Collecting things from the sound

[doomus]

I was reading one of my reef books and it said that you could collect things like seaweed, driftwood and small rocks from the beach to help plankton growth. It also said that you could harvest things from the beach to grow food for a mandarin. It didn't go into too much detail, I was told before that this was a bad idea.

Has anyone done this and if so what did you collect and how did you use it, in the fug. or seperate tank for harvesting later?

dennis

 

[mojoreef]

Well most of the species around here are cold water so it is doughful that they would survive long enough to e of any benefit. I have seen some folks collect pods off of peirs here and feed them to thier tank with sucess, they just wont live to breed .


Mike

 

[Oscapus]

I used to live up in Anchorage where feeder fish are very expensive (shipping is not that much more, it's just the "Alaska Gouge"). Legend up there has it that one day a guy got fed up and netted up some small fish from the saltwater, and put them in his predator tank. Everything died soon after, apparently from internal parasites that are normally kept in check by the cold water. When warmed up inside a tropical aquarium, they became more active. Admittedly, this is an urban legend (yes, Anchorage is a city!) probably perpetuated by the LFS's, but it probably has some merit.

 

[lizardarm]

the waters around the sound and the waters around fiji, india, wherever else tropical place our critters come from are different worlds. i can't imagine anything collected out of the sound could live in our 79 degree aquariums.

 

[plack]

my son got snails and crabs from the ocean and put them in our sick tank and like i predicted they all died in 2 days nothing will live unless you have a way to keep and sustain the cold I believe .I would not recommend this to anyone this was just something my son had to try and learn that it cant be done.

 

[moeandicy]

What about NSW from the sound?

 

[plack]

the danger is pollution and living unhealthy bacteria that you might get thats doesnt mean its impossible havent got time to get into it now but that is the reason for concerns

 

[dnjan]

What about NSW from the sound?

You can get NSW from the Seattle Aquarium. Initial fee of $10 (I think), and then 5 cents per gallon. This water has received some filtering. Do a search for me (dnjan) and seattle aquarium for a thread on how to economically deal with the phosphates in the water. I have been using Seattle Aquarium water for about a year now.

 

[Wolfesbane]

Aquarium water is sand filtered and UV filtered, that's it. Unfortunately the sound is VERY rich in nutrients from runoff, especially after a rain (phosphates and silicates usually. We try not to use Puget Sound water in the tropical exhibits unless we really have to. You're really better off mixing your own from RO/DI water.

~ Steve

 

[moeandicy]

Well that answers a question that I've had for a long time. Thanks everyone.