The Tidepool Two: UK Temperate Tank

[SaltyGallon]

13 minutes ago, Micro-Reefs Aquariums said:

I am glad that you mentioned possibly using the ice-probe.  If you do, the longevity of keeping them well within their range of tolerances is multiplied.  I speak with experience with Nova Tec products, the Ice-probe chiller.  A single chiller can keep approximately 2 U.S gallons at 55F degrees that is 12.7 Celsius.  They are extremely hardy and only have one moving part, the fan that expels the heat from the tank working on thermoelectric technology.  

 

Little was I to learn, that when I dropped them into the tank at 55 F degrees, everything came to life! (hence the notion to extreme tolerances; salinity & temps)

Thanks again, very informative. The Nova Tec iceprobe looks fantastic and energy efficient - I see why you advocate them. It's a shame we don't have them here in the UK but perhaps in time they will come to market here. I will have to check out your YouTube channel, too. The big bright green anemones you guys have over in the US are really cool 🙂

 

Would the species you're keeping at 55f (12°C for the backwards Brits like me) survive at 75-77f?

[Nathans_Reef]

5 hours ago, Ratvan said:

 

Further to this someone on Ultimate Reef, built a temperate British Rockpool tank including a homemade tidal surge device which drained the tank to approximately 50% of capacity leaving the anemones out of water for a short duration of time before filling back up.

 

Would love to do something similar to that if i could only work out how to dampen the noise from the Bell Siphon discharging

I have seen multiple Tidal Mudskipper tanks that were really cool, it involved an air tight acrylic box under the sandbed, the box had an air stone inside plugged into a timer so that when the air stone was turned on it pushed water out of the box and into the tank causing the water level to rise. 

[SaltyGallon]

13 minutes ago, Nathans_Reef said:

I have seen multiple Tidal Mudskipper tanks that were really cool, it involved an air tight acrylic box under the sandbed, the box had an air stone inside plugged into a timer so that when the air stone was turned on it pushed water out of the box and into the tank causing the water level to rise. 

What a clever idea! The lengths fish keepers will go to haha...

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

6 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

Thanks again, very informative. The Nova Tec iceprobe looks fantastic and energy efficient - I see why you advocate them. It's a shame we don't have them here in the UK but perhaps in time they will come to market here. I will have to check out your YouTube channel, too. The big bright green anemones you guys have over in the US are really cool 🙂

 

Would the species you're keeping at 55f (12°C for the backwards Brits like me) survive at 75-77f?

Gosh,

 

That is a good question, I don't know because I always kept the tank at 55F which is 12C for you guys in the UK.  I even placed a Catalina Goby in there and he is usually from 65F and he did excellent, the reverse of placing him in 75-77F he would die in 2 months.  

 

According to Cold Water Marine Aquatics, they require the temp to be at the same number from the ecosystem they came from, otherwise they cannot process the oxygen correctly and will perish.

 

Hope that helps answer your question.

 

BTW, where did you get that awesome tiny light, I have  never seen it here in the states?

[Ratvan]

10 hours ago, Micro-Reefs Aquariums said:

Gosh,

 

That is a good question, I don't know because I always kept the tank at 55F which is 12C for you guys in the UK.  I even placed a Catalina Goby in there and he is usually from 65F and he did excellent, the reverse of placing him in 75-77F he would die in 2 months.  

 

According to Cold Water Marine Aquatics, they require the temp to be at the same number from the ecosystem they came from, otherwise they cannot process the oxygen correctly and will perish.

 

Hope that helps answer your question.

 

BTW, where did you get that awesome tiny light, I have  never seen it here in the states?

The Kessil A80?

[SaltyGallon]

13 hours ago, Micro-Reefs Aquariums said:

BTW, where did you get that awesome tiny light, I have  never seen it here in the states?

The light on this tank is a Kessil A80 with the rim sprayed white (which I think it looks rather naughty!) but the light on the 1G pico is a TMC 3w Nano Light - which I believe is a rebranded Zetlight ZN1020 or something along those lines, which I think you have in the states. That light is perfect for pico shrooms and GSP but I think most zoas would prefer something a bit beefier 😊

[ererer]

On 3/23/2021 at 9:31 AM, Ratvan said:

Further to this someone on Ultimate Reef, built a temperate British Rockpool tank including a homemade tidal surge device which drained the tank to approximately 50% of capacity leaving the anemones out of water for a short duration of time before filling back up.

