British Seaweed

[Matthew5664]

Is there any stories/ Does anyone know if, I could use some of the 'Native' Seaweed in my fuge?

Had a look at the species of the British Isles and there are quite a few out there


?

 

[Aquascaper]

Lasts for about 1 month before disintegrating

The green dies fastest, the brown stays around a bit longer. I've had best results with the kind you find in rockpools but never managed to keep it for more than a few months tops.

 

[Matthew5664]

Oh wonder why that is?

Could It be the temp?

have you tryed the Red stuff?

 

[Navarre]

Definately a temperature problem.
I have tried many times without sucess. I live in the southwest and our waters are hit by the Gulf Stream which means we are a couple of degrees higher on average than the rest of the UK. THe seaweed still only lasts a month or so at best and never gets a firm hold.

 

[Matthew5664]

Shame really could have done with a free bee.

Might start a British marine set-up could utilize it in a cold water set-up plus catch all the specimens for myself. My dad live on the IOW so great opportunities.

Plus has got a couple of lobster pot 'hanging' around so might be able to get me something good!

Do you know of anyone who has set-up British bio-tope of costal waters?

There is a good program on UKTV history I think called Coast. The presenter was saying about rock pools and the water parameters change when they are cut-off at low tide and because of evaporation the SG changes as well as the temp. So it may be easier to recreate one of the rock pools then try to get stable conditions for some of our tropical friend?

 

[fraservet]

One of the fishkeeping magazines had a good article on someone setting up a uk marine tank not too long ago.
Looked quite interesting.
I will try to look it out.

 

[Aquascaper]

There's absolutely nothing to stop you doing a UK SW tank apart from the huge cost of a chiller (as well as the running costs) to keep the water at a low enough temperature.

If you're after freebies though, look no further than rockpool shrimps. These guys are extremely versatile and adapt quickly to most conditions. They make fantastic cleanup crew and if you have metal halides they look really cool with see through bodies and little blue booties

As an example of how adaptable they are I emptied some seawater straight into my sump without reralising there were shrimps in the water. The seawater was around 10c I would guess, my sump was at 25c - they shrimp are still in there. They also don't mind it when the RO water is added to the sump so fluctuations in SG doesn't bother them either.

These guys live in pools of stagnant water that has wildly fluctuating temperature & salinity, think about how warm a rockpool gets in the middle of summer before the tide comes back in? What about when it rains heavily?

As far as freebies go.........they rock! I have about 40 in my tank atm

 

[Matthew5664]

cool I think its somthing I may look in to for the next tank may be a UK rockpool nano-tope got a ring to it!

 

[Aquascaper]

All I would say is keep yours eyes peeled for an old beer chiller unit then...they're usually cheaper than aquatic chillers but do the same job. The smaller the water volume the harder it will be to keep cool, IMO anything under 40g would be nigh on impossible to control.

 

[crazyelece]

I don't know if you UK guys got any hardware stores like Lowes or Home Depot, but I just saw a small chiller at one the other day meant for a drinking water system for $100. I haven't checked into the components yet to see if its saltwater safe but it could be a nice cheap chiller option for a smaller tank

 

[Aquascaper]

Not suitable for saltwater use from what i've been told.

It's the usual scenario: There's a cheap alternative to buying an expensive 'aquatic' bit of kit but no-one uses it - you have to ask yourself why.

It's highly unlikely that a significant alternative to an expensive bit of equipment would be available and people in the hobby wouldn't have heard of it - but I supose someone has to be the first

 

[Matthew5664]

I have a little fridge sitting about that runs of 240v like the little stella ones you see

If i was to cut one hole in eather side one at the top and one at the bottom and run 15mm pipe through it all curld (spelling) up could this cool the water to a low enough temp do you think?

 

[Navarre]

I have toyed with this idea myself. I think its a very promising idea to be honest. You would need to get the flow right of course but there is no rason why it should not work. You could keep your beer in there at the same time too! Great idea!

 

[Aquascaper]

I had a similar idea when setting up my main tank but my idea was to run coiled pipe into the (unused) chimney as this was consistantly cooler than any other part of the house. As Navarre says, the flow rate is the key to these endeavours, obviously it will never work as well as a proper chiller but it may take the edge off enough to cancel out a the increase in temp from a Halide. when I tried my idea it didn't make much difference so I dismantled it.

Let us know how it goes if you decide to go ahead and try it as I have a small 6 can cooler lying around doing nothing

 

[fraservet]

I have also considered a small fridge instead of an expensive chiller.
My main concern is regulation of the temperature.
If you can connect the pump to a temp. probe with a switch so it stops when the temp. drops it would be ok.
If it just switches the fridge off, it will take a while for the temp. to go up again.
Otherwise you are going to end up with the fridge and heaters fighting each other the whole time - sending your electric bill through the roof!