140L British Anemone Biotope

[Nathans_Reef]

Anemone Paradise | A British Rockpool Biotope

 

It's been a while since I was last active on here!

Im Nathan, I'm an 18 year old Macro Photographer & Nature Enthusiast from Kent in the UK. I've dabbled in the saltwater side of this hobby a little bit in the past, but currently I have a 60cm 90L high tech planted aquascape! next to this planted tank I have an 80x40x45cm (L x W x H) 140L tank that has been sat here in my room collecting dust for far too long! time to do something cool with it I reckon.

 

My idea for a British temperate biotope came from my time spent around the coast during my childhood, also a few cool projects on here too! I've wanted to do this project for a few years now and even made a tank journal where I mentioned my plans and ideas but that tank never became a reality, until now!

 

• The Tank - 80x40x45cm (L x W x H) 140L tank from AllPondSolutions.co.uk < See here >
• Lighting - Viparspectra 165W LED < See here >
• Flow & Mechanical Filtration - Oase BioMaster 250 < See here > (Will add additional wavemaker if necessary)
• Substrate - Sand/Gravel collected locally
• Hardscape - Rocks collected locally or from my garden!

 

Now the best bit, Livestock!

I have many books on coastal marine life around the UK, and have also seen first hand that there are a hugeee variety of fauna in and around british rock pools, but not all are suitable for home aquariums of course. After lots of research (Still more to do, never enough research can be done!), I've made a little list of species that could potentially be accessible to me, and more importantly.. suitable for the tank! Also btw, here's an amazing site for British marine life ID's! www.aphotomarine.com

 

  

A selection of British Anemones! A Snakelock Anemone (Anemonia viridis) & Red Beadlet Anemones (Actinia equina).

 

For a clean up crew I'll add a group of Common Prawns (Palaemon serratus) & Common Hermit Crabs (Pagurus bernhardus). Also to support the tank's ecosystem, some Amphipods that I regulaly find under rocks at the beach! Hopefully I could source some live rock with some Barnacles and biofilm ect. on them too. I'll hopefully post an update as soon as possible with images of the tank cabinet that me and my dad will build! 

 

[Nathans_Reef]

Here's some more images from google of what could be potential inhabitants of this setup! Also, the list below is the current rough idea for the stocking plan, all of which depends on if i can find it! In terms of fish, I might try a couple of tiny Blennies or gobies as I live very close to a rocky beach where I could safely release them if needed. I have seen some people keep Three Spined Stickleback in saltwater setups, which are a very common fish here where I am! I used to keep them in freshwater tanks and really miss keeping them, they always had little personalities and stay small. However apart from the Stickleback, i'm not too bothered about fish for this setup, I'd love to focus on the anemones and invertabrates and create an ecosystem inside the aquarium.

 

• Common Limpets (Patella vulgata) (Potentially)
• A group of Blue Rayed Limpet (Patella pellucida) (Depending on if I find any)
• Common Prawns (Palaemon serratus)
• Some Acorn Barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides)
• Small cluster of Blue Mussels (Mytilus edulis)
• Common Cockles (Cerastoderma edule)
• Common Periwinkles (Littorina littorea)
• Beadlet Anemones (Actinia equina) (Some will be green but most will be red)
• Snakelock Anemones (Anemonia sulcata)
• Broad Clawed Porcelain Crabs (Porcellana platycheles)
• A Cushion Starfish (Asterina gibbosa) (Potentially)
• Common Hermit Crabs (Pagurus bernhardus)

 

  

 

       

 

   

 

Some research tells me that these Blue Rayed Limpets could be tricky to find, favouring seaweed to cling onto rather than rocks like the common limpets, which also makes me unsure if these little gems would be suitable in a setup without any macroalgae? And I have full awareness that the little porcelain crabs will most probably stay hidden the entire time 🤣 I just think they look amazing and it would be cool to know that they're in there somewhere. Getting excited for this tank now! Hopefully i can get the cabinet finished as soon as possible and post some pics 👍

 

[ml86743]

This thing is gonna be so cool.  I love seeing themed tanks like this!!

