7.2g Cold Water Reef Build

[filefishfinatic]

On 12/30/2020 at 7:15 AM, Pjanssen said:

Is this available now? 

how much would it cost for just the aio w/ chiller for a 20 long? 

[Tamberav]

44 minutes ago, filefishfinatic said:

how much would it cost for just the aio w/ chiller for a 20 long? 

 

If you use a glass tank, you would need a bigger chiller and it will probably always fog up. This is thicker acrylic so it is insulated. I use a 1/15 hp JBJ chiller on this which was $530 dollars new. It works well for this 7g insulated tank. You might need something larger for a glass 20g.

 

If you get a small insulated tank you can also use ice probes instead which are cheaper. One Ice probe is $120. I would think 1 ice probe would work on a 2-3g insulated acrylic tank. Enough space to hold nem's and some small fish. You can always add more than one probe to bigger tanks.

 

You can sometimes find chillers used for a lot cheaper. I personally don't regret the expense of my chiller as it has been in continuous use for 6 years. That is probably longer than most people keep their expensive LED lights. 

 

 

[Tamberav]

Haven’t had time to clean the acrylic but all is well! The nem in the back is being silly lol I guess he wanted more food.

 

 

[Tamberav]

I still have two Catalina’s but one is super camera shy and hides when I get near. 
 

I haven’t cleaned the glass/acrylic of any of my tanks in weeks 😛 just busy. 
 

 

 

 

Angry nem!! Showing its stingers!

 

 

 

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Just unbelievale on the longevity of your Micro-Reefs Aquarium, I am blessed that you still show off the tank in all its glory.  As you know I am ready this year to support a new build of cold water aquariums to support this wonderful world we call 55 degrees of COOLNESS!

[Tamberav]

So this happened in the past month and a half!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect for joining the: 

 

[demonclownfish]

looks like a sea hare's paradise

[Tamberav]

Ok ripped out what I could easily get to for Step 1 the cleanup. 

The thing about working in a tank that is 56 degrees is that your arms become painfully cold and then go numb so you can really only do so much and then you take a break before you get frostbite. 

 

The nems are all there.. algae can't really grow on a nem. 

 

The great thing about it being winter is you do not need to make room in your fridge for a bucket of saltwater... you just put it outside to get cold. So I will go ahead and put that out now and hopefully do a water change tonight as Step 2. 

 

 

[Tamberav]

Water change done. I didn’t pluck any more algae this go around but siphoned and scrubbed the back chambers. 
 

This is the nice brown sludge I got. Looks like skimmer juice. I can’t run filter floss because my two year old cat is like a toddler and pulls out the floss and runs around the house like it is a dirty mop.
 

I added a bag of carbon and did put some floss in case he forgot as I haven’t run any in a year but I don’t have high hopes that will work once he notices it’s back. 
 

Cloudy after the water change. I did not scrape the acrylic yet. 
 

 

 

[spectra]

Flippen cats....................  

[Tamberav]

26 minutes ago, spectra said:

Flippen cats....................  

 

I had a Nanobox tide over this but it is a prime now because he got the cover off the tank then knocked the tide into the water awhile back….

 

I taped the lid on tonight. Whenever I mess with something it becomes an object of interest… 

 

Ya can’t hate him because he purrs and loves when I pet him and carry him around and gets all kissy face. He just likes to mess with EVERYTHING! He tried to play in the tank, play in the bucket, steal the media bags, and steal a bag of nori during this water change process.  

[spectra]

11 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

 

I had a Nanobox tide over this but it is a prime now because he got the cover off the tank then knocked the tide into the water awhile back….

 

I taped the lid on tonight. Whenever I mess with something it becomes an object of interest… 

 

Ya can’t hate him because he purrs and loves when I pet him and carry him around and gets all kissy face. He just likes to mess with EVERYTHING! He tried to play in the tank, play in the bucket, steal the media bags, and steal a bag of nori during this water change process.  

 

Well my cat jumps in my lap and growls at me when I pet her............  she is all bark and no bight............. even the vet said she sure makes a lot of noise............ 

[Tired]

Hey, I'd make a lot of noise, too if a giant alien creature was grabbing and poking at me! 

 

(Ours doesn't make a lot of noise at the vet. She just bites. They can't examine her, even with drugs, they just vaccinate her and put her back in the carrier.)

[Tamberav]

Sure enough, the floss was on the stairs this morning.