@Ratvan, this sounds like an interesting tank, I'd like to check it out. Can you share a link?

[SaltyGallon]

23 minutes ago, ererer said:

@Ratvan, this sounds like an interesting tank, I'd like to check it out. Can you share a link?

I was hunting for this - I know I've read the post a few times - but had no luck!! Bloody noisy emptying and re-filling I would think, but a very cool concept.

[debbeach13]

Tigahboy did one back in 2005. You can try a search I think the thread is Custom Tigahboy. Or try Tigahboy surge.

[SaltyGallon]

On 3/23/2021 at 3:26 PM, Micro-Reefs Aquariums said:

I am glad that you mentioned possibly using the ice-probe. 

 

I've found a supplier of the ice probe on Ebay but not sure whether I can hook it up to a UK power supply... I know naff all about AC/DC and power supply lol. Thanks for your help 👍🏼

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COOLWORKS-NOVA-TECH-ICEPROBE-AQUARIUM-CHILLER-WITH-POWER-SUPPLY-/151544689972?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

 

Is this the kind of adaptor I'd need?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0721PV2KL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_51G1SGYEZ7QJRBJ3DJ0D?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

3 minutes ago, SaltyGallon said:

I've found a supplier of the ice probe on Ebay but not sure whether I can hook it up to a UK power supply... I know naff all about AC/DC and power supply lol. Thanks for your help 👍🏼

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COOLWORKS-NOVA-TECH-ICEPROBE-AQUARIUM-CHILLER-WITH-POWER-SUPPLY-/151544689972?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

Ulf the owner of Novatec sells both types of power supply for you to use in the UK.  

[SaltyGallon]

32 minutes ago, Micro-Reefs Aquariums said:

Ulf the owner of Novatec sells both types of power supply for you to use in the UK.  

Ahhh... Let me google said Ulf! Thank you sir!

 

Edit: Having 0 luck with the searching - is this Ulf Moren the owner? Do you have a contact? I have sent an email to info@novatecproducts.com. Really appreciate your help 🙂

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

1 hour ago, SaltyGallon said:

Ahhh... Let me google said Ulf! Thank you sir!

 

Edit: Having 0 luck with the searching - is this Ulf Moren the owner? Do you have a contact? I have sent an email to info@novatecproducts.com. Really appreciate your help 🙂

I know him personally when I lived in California, send him an email on his contact page and tell him you spoke to Mike Guerrero from MICRO-REEFS and I told you he has the European adapter for the ice-probe, he will sell it to you and ship it to you.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Give him an opportunity to respond by email he will reach back to but send another email using my name it should help.

[SaltyGallon]

8 hours ago, Micro-Reefs Aquariums said:

Give him an opportunity to respond by email he will reach back to but send another email using my name it should help.

Thank you mate that is super helpful. A little name drop never hurt eh! 😂

[Nathans_Reef]

On 3/22/2021 at 2:35 PM, SaltyGallon said:

Yeah that's a classic that webpage - been on it many times haha.  It looks like it was written on Windows 95!

 

This guy's website is also fantastic - An Bollenessor - and he's even got a top 10 species for the un-chilled aquarium (not to mention his rockpool photography is just gorgeous). I bought some reasonably well powered USB fans off Amazon this week - based on the tropical pico's temp last year I'm confident I should be able to keep temps under 23°C in this tank, even on the hottest of days. Though the downside of a pico is it heats quickly it also cools quickly too 😉

 

I know it can be done because there's also a few pages on the UK forums of people accidentally putting beadlets and snakelocks in their heated tanks and surprise surprise - they thrived and killed their clownfish 🤣

Could you please provide a link for the fan?

