The Tidepool Two: UK Temperate Tank

[MainelyReefer]

3 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

it'll be interesting to see what can be done with 'better' biological media

I added the plate version of this biological filtration media and keep it in the rear chamber https://www.cermedia.com/marinepure.php

[SaltyGallon]

7 hours ago, GraniteReefer said:

I added the plate version of this biological filtration media and keep it in the rear chamber https://www.cermedia.com/marinepure.php

Ahh cool, that looks very similar to the Maxspect biobrick I'm putting under the scape mate (link). It says it can "treat" 1425L of water (whatever that means), so it should handle 8L of the salty stuff just fine. 

 

I've heard back from four people on the UK forum and coldwater marine group so far:

• Two currently keep these native UK anemones in an unheated room temperature tank with no problems
• One kept a Snakelocks anemone in a heated reef tank for over a year before killing it with poor water parameters
• And another said they kept a Snakelocks in a heated tank for over a year before it got overtaken by tropical soft corals

All in all it sounds positive... !

[Nathans_Reef]

On 3/31/2021 at 3:33 PM, SaltyGallon said:

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 🙂 

 

Thankyou 👍

[Nathans_Reef]

9 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

Ahh cool, that looks very similar to the Maxspect biobrick I'm putting under the scape mate (link). It says it can "treat" 1425L of water (whatever that means), so it should handle 8L of the salty stuff just fine. 

 

I've heard back from four people on the UK forum and coldwater marine group so far:

• Two currently keep these native UK anemones in an unheated room temperature tank with no problems
• One kept a Snakelocks anemone in a heated reef tank for over a year before killing it with poor water parameters
• And another said they kept a Snakelocks in a heated tank for over a year before it got overtaken by tropical soft corals

All in all it sounds positive... !

Thats interesting, i have always wanted to have a rockpool tank, mabye this build might finally encourage me to do it. Looking forward to see this tank get set up! 👍

[interpretnull]

On 3/31/2021 at 9:33 PM, SaltyGallon said:

I'm thinking the scape's gunna look really interesting with a couple of happy and well fed native nems poking out the rockwork!

I'm sure it will! Just got of FaceTime with my folks who are up at my sister's. She lives on the beach in Skye my dad spotted a birght red beadlet anemone down on the beach. Think I might have to pay her a visit for foraging when I am back.

[SaltyGallon]

23 minutes ago, interpretnull said:

I'm sure it will! Just got of FaceTime with my folks who are up at my sister's. She lives on the beach in Skye my dad spotted a birght red beadlet anemone down on the beach. Think I might have to pay her a visit for foraging when I am back.

Ahh man really nice, and very jealous haha. Me and a friend spent a couple of days camping on Skye 3 or 4 years back - gorgeous place with some proper Middle Earth feels!

[SaltyGallon]

... Coming together, just a waiting game now for a) rock and media to cycle b) until I can get out collecting later in the month! No real fixed timeline with the rock and media - the spikey scape is sat in a friend's sump and I'm told it's covered in diatoms, so good that some of the nasties are getting used up before it goes into it's permanent home 😂

 

Also bought a cheap/quiet USB air pump off eBay this week and am going to see if I can discretely put the airline tubing under the wavemaker so I can turn it on every now and again (or maybe on a short timer on the WiFi socket) and get a cool micro-bubbley rockpool effect lol

 

[SaltyGallon]

... The tank's wet!

 

Sand in, water in, good bacteria in, phytoplankton and pods in... And pre-cycled rockscape to go in at the weekend. Can't argue with that Kessil shimmer! 😁

 

 

[mitten_reef]

3 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

... The tank's wet!

 

Sand in, water in, good bacteria in, phytoplankton and pods in... And pre-cycled rockscape to go in at the weekend. Can't argue with that Kessil shimmer! 😁

 

 

no AIO filtration? 

[SaltyGallon]

7 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

no AIO filtration? 

... That's a negative! A good sized Maxspect biobrick is going under the scape, but that's it 🤷‍♂️

[Tired]

All you really need is water flow and somewhere for bacteria to live. An actual filter is handy to put carbon in if you need it for something, and/or if you want mechanical filtration to try and remove gunk, but plenty of tanks run great without any filter at all. 

[SaltyGallon]

5 hours ago, Tired said:

All you really need is water flow and somewhere for bacteria to live. An actual filter is handy to put carbon in if you need it for something, and/or if you want mechanical filtration to try and remove gunk, but plenty of tanks run great without any filter at all. 

That's the plan Tired. I've run my other pico for weeks on end without carbon or mechanical filtration so (sometimes) the AIO section is nothing more than a huge waste of space. I guess it nicely hides the heater too, but one isn't needed here.

 

This tank will just be a bunch of near aiptasia-level hardy anemones so I'm going to skip the carbon - and if anything funky gets into the water I'm sure I can just hide a small bag of it under the scape, or do a 100% water change... Good flow, good biological filtration and diligent maintenance are the order of the day!

