Coldwater North Atlantic Marine Tank

[steelhealr]

Hello to my fellow salts. Most of you can tell from my avatar that I live in the Northeast. In fact, I live on an island. I am only 15-20 minutes away from the Atlantic and the same distance from Long Island Sound. I've always wondered about having a local biotope, that is, a coldwater marine tank containing specimens from my section of the planet.

Although it could possibly be a long time before I actually put the tank together, I would be remiss if I didn't do what I pontificate to others to do with regards to entering the marine world: research, read, research and read. Hence, I am going to begin designing a North Atlantic marine tank. Be forewarned, you will NOT see any actual tank construction for awhile. However, if you wish to learn along with me, then, feel free to hop on board and post your thoughts.

Reading

1. I have ordered Neale Monks book on Brackish which contains a section on cold water marine
   Brackish Water Fishes by Neale Monks
2. Will review Paletta's book
3. Field Guide to Atlantic Coast Fishes of North America
4. Roger Tory Peterson Field Guides - Atlantic Seashore Invertebrates and Seaweends of the Atlantic Coast

Internet

1. Wet Thumb on Glaucus.org

Marine Life

1. Sachs System Aquaculture

Initial Thoughts

• Average summer temperatures in the Atlantic on Long Island range 63-65 degrees. Perhaps higher during sweltering summers
• Beach substrate is coarse sand; other areas are close to gray mud; protected tidal areas are coarser sand to near pebbles
• Many fish are too large to keep in a tank. Smaller animals that I have seen here (not necessarily candidates for this system) are fiddler crabs, puffers, sea robins, flounder, fluke, spider crabs, blue crab, jellyfish, horseshoe crabs
• various types of seaweed, seagrass and sargassum wash up (no, I wouldn't use walked on beach specimens
• research local inhabitants that can stay at a continual cool temp; would need to be from shallow water

Tank Setup

• 75 gallon tank good size specimens available; if smaller (like crabs, etc...a smaller tank)
• avoid using a chiller; may need to setup in the basement for a constant cool temp
• feasibility of no sump vs. sump

 

[Lynden]

I always wanted to do a tank like this, but unfortunately I live what feels like millions of miles from any ocean. I can't wait to see what the tank looks like when complete.

 

[Matthew5664]

North Sea tide pool Nano

Found this from a UK guy might help in some way.

 

[nmonks]

Good luck steelhealr!

Coldwater marines are a lot of fun. But you do need to sit down and read up your local fauna before going collecting. The art is picking fishes and inverts that will do well at room temperature without the need for a chiller. Another good tip is to collect in spring or early summer while the fish are adapting to warmer conditions anyway. If you go collecting in late autumn or winter, they're in winter mode, and the shock of being brought indoors can stress them.

When I started with coldwater marines, I recycled salt water from my dad's reef tank. For the most part, rock pool animals are much more nitrate-tolerant than reef animals, so "old" water should be adequate for their needs. Obviously fresh salt water is the best though.

Avoid crabs though. Apart from teeny-tiny ones, most are very aggressive predators that will take everything they can catch, animal or plant. Crabs are incredibly tough though. I've kept coldwater marine crabs (Carcinus maenas) in tropical brackish water tanks and I've seen them survive for days seemingly dried up on the floor. Remarkable animals.

One last thought: there are local and national restrictions on collecting certain animals (and in certain places). For anyone planning on collecting, it's important to be aware of any restrictions. Obviously endangered species are illegal to collect, but so are juveniles of some commercially important species, particularly lobsters and edible crabs. Collecting on nature reserves is usually restricted or banned as well. Even where collecting is legal, it's important to minimise your impact, i.e., by collecting only what you need and replacing any rocks or stones moved about. With so much "on offer" it is very easy to collect far too much stuff.

Cheers, Neale

 

[sianeds]

Sounds great. I saw the thread on the coldwater nano a while back and was very very tempted to try it.

 

[AliRichardson]

This is something that I really have no idea on where to begin. All I can think of is the tidal tanks I saw in a Marine Zoo in Lyme Regis when I was little and the Tidal tank they have in "The Aquarium" in London.

I remember being fascinated with the Mermaid's Purse which I believe are the eggs of Dogfish??

Anyway I am about to go off track here. I am interested to see how it goes for you SH. Probably wont take it on myself, but im very interested to see the info you come up with

 

[gigmeyer]

Being 3 miles from the northeast coast myself, I'll be curious to see how this plays out. Given the water temps here and the sweltering heat of July that invades my whole house, I couldn't imagine being able to do this without a chiller. Learning about local species should be very interesting. Enjoy!