[Nathans_Reef]

2 hours ago, ml86743 said:

This thing is gonna be so cool.  I love seeing themed tanks like this!!

Thank you! Me too there’s so much inspiration out there for them, there’s a public aquarium near me with a tank full of Snakelock Anemones so I might have to check that out and take some pics!

[Nathans_Reef]

Finally a shot of the tank! I still need to do some things like drill a hole in the back of the right light bracket to hide the cable. also this isn't the finished cabinet, there's a spare sheet of birch plywood so I'm going to try and make a cabinet that matches my planted tank cabinet. The light brackets are just two lengths of 18mm aluminium pipe that have been bent 90 degrees using a plumbing pipe bender if anyone is wondering. 

 

  

 

As for the rock inside, its from my old 25L nano reef. I might use it, but im not sure it would be fitting alongside some smoother greyer rocks from the beach! not too sure yet though. Whatever I do with it, it won't stay in that corner of the tank, I was storing some planted tank soil bags in this tank and when I removed them for the photo i just forgot to move the rock back to the middle! 

[ml86743]

So clean.  I love that light mount.  I may just have to copy you on that.  Do the clips ever slide or do you have something that locks them in?

[Nathans_Reef]

1 minute ago, ml86743 said:

So clean.  I love that light mount.  I may just have to copy you on that.  Do the clips ever slide or do you have something that locks them in?

Thanks! nope they don't seem to slide, I've tested that by hand many times and the weight of the light seems to create enough friction so that they don't move even if i try (Obviously they would if I properly tried lol), but it would depend on the weight of your light and how much friction there is so definitely bare that in mind, wouldn't want the light sliding off!

[Koleswrath]

Really excited to follow this one. Great intro to the possible inhabitants!

[Orangutran]

Wow I never knew there were such cool creatures in the UK waters! My wife is from there, and we visit every few years, but I've never been to the seaside. Will you need a chiller to keep the waters a bit cooler?

[Nathans_Reef]

8 hours ago, Orangutran said:

Wow I never knew there were such cool creatures in the UK waters! My wife is from there, and we visit every few years, but I've never been to the seaside. Will you need a chiller to keep the waters a bit cooler?

There's so much! definetly worth a visit 😊. I've read a lot online about the necessity of a chiller for temperate british rockpool tanks, but i'm still looking into that as some people dont have them, also our rockpool species are super hardy, they're tolerant to their rockpools heating up in the heat of the sun, crazy salinity and temp swings as those pools evaporate and then the cold tide comes back into the pools. However I know that none of these crazy living conditions that they can withstand are going to be long term, so I'm unsure and will keep researching. Some species can tolerate temps from 10-30°C! 

[Nathans_Reef]

Hi all, I've been thinking about the possibility of doing this project on a smaller scale and selling the 140L, I could get the Aqua One Aqua Nano 30 tank, a nice little AIO setup with a chunk of rock and some beadlets, what would people recommend for lighting if I were to do this? I read that the beadlet anemones are non-photosynthetic and couldn't care less about which light they have above them, but I thought it would be a good idea to know lighting options in case I ever managed to get myself a nice Snakelock anemone. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the tank i'm considering getting, I work in a fish shop so could get a discount too so that's a bonus 😎 Ignore that light, I have a spare little Fluval 6.5W LED that I could use, I'm assuming it would be suitable for the beadlets since they're non-photosynthetic? Also another question, would a lid be necessary if I just had a few anemones? I know that they move around and can be found out of water on the rocks around the uk, but since that's due to the lowering tides, is there a possibility that they could move out of the tank?

 

On a side note, I went searching for rockpool creatures last week and found some lovely beadlets,

the beach was full of them! at least I now know where I can collect them. Here's some photos I took!

  

 

[Orangutran]

any updates? Did you switch to the smaller tank?

[Nathans_Reef]

On 3/2/2024 at 1:43 AM, Orangutran said:

any updates? Did you switch to the smaller tank?

Yep! I actually just used a little tank that I already had. Here's the tank journal 🙂