Cold Water Set-Up

[MrLiam]

Hello what is needed for one of these as I am surrounded by the stuff.

How big a tank do you need for a shoal of mackrel and cod. (And a deep fat frier)

 

[sorgan]

liam are you being serious?

 

[MrLiam]

Im just thinking what I would need to do a nano coldwater.

Not the mackrel.

 

[sorgan]

tank (obviously) and a cooler would be a must.

you would need rock from our seas i would think and some kind of light for local algaes.
take things from rock pools as they tend to be a bit hardier.

 

[MrLiam]

Okay sounds pretty simple and very very tempting but didn't know you needed a chiller and the price of those.

 

[sorgan]

mate the species in our waters are used to temps of 0-5c. what would happen to the water in a tank in july when its 25c in side?

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

I'll second the chiller!! I've had my tank set up since march, I filled it with 26c water, it has NO heater, and now... I still have a tank full of water at 27c!!!

I'm very tempted to set up a cold water tank, since I live on the doorstep of several beaches on north and south coast, I could probably find quite an interesting variety of things.. but, im concerned about keeping the water cold enough!

 

[woody88]

Check out ps3stevo's thread (if it's still on here) as he setup a UK coldwater marine setup full of anemones/beadlets/blennies and shrimp.

It looked ace IMO!

 

[lljdma06]

Check out ps3stevo's thread (if it's still on here) as he setup a UK coldwater marine setup full of anemones/beadlets/blennies and shrimp.

It looked ace IMO!

I found it, here it is.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/356704-cold-marine-aquarium/page__p__2971249__fromsearch__1#entry2971249

CW systems are ace. I've seen a lot of them growing up in the West coast of the US and having friends from that area. You buy chillers and the glass in the tank has to be thicker for insulation purposes. Many also opt to by lobster and crab tanks from the local supermarket on craigslist. I know a lot people from Oregon and California that then go out once the tank is setup and do locat collections.

Liz

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

Ah yes, thats the thread that got me interested in doing it!

 

[woody88]

Check out ps3stevo's thread (if it's still on here) as he setup a UK coldwater marine setup full of anemones/beadlets/blennies and shrimp.

It looked ace IMO!

I found it, here it is.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/356704-cold-marine-aquarium/page__p__2971249__fromsearch__1#entry2971249

CW systems are ace. I've seen a lot of them growing up in the West coast of the US and having friends from that area. You buy chillers and the glass in the tank has to be thicker for insulation purposes. Many also opt to by lobster and crab tanks from the local supermarket on craigslist. I know a lot people from Oregon and California that then go out once the tank is setup and do locat collections.

Liz

Cheers liz!

Saved me searching for it.

 

[dayzofspeed]

i'm not certain that a chiller is essential, rockpools even on the british coast get pretty warm, tho i've never stuck a thermometer in one and i would also imagine fairly low in oxygen and the critters in there seem to do fine, you could probably manage by keeping the tank out of direct sunlight and just use a fan if you felt the temp was getting too high, would love to try it myself one day if i wasnt so far from a decent clean beach that had rockpools on it

 

[heavenly_d3vi1]

You have a good point there actually dayz.. I've quite often gone to the beach at 8-9 in the evening after a hot summers day and gone swimming in lovely warm sea, it gets beautifully warm after spending all day rolling over the hot sand!!

 

[lljdma06]

You have a good point there actually dayz.. I've quite often gone to the beach at 8-9 in the evening after a hot summers day and gone swimming in lovely warm sea, it gets beautifully warm after spending all day rolling over the hot sand!!

The point is after a warm summer day. These creatures, however, do not exist in a permanent state of warm summer days, and asking them to exist under such circumstances requires that you keep them in the upper extremes of their temperature tolerance for an extended period of time. This is detrimental to their overall health. In fact, the majority of time the water is quite cool, thus you must employ a chiller or some other cooling device. Now, I have seen in forums what are called "seasonal" biotope setups. A member will have a tank setup for the summer months and keep various organisms under non-cooled conditions. But this is only a temporary system. Once the weather turns, the organisms are returned to the coast where they can exist in their proper temperature range in the cooler months of the year.

In addition, when they exist in warm summer days, the environment is not contained, and you get the influx of cooler Saltwater with every rising tide. You cannot duplicate this in a small, closed system.

I strongly recommend a chiller for coldwater setups.

Liz

 

[dayzofspeed]

ok Liz thats good advice, but in the few journals i have read on this subject (and they are british) none of them employed a chiller and had successful set ups, i'm not saying dont because i'm not well enough informed on the subject, i was just offering Liam my thoughts with alternatives as i would imagine the one thing that would put him off was having to use something as expensive as a chiller. its also worth pointing out that during the recent warm weather when some people were getting stressed about their tank temperature and were chucking in bottles of ice etc my tank stayed at exactly the temp i've set it up at due to its location in my house, the back room which is cooler and receives less direct sun and has no heating, lets not forget that the UK generally isnt a hot country also chillers aren't generally used here with coldwater goldfish tanks for example..... kev