Coldwater/temperate anemones

[velvetelvis]

I visited the Monterey Aquarium (a must-see for any saltwater geek) with my sister on Christmas Eve. All of the exhibits were fascinating, but of course I was particularly taken with the local biotopes filled with coldwater anemones. They have colors and shapes that look like something off the set of Avatar. And when we visited some tidepools later in the afternoon, we found a couple of boulders covered with sandy lumps that my sister recognized as green surf anemones (it was low tide).

I know there's a niche of coldwater marine aquarists; I was wondering if anyone here has ever kept any of these anemones. You'd obviously need some specialized equipment (like a chiller), but it could make for a spectacular display.

 

[fullmonti]

Do a search, bet you can find some threads. Also Caldwater Marine Aquatics has a site for cold water livestock. Also nano reef has a forum for biotopes that has some temperate & cold water info & tanks. I just started a build thread for a temperate pico here in the nano forum.

Your right it does require some different setup & care, but really nice if done right.

 

[velvetelvis]

Good ideas--thanks!

 

[SantaMonica]

Coldwater is pretty amazing, not just the nem's but also the NPS... many more colorful than the tropical ones.

 

[AquaticEngineer]

There are a lot of coldwater anemones available these days

 

[cichlidconvert]

I love Coldwater tanks! I have a lobster tank stuffed with plenty of nem candy here are a few of my favorite pics of them.

 

[OrionN]

I also heard of some people use Lobster tank second hand for cold water tank with anemones. They are beautiful and not required a lot of light.

 

[cichlidconvert]

I have a 110 gallon display. And light it with a 24" led light bar. Two ten watt colormax mini pc bulbs, a weak marineland led puck and two 36" T5HO bulbs one actinic and one colormax. The T5's are only on for a few hours a day(when I'm home) because they put out too much light IMO. But I do have a couple mildly photosynthetic types of nems in there but even they don't need a ton of light. here's a couple pics of the mildly photosynthetic nems. The first is a green surf anemone.

And these are aggregating nems. They occur in large numbers along the pacific coast.

Both require lots of feeding due to low need of light.

 

[OrionN]

Neon tetra budget indeed (your sig line)
That tank is beautiful likely cost a lot, and that chiller will cost plenty to run. Can we see the whole tank? A FTS? Any fish?
What temp do you keep it at? Do you have any problem with the tank sweat due to the cool water?

 

[cichlidconvert]

Well I'll be happy to tell ya it has cost much. I picked up the lobster tank in a trade for my 29 gallon carpet anemone tank. ( I really miss that tank ) i had to fix the filtration and went through several razor blades scraping the glass. I keep it between 52-55f. Luckily i pay a flat rate for electricity It gets pretty frigid when cleaning the glass or working in the tank. I keep a garibaldi damsel, red Irish lord, 2 green fluffy sculpins and a crescent gunnel. But the anemones are the focus of this tank. There are 7 types of species nems in there with different sub Types represented. I have 65 total not including the strawberry nems that are actually closer to sps I'll post a couple times with some pics. First here are a couple fts shots

 

[Big Dave PDX]

I know some of the sea stars you can get are pretty cool looking too!! The colors seem to be almost endless. Living on the left coast, it's nice to be able to wade in the tide pools. And yes, only during the summer in Oregon, which is about from July 21st thru July 23rd! Lol

 

[cichlidconvert]

Oh and the tank never sweats. It's double pained glass didn't sweat even on a 80 degree day when I tested the chiller to 37f.
Strawberry nems(corynactis)

Stubby rose anemone.

Red Irish lord

 

[cichlidconvert]

Here's a cool seastar it's a vermillion star.

Catalina goby peeking out from a couple painted anemones with two ochre stars

And a crescent gunnel

 

[SantaMonica]

How much power is used by the chiller?

 

[cichlidconvert]

It's a 1/3 hp chiller so what ever that is in watts. Alot of the cooling power is also due to the insulation of double paned glass.

 

[AquaticEngineer]

I know some of the sea stars you can get are pretty cool looking too!! The colors seem to be almost endless. Living on the left coast, it's nice to be able to wade in the tide pools. And yes, only during the summer in Oregon, which is about from July 21st thru July 23rd! Lol

You just gotta get geared up in a 7mm wetsuit and then you'll be sweating the whole time

It's a 1/3 hp chiller so what ever that is in watts. Alot of the cooling power is also due to the insulation of double paned glass.

Also the chillers should only be running intermittently since the dual pane glass is such an efficient insulator. The 2 tanks I have in my garage havnen't come on for more than a couple of minutes for months now.

 

[cichlidconvert]

Thought I'd post an update on this thread

 

[cichlidconvert]

Here is a couple pics of an 8 gallon nano reef I built for a coworker.

It's a great desktop tank

 

[bjledbetter]

Cool idea i'd love to do something like that but im just now figuring out my normal reef tank.

 

[RoganTerrance]

What is the average cold water temperature?