65 Gallon AGA "Cool Water" tank.

Here is my new (5 days old) 65 Gallon AGA w/overflows cool water local species tank. I added water and sand on Saturday and rocks/puffer on sunday.

Specs: 65 Gallon AGA reef ready (36x18x24), 20 Gallon Eshopps reef ready sump, AquaC Urchin Pro in sump protein skimmer w Rio 1400 pump, Mag Drive 9.5 return pump.

Temp stays in the upper 60's (room temp) and the water is straight from the bay (Lazy Point, East Hampton, NY). I would be happy to answer any other questions.

One of the pics has some type of worm on them, not sure what type, but they are cool. I have more pics on my home computer I will have to upload later.

I still need to add things (obvoiusly more live stock) but I am getting a black background and a few other little things to add to it. Livestock will be this summer when I go seining for tropical strays. (spotfin butterflys, four spot butterflys, grey/queen triggers...)

 

Those fish you mentioned will be able to survive in the colder water?

 

where's the substrate from? whats the cycle process like on a cold water tank as well? from what i recall it was rather long.. cool setup though.. love the plant life

 

The fish get caught in the gulf stream and get dumped off here. They can easily survive in the high 60's temp, some of the more local fish have issues with temps that high as well so its a ballancing act. I might try to keep a pipe fish, but the northern pipefish has issues with high 60's, it does best at around 65 or lower...so I may just forget about the pipe fish and stick with tropical strays.

The substrate is right from the beach about a mile away from my apartment. We just drove up and filled a rubbermaid with about 10 gallons of sand. It's very clean, as far as cycling goes, it really was almost cycled right away. Since everything was taken from the ocean and put directly in the tank it has great characteristics already. It is amazingly easy to set up.

 

I had no idea that tropical fish like that stray that far. How far off the coast do you have to collect them? It's a very cool setup.

 

About 10 feet, haha. A lot of them end up in the Shinnecock Canal, which is the first major inlet to the bay. They hang out near the eel grass beds and are very easy to find and catch. They end up there because the water is warmer then in the open ocean and many of them, if not all of them, are juviniles and very small. Which is why they get caught in the currents.

 

I'v recently decided to alter the components of my aquarium. My idea is to make it into a temperate planted tank. I would love to get some other temperate fish/inverts (horeshoe crabs, snad dollars...) as well as the tropical strays. The only down side is the Nother Puffer might have to go...he is very aggresive when fed, so I'm worried that he might bully other fish. I'm going to be putting in some local small fish to see how he reacts, if it turns out badly, then he will have to go.

 

Hi, I remember this tank from your RC thread. It's looking good, I'm curious to see how the plants do at the elevated temps. I've tried some similar Pacific NW plants without much success, and my temps were in the 50's--though weak lighting certainly may have been the problem. Also, at least from what I've read, oxygen availability is actually pretty important to kelps (maybe macroalgae too), so an airstone for some extra aeration may not hurt either.
It's cool to see more temperate aquariums out there (especially planted), I'm eager to see how your project works out.

 

Well some of the macros are doing well, some are not. I have changed it up a bit as you can see in the pictures. The Codium did terribly and I had a large piece of Ulva which did not do well. The rest of the macros are going along well. The Codium just needed more light than what I can provide. I'v heard from people with MH that they dont do well in their tanks either. I have finally got my Iron level up to readable levels so the macros are doing even better now. It's really a trial and error situation. I tried to house a mussel I picked up when getting water for a water change and it did not do well in the tank.

I also found a cunner while getting more rocks and macros one day. He is a great little fish (in the wrasse family). He has recently started eating from my hand like the puffer does. This summer will be the time to stock with fish. I really hope I can get an Atlantic Blue Tang, but I will settle for a spotfin butterfly and a shoal of sheepshead minnows. Right now I'm just trying to keep the peramiters up and letting the tank mature. The puffer will have to go at some point. He is growing like crazy. After taking him from the 10 gallon tank, he has grown about 1" in length in just a few weeks and has increased in width a lot. The Northern Puffer is a very cool fish, intelligent with lots of personality. I think that the aquarium nearby might take him when he gets too big. (Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, NY)

 

Tank is looking really nice. It is very cool to see something that is different like this.