[Ratvan]

On 3/24/2021 at 4:17 PM, SaltyGallon said:

I was hunting for this - I know I've read the post a few times - but had no luck!! Bloody noisy emptying and re-filling I would think, but a very cool concept.

https://www.ultimatereef.net/threads/north-sea-nano-a-rockpool.196979/

 I thought i had posted this already 🤷‍♂️

[aclman88]

Dope little setup! Did your also spray paint the wave maker cover? Naughty indeed 😈 

[SaltyGallon]

1 hour ago, Nathans_Reef said:

Could you please provide a link for the fan?

Yes m'lord - https://www.amazon.co.uk/ARCTIC-Breeze-Mobile-Flexible-Portable/dp/B003XN24GY 

 

My plan is to just (neatly) cable tie it to the Kessil bracket and have it on a timer during the day - controlled via a WiFi plug socket. I was testing one on my 1G yesterday and it brought the water temp down by just over half a degree in under 5 minutes, so it should be good for this purpose 🙂 

 

[SaltyGallon]

56 minutes ago, aclman88 said:

Dope little setup! Did your also spray paint the wave maker cover? Naughty indeed 😈 

Yeah! The paint should be reef safe and it had a good soak in RODI for two weeks after drying out just to be sure. I'm not convinced it will actually last very long in a salty environment, but it looks cool for now anyway lol 🤣

 

... About 3 weeks from getting the tank wet now!

 

Everything is sourced now bar a small bottle of ATM colony just as an additional bacterial additive - the scape and biobrick are currently cycling in a mate's sump. The plan is to bring everything together in the next 2-3 weeks and head out collecting on the 28th of April 😎

[Firefish15]

Hey, looking good so far! I’m excited to see where this tank goes! 
Hopefully you won’t get too tired of cleaning  the glass around that neat rock pile.

[interpretnull]

Really looking forward to seeing this progress. I am planning to do something similar when I move home to Scotland from the sadly landlocked Czech Republic in a couple of years. Would love to have a little piece of the Atlantic at home.

[SaltyGallon]

3 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Hey, looking good so far! I’m excited to see where this tank goes! 
Hopefully you won’t get too tired of cleaning  the glass around that neat rock pile.

I hope not haha... The 'rock pile' is epoxy puttied together, so comes out as one piece for any hardcore maintenance - with gloves, because the nems I have in mind are stingers haha. Likewise it's just small enough to allow clearance for a scraper! 😎

2 hours ago, interpretnull said:

Really looking forward to seeing this progress. I am planning to do something similar when I move home to Scotland from the sadly landlocked Czech Republic in a couple of years. Would love to have a little piece of the Atlantic at home.

Thanks mate. Hoping this works out... I'm thinking the scape's gunna look really interesting with a couple of happy and well fed native nems poking out the rockwork! Peak summer temperature will be the nemesis but the fan I've got should be low power and quiet enough to blast the tank all day if needed ✊🏼

[MainelyReefer]

The setup is beautiful for a tropical reef tank but it’s is breaking the mold on what a temperate tank should be.  No chiller.  Using tropical style rocks and sand.  Definitely intrigued, I would be concerned for livestock coming from the Atlantic and being kept at summer temps indefinitely.  Join the coldwater marine owners group on FB it’s a trove of info with some UK based members I believe.  I know in my research that the temperate coral I keep expends too much energy on reproduction during summer months to continue in those temps year round(I settled at 64 just above when it goes into hibernation and below temps that trigger a reproduction response). Female specimens of the coral fair even worse due to the increased demands of egg production over sperm production.  I’ll be curious to see if a similar scenario will happen here.

[SaltyGallon]

11 hours ago, GraniteReefer said:

The setup is beautiful for a tropical reef tank but it’s is breaking the mold on what a temperate tank should be.  No chiller.  Using tropical style rocks and sand.  Definitely intrigued...

Likewise, I've been a member of that group for some time now. I think the majority of temperate tanks suffer due to poor biological filtration capability (owing to native non-porous rock) so it'll be interesting to see what can be done with 'better' biological media. On the UK forums there are a good number of examples of tidepool anemones thriving in un-chilled and even heated reef tanks. So yes it is breaking the mold in some ways, but there's already a precedent out there for these UK species.

 

Off the back of your comment @GraniteReefer I've sent a few direct messages to people who keep native UK anemones on the coldwater marine group, aswell as one of the UK forums - will share any interesting info on temp requirements etc 🙂