15 gal Coldwater Dual Biotope

[Jamie]

Haha, thanks. I'm sure you can find some way to do it. Do you have a minifridge a college? With some pretty easy modification it could become a chiller. Or you could just put it in the fridge and have a VERY coldwater tank.

 

I went snorkeling at Manzanita today. It was cold and wavy, but the water was surprisingly clear. I couldn't keep my face in the water very long, since it was going numb, and my wetsuit is so floaty I couldn't dive, so it wasn't great, but an interesting experience. I saw one large dungeoness crab, but that was it for life other than algae. I'm hoping to go at the jetties, because it's much less wavy, and without any surf, the water should be really clear. I'm still convincing my parents that i won't get hit by a boat while I'm out there though.

 

-Jamie

[Jigsaw]

haha yeah I do have a minifridge, but the thing is I need it as a fridge! haha I'm trying a few things with ice in buckets etc, I'm sure I'll figure something out.

 

Man, that must be freezing, but even in summer its still that cold? Wow.

[Jamie]

I think the water was around 55-57 degrees. The seasons don't affect it much, but I think it's a little colder in the winter. I got to go again today, this time at the nehalem jetty. I was outside to south jetty, so the NW swell was partially blocked, but it was still pretty difficult. It was a way better experience than yesterday. I found a huge field of A. elegantissima that was so pink and fluffy and beautiful I thought it was C. californica. I managed to snag two of those anemones before a wave carried me away. I also caught two replacement sculpins, very nice colors, though they can change they're coloration so they'll probably be poop brown in my tank. I also caught, but did not keep, a small kelp crab, because it looked very threatening in a slow-motion, kelpish sort of way. I saw a few tasty looking dungeoness crabs, but didn't attempt to catch them for fear of finger injuries.

 

The chiller is on it's way, should be here in an hour or so, so everything should be happier, and I can start trying to find new fish for my tank! Unfortunately there are no big low tides coming up, so I might have to get creative. I'm thinking of making some sort of funnel-trap I can just drag along the bottom, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

-Jamie

[Jamie]

The chiller is installed and running, current temp, 55 degrees. Without the hiller it as 61, which was fine, but the tank needed the water movement. I also caught a ton of live mysis and amphipods in the surf, so hopefully that will keep everything happy.

[jeremai]

WEEE!!!

 

 

 

 

 

That funnel trap is an intriguing idea. I thought the temps were colder up there - the water is 55 in winter in San Diego and 60-65 in the summer, that's a lot further south than you but not too far off temperature-wise. Interesting. Damn that Alaskan current.

[Jamie]

Sea surface temps for Oregon and Washington!

 

http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/data/washngtn.cf.gif

 

For those not familiar with our geography, Oregon starts where the Colombia river enters the ocean, just above 46 degrees. I'm about 40 miles south of there. California starts at the 42 degree mark. So as you can see, where I am the water is around 15 - 16 celsius, which translates to 59 - 61 Fahrenheit. Right off shore isn't shown on the map, but it's generally a little colder.

 

The anemones are opening, hopefully they can catch some mysis for themselves, because I forgot their frozen food at home. The sculpins are chowing down too, which is excellent. I think I'll build the funnel trap tomorrow; we're going out in the fishing boat on friday, so I'll see what I can dredge up. It's three foot swell and one foot windwaves, which is rediculously small for here. I've never been in the ocean when it was this calm, so I'm very excited.

 

-Jamie

[Jamie]

so I was looking at my hydroid colony close up, and all of a sudden it was like, "SPIDER!" So yeah, I have a hydroid eating sea spider now, we'll see how this goes. I'm not getting rid of it yet, I want to see how fast it eats the hydroids. If they can reproduce faster than it eats them, then it stays. If it's the other way around, it goes. It is a pretty cool critter, even though I'm a total wuss when it comes to spiders. It's about a centimeter wide/long. I forgot my ID book, but I know it's in there, because I remember the picture. I haven't found it on the internet yet, but I'm still looking.