 

My parents have a cat that is ornery....  except when at the vet! The first time they went they warned the vet of this growly crabby cat and he came out of the carrier purring so loud lol Made a liar out of them. My bet is he was so happy to be out of the car ride... probably thought the vet was his savior from these evil people who made him go in the car. 

[Amnemonemomne]

Yea my cat hates going to the vet like other cases he yowls the entire car ride hoping the hoomans will turn around. When we try to take him out the carrier he either grips the towel in his carrier or runs out and finds a nice corner to hide in that the hoomans cant reach into

[Tamberav]

So I haven’t plucked anymore algae but the rocks have some bald spots. Snails doing some work!

 

Little cleared path through the grass. 
 

 

 

[Tamberav]

Sorry for the heavy blue. The tank is about to go to sleep for the night but this snail has been working on this rock all day. 
 

Makes our tropical snails look like lazy slobs. Also he is an original snail.. yes he has been with me 8 years. No idea their lifespan. 
 

 

Also some nems, I need to clean the acrylic yet. 
 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Sorry for the heavy blue. The tank is about to go to sleep for the night but this snail has been working on this rock all day. 
 

Makes our tropical snails look like lazy slobs. Also he is an original snail.. yes he has been with me 8 years. No idea their lifespan. 
 

 

Also some nems, I need to clean the acrylic yet. 
 

 

Those nems are very pretty. 

[Ohmegg]

On 6/14/2020 at 11:28 AM, Tamberav said:

Thanks! 

 

The green guys are jewel nems 🙂

 

The white coral is a northern star coral...it is a stony coral. It grows very slow at cold temps/winter and much faster in the summer. So it has grown some but I would have to up the temps to get it to grow fast.

 

In summer it also turns brown/tan as it houses zooxanthellae and becomes photosynthetic but in winter it expelles the zooxanthellae and turns bright white/clear because it isn't energy efficient to keep the zooxanthellae at the cold temps. Instead of feeds off food particles like a NPS would. 

 

It is a coral researchers are studying because it can withstand such great shifts in temperature and range (tide vs depths) unlike the reef cousins. It basically survives bleaching like it is no big deal. They are hoping it will bring insight to help conserving the reefs.

 

Here is the tan version

 

 

It hides a stony skeleton underneath:

 

And an older photo on my star coral when it was just a few heads:

 

 

 

 

I realize that was a long response for a simple question lol but it's kind of a strange coral.

I'm fascinated by the northern star coral. Want to get a specimen and slowly acclimate it to tropical temps to see if it will stay photosynthetic in my tank. Does it floresce under blue light at all?

[Tamberav]

On 1/4/2023 at 12:44 AM, Ohmegg said:

I'm fascinated by the northern star coral. Want to get a specimen and slowly acclimate it to tropical temps to see if it will stay photosynthetic in my tank. Does it floresce under blue light at all?

 

I wouldn't say it fluoresce under blue light as when it is white/clear it has no zoo and zoo is what makes corals glow. I would say it is reflective under the light. The pale body reflecting some light back. 

 

They are definitely hardy. 

[Ohmegg]

16 hours ago, Tamberav said:

 

I wouldn't say it fluoresce under blue light as when it is white/clear it has no zoo and zoo is what makes corals glow. I would say it is reflective under the light. The pale body reflecting some light back. 

 

They are definitely hardy. 

Know a good source to obtain a frag? 

[Tamberav]

On 1/7/2023 at 1:01 AM, Ohmegg said:

Know a good source to obtain a frag? 

 

Unfortunaty I don't. The Cold Water Marine Aquarium Owners on facebook has a list of cold water suppliers of coral. You could also ask there. 

 

 

I did more work today, spot treated with some peroxide, wiped the acrylic down but need to finish it. My arms hurt and it is difficult to type this message as the cold made my fingers are numb! 

[mcarroll]

On 12/29/2022 at 4:51 PM, Tamberav said:

The thing about working in a tank that is 56 degrees is that your arms become painfully cold and then go numb so you can really only do so much and then you take a break before you get frostbite. 

Believe it or not you can get used to that.  (Can you say lobster tank?)

 

Whether you WANT to get used to it may be a different story. ☃️

 

😉 

[debbeach13]

That cold water has to be tough to have your hands in. You being dedicated IMO.

[Tamberav]

Welp here is where we are at! Full cleanup will take awhile but it’s well under way. 
 

Basically now I just resume water changes and make sure algae stays short and let the snails finish it off over time. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

This pic shows how this rock is almost fully cleaned - if you scroll back to Jan 3, you can see how much more algae there was and now it's just short little patches left on this same rock they are STILL eating at. On to the next rock after this one is cleared!