 

[nmonks]

Depends on the mermaids purse in question. The long, narrow, yellow ones are indeed dogfish, typically Scyliorhinus canicula. The big black, rather square-shaped ones are the egg cases of skates (Raja spp.)

Cheers, Neale

I remember being fascinated with the Mermaid's Purse which I believe are the eggs of Dogfish??

 

[AliRichardson]

The ones I remember were a creamy white, which I am going to assume are Dogfish as white is closer in colour to yellow than black XD

 

[steelhealr]

Hi everyone and thanks for your input. In case people don't know, Neale Monks is quite an aquarist and a published one at that. If you have him logging into your thread, you're 'ACES BABY'. However, as a mod, I"m looking into this as it is a bit of a challenge and something different for us here (and me). Having Neale here...or anyone having him on board..is a privilege indeed. Thanks Neale. I'm taking the research on seriously.

Anyway, many times here we try and research out our tank's first, then sorta plod into what we are going to put in. I agree with Neale in that, one has to thoroughly research out the fauna first and build the tank to keep them. Fauna must be:

• either available in the area or available by internet order and native
• legal to keep or legal to collect
• will survive in tank water that is perhaps a tad over what is average
• hardy
• if possible, resistant to disease

Obviously, corals will not be in the tank. So, inhabitants would/could include crustaceans or (if not too aggressive) small fish. Hence, my research will begin with the local inhabitants of the North Atlantic Seashore. In between, I'll throw some stuff out there that I come up with.

All input is welcome and appreciated.

SH

 

[nmonks]

Not so fast, steelhealr!

There are some exquisite coldwater corals. There are even some coldwater coral reefs, huge great things hardly anyone knows about, but they live in deep water so not really an issue. But there various shallow water corals in the temperate zone. One of the best-known here in the UK is the Devonshire Cup Coral.

Oh, and thanks for the promo!

Cheers, Neale

Obviously, corals will not be in the tank....

 

[Redstratplayer1]

[*]Beach substrate is coarse sand; other areas are close to gray mud; protected tidal areas are coarser sand to near pebbles
[/list]

FYI The Beach substrate is nothing like it is 50ft from the beach (some times 10ft)
A beach can have small grain sand but 10ft out it is crushed coral size and larger.

Dont go with what is dry at the top of the beach for your tank.Go out 50-100 ft and get that sand even better get sand from the tip of a rock/wood jetti.(Lots of little goodies small clams,crabs,worms).

I know of one person (PaulB) from Long Island who uses local sand,rock,algae,sponge,fish,urchins,water,pods,crabs and such but i Dont think I think i can post links too other forums.

 

[demonmagus]

if you can't you could always 'accidentally' PM it to me, seems interesting

 

[eschaton]

When I was in high school a decade ago or so, I had a marine science class where we kept our own saltwater aquariums using shore fauna (I grew up in Connecticut, so we had the same sea conditions roughly).

I'm trying real hard to remember what we kept in the tanks. The main fish was something small which looked remarkably like a Zebra Danio in overal size, color, and activity. We also had small Green Crabs - also some Japanese Crabs (bioinvader now common on the shore) though these were amazing escape artists and soon cralwed into the sinks and died.

 

[steelhealr]

All noted. Collection areas will be the challenge here. The North Shore of Long Island is cliffs with a rocky/pebble beach and very coarse sand extending out from the beach. The South Shore is open against the Atlantic and our beaches here are beautiful fine white sand. We also have the Great South Bay, protected between the island and the Atlantic. Pull up an anchor from the Great South Bay and you'll pull up a thick odoriferious gray mud. I've stood in it and you can get your foot sucked into it.

There are several jetty's however, some of these can be dangrous and one must use a lot of care around them. The surf is rough, sides steep and edges jagged.

Quick initial research, until I get my books, suggest the following are natives to the North Atlantic that can be kept in a coldwater tank:

Fish

• Tompot blenny, Blennius gattorugine
• Shanny, Blennius photis
• Spotted goby, Gobius scorpoides

Invertebrates

• Beadlet anemone, Actinius equina
• Dahlia anemone, Taelia felina
• Tubeworm, Serpula sp.
• Common prawn, Leander serratus
• Common sea star, Asterias rubens

Personally, I have pulled MANY common stars from the water on fishing lines. I have NOT seen any of the other species. Finding the best collection area will be the challenge.

And Neale...gonna check out the corals. lol. SH