 

-Jamie

[jeremai]

Like a Pycnogonid?

[NanoClown]

i love your anemones

[Jigsaw]

Hahah oh no not a hydroid! Well I guess sea spiders won't be problematic, right? haha. So I've been testing a few things Jamie and I'm thinking about setting up a 2.5 coldwater (though I live in PA haha) and just somehow insulate the tank (using loose styrofoam right now and its been about 63 all day from 11 AM to 9 PM), and then constantly add/switch in and out frozen water bottles in a compartment or something... I'm really just experimenting for fun now haha, I'll figure something out I hope, but anyway your tank is something to be admired!

[Jamie]

Like a Pycnogonid?

 

Yep.

 

i love your anemones

 

Thanks!

 

Hahah oh no not a hydroid! Well I guess sea spiders won't be problematic, right? haha. So I've been testing a few things Jamie and I'm thinking about setting up a 2.5 coldwater (though I live in PA haha) and just somehow insulate the tank (using loose styrofoam right now and its been about 63 all day from 11 AM to 9 PM), and then constantly add/switch in and out frozen water bottles in a compartment or something... I'm really just experimenting for fun now haha, I'll figure something out I hope, but anyway your tank is something to be admired!

 

Well, it's the good kind of hydroid, so I don't really want them eating it! But we'll see how it goes. So it's been 63 without any chilling? Or are you doing that with ice? Are you going to get up every two hours at night to change out the water bottles? Cause they're not gonna last all night. Personally I'd think of something else. I think that could be a *little* difficult. If it's running 63 without chilling though, you could keep all of the stuff I have in my tank with no problems. Seriously though, minifridge, do it. Who needs food when you have a coldwater tank?

 

-Jamie

[Jigsaw]

hahah yeah who needs food . I was looking up the mini fridge DIY and I heard its really impractical and doesn't lower it too much. What I did though was put cool water in this morning and put 2 bags of ice in this morning and let them basically sit there (they can't last long, the cubes I mean) and I put styrofoam on the bottom and the sides/back. Right now its at around 63 degrees...I actually think if I put styrofoam tightly around it or some kind of insulation, then I'd be set (maybe, minus the livestock pricing too). Like I said I'm just experimenting with it (Its fun and its summer, why not?), but if I set it up this wouldn't be long term, I'd get one of those Ranco temp controllers. I'll let you know how it goes though, for the sake of fun/boredom haha.

[Jamie]

you could always try one of those peltier chillers the make for nano cubes. I think they're only like, 100 dollars. But experimenting is always fun. Who knows, maybe you'll stumble onto something awesome! Keep us updated on how it goes.

[Jigsaw]

Yeah, if I was crazy serious about doing it I'd buy one of those no question, but I'm a poor college kid so . I'll def. keep you updated, I mean if I have to put a little frozen thing in the filter or something every so often, why not right? Oh well, I'll see how it goes.

[Jamie]

Actually, a lot of coldwater things can be kept at room temp. The Anthopleura anemones I have would be fine, and waratah anemones that you might find in an lfs would also do well. Catalina gobies too. And those are all things you have reasonably easy access to.

 

If the cold from the ice lasted all day, you might be able to pull it off, but it would be difficult, and if you forgot just once you could be screwed. So maybe do able, but pretty dangerous.

[jeremai]

Actually, a lot of coldwater things can be kept at room temp. The Anthopleura anemones I have would be fine, and waratah anemones that you might find in an lfs would also do well. Catalina gobies too. And those are all things you have reasonably easy access to.

Eek, that's a dangerous thing to say - could you put a disclaimer on that?

[Jamie]

Well, assuming your house is 70 degrees or less at room temp, but I guess pumps and stuff would heat it up too. Still, A. elegantissima is found as far south as mexico, and A xanthogrammica gets all the way down to panama - I think it's pretty warm there. I know people have been keeping waratah's at warmer temps. And Catalina's get pretty far south. I would say 70 is the upper limit for them, but people do keep them in warmer tanks. Anything like C. californica or the Urticina's needs a chiller though, imo.

