ideal temperature of the tank?

 

 

im gonna continue to read the posts, just thought i'd ask early in my reading

[musicalmike]

It depend on the area your sealife comes from.

[kingwintergreen]

It depend on the area your sealife comes from.

True that! Southern Cailifornia (which techniqnically is subtropical-- but I guess for our puporposes can be considered temperate) can easily differ (with respect to temperature) from Puget Sound or the Gulf of Maine by 20 degrees F or more at a given time of year. This is not an insignignificant difference for even many intertidal organisms. So, as is the case for any other aquarium set-up, some research and planning is in order.

By the way-- as you shop for a chiller for your coldwater nano, don't make a mistake I have in assuming that an oversized chiller will be adequate for the necessary "pull-down" (drop in temp). Here, size (max flow rate capacity) relates only to the volume of water to be refrigerated, but not by how much (many are designed to merely cool well-lit tropical aquaria and therefore are meant to drop the temp no further beyond 60F). So, be sure to obtain a properly sized chiller designed for temperate aquaria. Good luck!

[el_vulture619]

Good advice on the chiller wintergreen I never took that into consideraion about the type of chiller. So I guess this would mean trying to get a chiller from a lobster tank or something?

 

When I had my CW FW tank the temp got down to 45-50 degrees in the winter becuse it was close to a window. So I am thinking that the "dog days of sumer" would kill everything. Man I was hopig to do with out $700 chillers!

 

Guess Ill run the water through a keg cooler!!

[kydsexy]

i think everyone should just move to New England and set up coldwater tanks in their basements. lol. last summer, i had my yellow bullhead tanks would not go higher than 65F for a good week. couldn't explain it, i had to add 3 heaters to raise the water!

[kingwintergreen]

Good advice on the chiller wintergreen I never took that into consideraion about the type of chiller. So I guess this would mean trying to get a chiller from a lobster tank or something?

 

When I had my CW FW tank the temp got down to 45-50 degrees in the winter becuse it was close to a window. So I am thinking that the "dog days of sumer" would kill everything. Man I was hopig to do with out $700 chillers!

 

Guess Ill run the water through a keg cooler!!

No, man, you should be able to find a good chiller that suite your needs fairly easily. I just saw a banner on this site by a reputable company selling decent chillers for tanks as small as 12 gallons! I'm not sure that many home aquarists would be satisfied with the typically noisy and unnecessarily humungous lobster tank chillers, nor do I believe one could save much money settling for something like that, or a beer keg cooler, open window, etc. I'm all for adaptive innovation, cost-cutting, etc.-- these are some of the unexpected challenges that keep aquarium keeping interesting. But controlling the temperature of a temperate tank with, say, a rotating line of icepaks is akin to controlling the temperature of a tropical tank with a blowdrier. It's pretty painful, I know, to make that one big commitment by handing over a fistful of Franklins for a single piece of equipment. Many of you out there a still remember that unseeming mix of regret and excitement, anxiety and invincibility upon returning home with your first killer halide unit, only to be more than reassured of your judgement upon plugging it in and seeing the results for the first time, on your own tank. Failure might be less expensive, but it has a much greater markup. Again, if you put forth a patient but vigilent search you'll find a good unit for a good price. In just the last couple of years, manufacturers have gotten increasingly competitive as more and more models (and even brands) keep hitting the market. Competition will really peak (and prices drop) as full LED lighting essentially eliminates tropical reef aquarists' need for them. And that won't be long. Anyway, sorry I'm always so longwinded-- found some more temperate marine fish that I thought were cool, and they're all "native..."