Wall mounted European Anemone Breeding tank! (Yet another change in plans)

[AquaticEngineer]

****** 6/6/13 So yet another change up in the stocking of this tank

 

I was looking at my "empty" wall mounted tank the other day and noticed that the aggregating anemones and the plumose anemones that had been mistakenly left in the tank were reproducing!

 

The tank has been nothing but room temperature for almost a month now with it dipping into the 60's at night and as high as 80F during the day.

 

Needless to say I had figured it void of coldwater life at this point, but I underestimated the abilities of inter tidal animals to thrive

 

This got me thinking about something I had heard in the past about Beadlet Anemones reproducing at accelerated rates when moved into higher temperatures and also how many in the UK keep the Snakelocks anemones in their tropical tanks (some even have clownfish hosting in them!)

 

With this in mind, I am testing the waters so to speak with Actinia Equina, Anemonia Viridis, and Actinia Fragacea in a room temperature tank. They have been previously housed in 57F water, temperature acclimated over about an hour, and are now in water that is 78F at the momoment and showing no signs of ill effects. The average temperature of the house is 66-70F almost all year, so if they make it through the summer and start multiplying like I think they will than I will acclimate their spawn back into cooler waters.

 

 

 

 

******Update 5/12/13

Got myself a few other coldwater projects going right now, so I decided to pull the chillers off of this tank. Good thing I plumbed them so I could take them off later, lol.

 

Instead since this tank has such a great viewing area and a cross current gyre flow to it, I'm going to turn it into an NPS gorgonian based tank.

 

(I'm still gonna get the Navinax though, he's just going into the other tank that I set up........New thread coming soon )

 

*****Update as of 4/22/13

Got it all wired up and running last night, got cycled water from the main tanks and livestock in it

Video below

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*****Update as of 3/25/13***** I won this tank a while ago and just could not figure out a good solution for chilling it. I finally found something that will work and I have begun getting the tank prepped to be a California Biotope tank with temperate species.

 

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*****Update as of 4/4/13

 

Chiller came in the mail today, stress testing it to see how long it takes to go as low as it can go. Pics on page 2

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So I'm in the running on Aquabella's facebook page to win a FREE AB41 Wall mounted tank.

 

I actually looked into getting one used a couple years ago to use as a coldwater tank and gave up on the idea. If I can win this one for free I would have no problem drilling holes in it to mount some Iceprobe micro chillers onto.

 

Plans after that involve a lot of bad ass stuff from Monterey Bay for a wall mounted california biotope tank running in the low 60's

 

Already got the hookup on all the livestock, just need everyone who happens to be on Nano-Reef and Facebook to give me a hand beating this other guys picture with the most likes.

 

So if you all could PLEASE hook it up with a like and maybe a share to help me get the most likes before the 28th I would love you all for it, and there would DEFINITELY be a build thread here on NR!!

 

Heres the link to the picture, just like it and you are doing me a hug favor:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=101...e=1&theater

 

Here's the picture I entered, I think its set as my avatar on here actually

[AquaticEngineer]

Anyone else on here with Facebook please click the link below and LIKE the photo for me!!

 

BABY GPO PHOTO IN THE CONTEST

 

We cant let a picture of a Maroon Clown beat the awesomeness of a mean mugging GIANT PACIFIC OCTOPUS!!!

[jaynkeel]

No problem, liked. Good luck looking forward to seeing the build thread

[AquaticEngineer]

No problem, liked. Good luck looking forward to seeing the build thread

 

Thanks!!! I cannot wait to get my hands on this tank and start drilling holes in it

 

I am going to keep a small Onespot Fringehead and some Catalinas in there, then tons of Coryn.actis, Bat Stars, Brittle Stars, etc. Gonna keep it in the low 60's and all California natives

[AquaticEngineer]

Tank is being delivered today Gotta find a pair of Iceprobe chillers now

[fullmonti]

Good deal. Looking forward to build thread.

[AquaticEngineer]

Good deal. Looking forward to build thread.

 

I guess I could go ahead and make this the build thread huh?

 

Ordered one of these to use for chilling it from https://chillsolutions.com/

 

 

Got the tank mounted on the wall a month or so ago.

 

Then I unwired the heater from the setup, and tonight I am working on spray foam rock work on the inside since aquascaping it will be tough as it is.

 

 

 

[evo_2679]

Cool setup !!! Tagging along on this build thread !!!

[AquaticEngineer]

Finished the foam work tonight. Gonna paint the back black tomorrow.

 

More pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ccapasso]

Very cool. Following along!

 

Maybe I'll get some inspiration for my 55 degree tank

[Blubbernaut]

How many gallons is it? Can't wait to see the finished product!

[GHill762]

interesting.. love it when people think outside the box..

 

also, I love catalinas' color.. I wish they were tropical.. one of these days i'll do a temperate..

[AquaticEngineer]

Very cool. Following along!

 

Maybe I'll get some inspiration for my 55 degree tank

I almost posted something about the livestock I was gonna do in this on your tank build thread last night I am gonna do all small docile fish for sure, probably some bay pipefish or another fish called a tubesnout.

 

How many gallons is it? Can't wait to see the finished product!

Its right around 12 gallons total water volume.

 

interesting.. love it when people think outside the box..