[mitten_reef]

7 hours ago, SaltyGallon said:

That's the plan Tired. I've run my other pico for weeks on end without carbon or mechanical filtration so (sometimes) the AIO section is nothing more than a huge waste of space. I guess it nicely hides the heater too, but one isn't needed here.

 

This tank will just be a bunch of near aiptasia-level hardy anemones so I'm going to skip the carbon - and if anything funky gets into the water I'm sure I can just hide a small bag of it under the scape, or do a 100% water change... Good flow, good biological filtration and diligent maintenance are the order of the day!

I'm all for simplicity, mostly curious in previous post 🙌

[SaltyGallon]

25 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

I'm all for simplicity, mostly curious in previous post 🙌

It may work wonderfully or it may end up being garbage, but we'll see 😊

 

Here's a nice bit of afternoon wavemaker action. Day 3 and a very light dusting of diatoms!

 

https://instagram.com/stories/saltygallon/2553168647838512941?igshid=x2pip48e722h

 

[SaltyGallon]

Well the "pre-cycled" rockscape and biobrick have been in the tank for 3 days now, after spending a month in a friend's sump.

 

I was toying with the idea of not bothering to dose ammonia to check the cycle but then I thought why not... I've got time to kill, and it's better to be safe than sorry. Likewise I'd rather give the bacteria something to chew over for the next couple of weeks than nothing at all - so ammonia is now dosed to 1.5ppm!

 

The tank's had a generous helping of ATM colony (good bacteria) in the past few days too, so there's no reason why it shouldn't tail off nicely over the next few days. But this is an unheated tank, and things do happen more slowly - so it's going to be interesting to see how quickly it drops off. Interestingly my nitrates are already sat at 20ppm, which I'm guessing is from the phyto I've been trickling in over the last week, and also the re-used fiji pink sand. 

 

All being well I'll be out collecting next week on a lovely low "spring tide"... Which I have to say I'm super excited for. The plan is to only collect stuff from the upper most pools (i.e. the stuff most adapted to silly fluctuations) but it's going to be really interesting to see some of the uncommon species the spring tide has to offer.

 

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

I'm looking forward to what you collect. You'll have to give us some photos as proof or I'll assume you just went to your LFS and picked up some stuff 😉

[SaltyGallon]

2 hours ago, Chowder's Reef said:

I'm looking forward to what you collect. You'll have to give us some photos as proof or I'll assume you just went to your LFS and picked up some stuff 😉

The LFS' round here don't sell anything other than ridiculously over-priced/under-sized frags of common softies, LPS and SPS... You could give it 10 years and they still wouldn't stock 'coldwater stuff' or interesting macros etc 🤣

[reeffire]

25 minutes ago, SaltyGallon said:

The LFS' round here don't sell anything other than ridiculously over-priced/under-sized frags of common softies, LPS and SPS... You could give it 10 years and they still wouldn't stock 'coldwater stuff' or interesting macros etc 🤣

yea I've been looking to set up a tank like this. looks great hope to get regular updates

here's a good supplier http://www.matsucollections.com/

[SaltyGallon]

On 4/20/2021 at 9:13 PM, reeffire said:

yea I've been looking to set up a tank like this. looks great hope to get regular updates

here's a good supplier http://www.matsucollections.com/

Wow, really cool that you have a supplier of coldwater stuff. 

 

As of this morning all is well with the tank and the test to check that the rock is cycled... I dosed ammonia to 1.5ppm a couple days ago, and it's now at zero with nitrates through the roof.

 

So happy days! The weather is looking settled for next Wednesday's foraging session - I'm in the process of collecting glass jars etc to store critters! 

 

A question for any coldwater folk - I've got a couple of 2L bottles set aside to collect some natural seawater. Is it worth doing? I suspect that my own salt mix (red sea blue bucket) probably has more reliable parameters and is generally 'cleaner' but presumably natural sea water will be a nice source of biological goodness? I'm thinking it likely can't hurt? The area I'm heading isn't polluted etc.

[SaltyGallon]

Big 100% water change this morning which brought nitrates down from well over 100ppm to under 5ppm! A light dusting of diatoms on the glass and the tank's just had a little more beneficial bacteria, phyto and amino acids... She's ready!

 

Off out collecting on a lovely low tide tomorrow so interesting updates to follow shortly. I think I've got everything I need ready... USB air stone, refractometer, RODI etc. And of course rubber gloves for the anemones that like to sting lol 😎

 

[debbeach13]

How exciting can not wait to see what you get.

[pricewayne]

Following! Love the setup!!

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

@SaltyGallon out with a bucket, those critters are going to be like:

 

 

Good luck and happy collecting! 👍

 

[SaltyGallon]

3 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

How exciting can not wait to see what you get.

Likewise Deb! I'm going to be like a kid in a sweet shop...

3 hours ago, pricewayne said:

Following! Love the setup!!

Cheers Wayne.

1 hour ago, Chowder's Reef said:

@SaltyGallon out with a bucket, those critters are going to be like:

 

 

Good luck and happy collecting! 👍

 

This is likely highly accurate 😂

[SaltyGallon]

Lights off now in a very cloudy pico! Here's all you'll get, for today... 😎