Cold/Temperate Water Reef

[reefez]

Stunning photos Steve!:eek2: So what are the main things you perform as far as husbandry on this tank? Weekly water changes? Do you need to supplament Ca? Man I have a thousand questions! How many gallons is the tank? And how long have you had it running? Is the thickness of the acrylic to keep the sweating down to a minimum? Sorry for the flood of questions but sheesh! This could be the beginning of a revolution:thumbsup: Are all of the creatures non photosynthic? Thanks for all your help..

Rob

 

[steveweast]

1) the vast majority of cold water critters are non photosynthetic...there are a couple of tidal anemones out there that are somewhat photosynthetic ....but, that's about it.

2) Husbandtry is no different than warm water tanks.....except that there's no coralline algae to deal with. I water change around 50% once a month.

3) My total system....tanks and sump...is about 180 gals.

4) he syem has been running for about 18months now.

5) the 1" acrylic is indeed to prevent sweating.

6) There are no calcium additions necessary since there are very few stonies in cold water. The only stonies that I have are a type of tubastrea....and oysters. I do run my top off water through a kalk reactor to help with pH though.

 

[reefez]

Thanks For the info Steve. That is yet another amazing tank!

 

[latazyo]

anyone who thinks temperate tanks are dull is crazy

steveweast's tank has some of the most amazing creatures and fish I have ever seen

that is awesome

steve,

are those all things you can see off the coast of PAC NW?

 

[steveweast]

Most of the fish and some of the starfish are from the temperate regions of Australia.....everything else is from Puget Sound.

 

[bboyin4lyf]

steveweast: abosuletly amazing to say the least.

Im from melbourne (southern australia where steve's fish are collected from) and dive frequently. The colours of the sponges and invertbrate life out does the great barrier reef any day of the week. The fish biomass isnt as great but the diversity is incredible. The main issue with temperatre species is that many of them are endemic to certain areas making there collection difficult to say the least whereas many reef species can be found in a variety of locations.

 

[bboyin4lyf]

Also,

Check out this link for an example of some of the macro life we encounter down here. This was taken about 5 minutes from my house

http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/staff/klynch/MONUC/BlackRock/index.html

 

[reefez]

I love the tidepool areas along the Oregon Washington coast. The green and purple tidal anenomes and starfish. Are the tidepool creatures we see on the PNW coast able to be in your tanks Steve? It looks like the majority of your livestock is from the temprate regions off of Australia.

 

[GreshamH]

All his anemones are from the PNW, and at least the grunt. All the PNW nearshore critters are just fine for this

 

[steveweast]

Only some of my fish and a couple of stars are from Australia..... the majority of the tank's critters are from Puget Sound and include anemones, rocks, plants, oysters, fish, stars, barnacles and nudibranchs.

 

[jgarrison]

If you have a chance go the quebec city aquarium they have a huge cold atlantic tank.

 

[gastone]

Steve,

what do you use to maintain the required temp?

Garrett.

 

[steveweast]

just a 1/2 hp Pacific Coast chiller. It runs about 20 minutes....then off for about an hour in summer.

 

[coldwater reef]

I can supply coldwater flora and fauna from the puget sound...contact me if you want stuff.

 

[steveweast]

Are you Will ? if so, good to see you here. Ryan and I are looking forward to hooking up with you again at Skyline, Burrows, Deception, or Neah....I could use a few more little things.

 

[coldwater reef]

Yeppers Steve I'm Will. I finally got the bugs worked out and my coldwater reef is up and running complete with live rock and 3 warbonnets (nugator) so far. I'll have the boat up and running here this week. Also I have ordered a few items which will make collecting real quick and easy.

 

[steveweast]

Welcome Will....I would like to see your system on my next trip up there....which should be soon. I'm looking to catch a few warbonnets and grunts if I can find them....but, what I really want are more strawberries like the ones I posted on the first page....those came out of Neah Bay. If you see a second source, let me know. Neah will be a PITA in winter.

 

[coldwater reef]

Hey Steve what's PITA mean?
Anyhow, yes come on up. I think DP would have plenty of strawberries. DP is one of those places where I like to dive with a group. Hope to see you up here soon!

 

[steveweast]

PITA = pain in the (rear end).....The last time Jeff and Rob were at DP, there were only small brooding anemones (which kinda look like strawberries)....no true strawberries were seen. I hope that they are there.....but were just missed.

 

[boomsticks]

I think this thread is great! I have had a Temperate/Cold system up for about 5 months now. All started when I saved a "baby" lobster from three seagulls. Now I have a winter flounder, hermit crab (the only one who surrvived the wraith of the rock crab), mummichog or saltwater minnow, and a rather large lobster (He eats alot and has molted once already!) I live in NH by the seacoast so there isn't much choice to take here, no strawberry anems or anything like that, but there still is some neat stuff...gotta be careful with a jerk for a lobster! LOL.