Cold Water Tank?

[mattleycrue76]

Hi everyone,

I have been away from this board for a while but still have my 75g reef tank (It's been about 3 years now) and I've learned alot about what I would/wouldn't do if i had it all to do over again.

Anyway, lately I have been thinking more and more about trying to set up a cold water system. Is there anyone here who has one or can point me to any links? Also I'm wondering what kind of unique equipment would be required (besides obviously a good sized chiller). Most of the cold water stuff feeds on water born nutrients vs. light so I wonder what kind of dietary requirements there would be.

Thanks for any tips

Matt

 

[Krish]

Welcome back!! I will see if I can find you a few links. I remember Steve Weast had a cold water tank and another member. Give me a sec and I'll see if I can find them real quick.

 

[Krish]

Here's a thread. This is one Steve chimed in on with some info and pics, but it seems the pictures are no longer available. Some info in there though. http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f14/cold-water-aquariums-keeping-them-cold-10241/

Also, Steve's thread http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/f14/cold-water-reef-pics-11453/

 

[vinny2261]

CHILLER

 

[NWDiver]

Hi Matt,
I had a 120gal cold water tank for two years. I just took it down 2 months ago as my son went to europe for college, and he helped carry the water
We had a great time looking for new things while diving, and much of what did well in the tank came from the intertidal areas.
We started with an AGA tank and a homemade chiller, moved to a real chiller, and finally found a marineland tank that was made for keeping maine lobster and it worked really well.
We lit the tank with a 4' T-5 two bulb unit and that was plenty.
I used water from Washington park (pretty clean) and did about 50 gallons every three weeks or so. In the summer this has plenty of plankton and algea to feed the filter feeders.
During the winter months I fed the filter feeders with phyto (mostly home grown).
I had no trouble feeding the fish and inverts with mysis, krill, silversides for the nems, and nori for the urchins.
I ran a euroreef skimmer and it seemed to work really well in the cold water.
My shop stays pretty cool during the summer, but the AGA tank did sweat a bit on the hottest of days. The marineland is two pane glass and does not sweat at all. Thick acrylic is probably better than typical glass.
If you have any specific questions let me know.

-Todd

 

[mattleycrue76]

Thanks for the info. Steve's tanks do look amazing indeed. Does anyone know if there are any regulations governing the collection of critters here in WA? One of the reasons I'm interested in this is that I am an avid SCUBA diver and stocking the tanks would seem to be easy and not real expensive. I doubt WDFW really cares much about the handful of people removing a few specimens for an aquarium but then again, you never know....
I wonder what an optimal size tank would be. I find my 72g bowfront to be just big enough to be a hassle with water changes but too small to hold some of the bigger fish. If I were to do it over I'd either do a smaller cube tank or a larger 125+ tank.
Alot of the stuff in the sound is pretty big but then on the other hand I suppose one could release any livestock back into the wild if it gets too large for the tank.

 

[vinny2261]

I would check with Fish and GAme department. You may be suprised at the amount of fine you could get from such an adventure. You might have to get a permit.

 

[ac7av]

Just go to the Washington state fish and game site. All the information is there. A lot of the stuff you can collect in the tidal areas does not need a license but there are still regulations about harvesting . For example the shore crabs you find under the rocks in the thousands, no license required, each person has to hold there own collecting container and only a maximum of 10 per day is aloud. Most anything you can harvest with a license is described in detail about sizes and limits. The main thing to keep in mind is you can not collect anything from national or state park properties only privately owned properties allows this collection of live stock. There is gray areas but I have communicated with the department and they are very helpful in interpreting details that you may have questions about. I have also thought about setting up a cold water tank since there are so many things in are area of interest.

 

[NWDiver]

As stated above, if you have a shellfish and seaweed license you can collect most anything.
The real problem to watch for is undersized or out of season game. If it is not in the regs, it is ok to collect, but there are several animals that have size restrictions like Dungeoness crab. If you take one from the water that is not legal size, you can get a fine. The Game wardens that stopped me were all very nice and helpful and in one case told me I could not keep a red rock crab because it was too small. I knew that but I thought I'd try. As the crab was still alive and happy, he let me put it back in the water with no fine.
As Erik says, do stay out of the parks, they are pretty strict there.
We also dive, so we collect in the intertidal near islands. No muss, no fuss.
One of the most entertaining fish we kept were gunnels, we had a bright scarlet red one, and a bright green. They look and act very much like eels, and are fun to hand feed.