 

also, I love catalinas' color.. I wish they were tropical.. one of these days i'll do a temperate.

I dont know if I could even think inside the box if I had to anymore, Just about everything I do with the coldwater stuff is a first for me and barely documented at best for the rest of the world it seems. So there is a lot of try and see that I get to do these days

 

Catalinas and Zebra gobies have been on my list for years. I've been getting them on and off but always selling them to someone else, now I get to keep some for myself finally

 

Video I took of the tank while running it last night to wash off the last of the rock salt.

 

http://s246.photobucket.com/user/Stuwobbe/media/WP_20130326_005_zps52fd5351.mp4.html

 

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg100/Stuwobbe/WP_20130326_005_zps52fd5351.mp4'>

[ExSmoker]

ya got my vote for being chill Following.

[Scooter51]

Awesome job buddy. I'm jealous for sure.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

That is just sick! Loving it!

[Acielot]

It looks bigger than 12 gallons. How does that water flow in it? Clockwise/counterclockwise against the 2 walls I would suppose?

 

You should definitely get some of that temperate macroalgae and CUC though. Some exotic chitons and kelp

[uwwmatt]

I'm digging the foam rockwork. What exactly was your process, I may have to try it out?

[rev138]

Easily the most natural looking fake rock I've seen.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Stu,

 

What are the R&D findings for that chiller on 12 gallons? Are you holding 55 F degrees of Coolness...

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Stu,

 

What are the R&D findings for that chiller on 12 gallons? Are you holding 55 F degrees of Coolness...

[AquaticEngineer]

It looks bigger than 12 gallons. How does that water flow in it? Clockwise/counterclockwise against the 2 walls I would suppose?

 

You should definitely get some of that temperate macroalgae and CUC though. Some exotic chitons and kelp

It does look alot bigger than 12 gallons, but its only like 5" from front to back so it seems much larger than it is.

 

The flow has intake grates towards the bottom of each side and has pumps that return water into it from behind where the foam walls are now. So it does make a clockwise and counter clockwise flow rotation. I was debating on bumping up to a Maxi mini pump or something, but after seeing the 2 pumps in action shooting at each other it will definitely have enough water movement.

 

I will for sure have some of the chitons in there for clean up, I may try and do temperate seagrass since I will be keeping Bay Pipefish and that is there natural habitat.

I'm digging the foam rockwork. What exactly was your process, I may have to try it out?

Its super easy Whatever side I am applying it to I lay flat so that I am working on a horizontal surface. I barricade the open end of the area with a piece of sponge to stop any spray foam from expanding where I dont want it. I pour rock salt on all the areas I dont want foam to be, like on the intake grates and near the front glass, then I start spraying foam. I use the "Touch N' Foam" black pond foam since its UV resistant and the cheapest I lay the foam thicker and thinner in some areas and let it expand in others then I lay down a first coat of rock salt over the whole area starting at the lowest points first otherwise if you dump a bunch on the thickest areas of foam it just expands in the opposite direction.

 

Once I've covered the whole area with a couple inches I give it a good press and then wait. You will get areas where the foam will expand up out of the rock salt since it wants to fill the weakest gaps naturally. I just dump on more rock salt and push it back down. After about 20-30 minutes its done expanding (if its not too thick) and I use a shop vac to suck out all the rock salt. After that you can use warm fresh water and the rest of the rock salt that was stuck to the foam will just melt off.

 

When you are done you get a pretty random shape and lots of small texture from the differnent sizes of and angles of the rock salt. You never really know what you will get, but its always pretty cool

 

I will have to do a little demo video and post it up here sometime.

 

Easily the most natural looking fake rock I've seen.

Thanks I've done about 5 tanks now this way and played around a lot with it. The Bi-Mart up the road hates me because I buy every can of spray foam they have in stock when I go in there

 

I've done a nano for a customers coldwater setup, did my own 200 gallon that was 36" tall, did an 18x24x24 rock boulder with a cave for a local fish stores coldwater tank, did the tank that my business partner is setting up now which is a 1" thick 30 gallon, and now this one

 

Stu,

 

What are the R&D findings for that chiller on 12 gallons? Are you holding 55 F degrees of Coolness...

Still waiting for it, they were back ordered. The crazy thing is that I was literally building the exact same chiller and had peltiers and heatsinks all over my kitchen table. Then I started googling what to do for a water block and came across these guys on facebook. Took one look at their design, then looked at my drawings of what I was trying to do and said "oh, they figured it out" and I packed up all my junk and decided to call em up and buy one

 

One of my buddies in Boston bought the same chiller and is doing either a full temperate tank or a subtropical with seahorses, so I should get multiple sets of data from different tanks.

[MeepNand]

Nice fake rock! I didn't know there was nontoxic salt resistant foam around! I heard of it being used for vivariums before though.

Have you though of pressing in shelves of rock? That could net a nice look.

[1reefluvr2]

Cool setup! Following along

[AquaticEngineer]

Nice fake rock! I didn't know there was nontoxic salt resistant foam around! I heard of it being used for vivariums before though.

Have you though of pressing in shelves of rock? That could net a nice look.

I've done pre formed large shelves using egg crate and spray foam and then added them onto a tank. Heres a pic of my big tank I did a while back with all spray foam, you can see some of the shelves on the left and the huge ledge on the right was all spray foam as well.