 

I got to go to Barview again today, and it was amazing, even though it wasn't really low tide. I figured out that the orange striped anemones have really good camouflage, but they're practically everywhere, so basically any rock you pick up will have them on it. Using this technique, I picked only rocks that were very small, and still got lots of anemones, maybe 10 - 15. I also got a few A. elegantissima that were on tiny rocks too. It's really nice not having to peel anything off, I think this way is much less stressful.

 

-Jamie

[Jigsaw]

yeah, day 3 for my tank, it was about 69 degrees (a bit high) all day and went down to around 67 in the evening (with the windows open). I was thinking about adding a cheap wal mart fan or something and letting that do its thing, maybe even form fitting the styrofoam to the tank (its just loosely on there). I'm sure most coldwater species inhabit fluctuating temps, but I want it as stable as possible, which is hard how I am doing it. Maybe I'll pick a fan up tonight or find one around the house, I'll keep you updated!

 

-Pat

[Jigsaw]

well I'm going to try to get some kind of insulation tomorrow for the tank (maybe a new tank, I don't trust this one for some reason) and put it on all 3 sides or something. Right now (10:19 PM) its about 63.3 degrees w/o lights or a powerhead. It seems to fluctuate like I said, hotter during the day and cooler at night, which is to be expected. I'm really actually optimistic about this, the lights I'm looking at have a spot to install fans easily which would be a great help for the tank. I still have to find livestock, though once I got it up and running I might be interested in that group buy or Gulf Of Maine!

[Jamie]

Fans will definitely help, be ready to top off a lot though, especially in that small of a tank. If you do get in on the group buy, I could through in a few little things from my tank that wouldn't mind temperature swings. The orange lined anemones (Diadumene lineata) are not very sensitive to temperature. Apparently they're an invasive species in hawaii, which is not exactly chilly, so I'm sure they'd be fine. And like I said, A elegantissima tolerate warmer temperatures too.

 

-Jamie

[Jigsaw]

yeah, I'm not worried about topping off to be honest, I figure I can keep the top off water in the fridge or something to keep it cool enough. I just woke up (10:30 AM EST) and its around 67 degrees. Jamie, that'd be great if you could do that! Maybe some Oregon rock too? I'm not sure what would look best (like your rock) in this little tank, maybe some river rocks or something?

 

Oh and did you cycle the tank at all? I'm concerned that because it is cooler that it will take a lot longer to produce bacteria colonies, plus the rock is real dense. Any ideas?

 

-Pat

[Jamie]

I kept my rock underwater the whole trip home, and it was kept in various other tanks before this one, so there was very little die-off, meaning not much of a cycle. If you cycle your tank at warmer temperatures, then cool it down once the bacterial colonies are established, you can have a much quicker cycle.

 

I'm going to try to replace the rock in my tank with just one big "boulder" right in the center, I don't really like the jumbled together look I have right now, so I'd be happy to send a rock or two from my current set up.

 

-Jamie

[Jigsaw]

Oh nice! It is very kind of you to help me out! I plan on finding some nice insulation at home depot tomorrow, the styrofoam only works so well (its about 68 right now 6:30 PM EST), but it goes down at night. Maybe we can set some sort of shipping deal up! Let me know!

 

-Pat

[Kraylen]

Its like 115 here.

[Mynameskenny19]

I kept my rock underwater the whole trip home, and it was kept in various other tanks before this one, so there was very little die-off, meaning not much of a cycle. If you cycle your tank at warmer temperatures, then cool it down once the bacterial colonies are established, you can have a much quicker cycle.

 

I'm going to try to replace the rock in my tank with just one big "boulder" right in the center, I don't really like the jumbled together look I have right now, so I'd be happy to send a rock or two from my current set up.

 

-Jamie

 

depending on the size of the rock, drill it out with a rock drill. works good for weight reduction and gives critters some homes.