Check out my coldwater marine tank

Very cool! I was actually about to ask about the local collection restrictions, but man...I am jealous!
I love seeing projects like this-well executed, unique tanks.

 

crazy tank!

 

Collecting coldwater stuff

Hi...collecting is the best part!...I kept tropical marines for many years, and loved the hobby, it's just great to go for a dive not knowing what you're going to find. The one thing I am careful with is choosing the right specimens that will suit my tank biotope, so no seahorses or large starfish/hermits/fish....the one good thing is I can put back anything that struggles in the tank....no damage done!!

 

coldtank biotope

Hi....The tank is really a jewel anemone reef, I have added quite a few harmless inverts, but only a couple of fish...a grey goby a baby rockfish and a young orange roughy,(a very rare find as they are normally pelagic and not found around reefs much....he's doing really well...by the way they can live to well over 100years in the wild!! ).

 

Awesome let's see some coldwater fish! Karma

 

maintaining the temperate tank

Hi....The tank is really easy to maintain....having kept tropical marines for many years I find this tank much easier. It's the same 8 foot long 300 gallon tank I used as a tropical tank....simply kept all the same filtration....added a large 1 HP chiller....got rid of the heaters...shut down the metal halides...kept the Red Sea skimmer going full blast...that's it.! I don't have to add kalk or vitamin supplements, evaporation is negligible,and algae growth is taken care of by the catseye snails and detritus by the starfish/glass prawns/nudibranch. I have always used natural seawater as it's crystal clear down here in the Sth Pacific....after keeping the trop.marines it's a piece of cake!!

 

Jewel anemones

Hi Danny.....they look like zoas but they're corallimorphs...same family as corals but with soft rather than hard exoskeleton....same family as the strawberry jewels you get off the California coast around Catalina. The starfish seem to enjoy the detritus that collects on the sand-bed as well as feeding on small sponges that I can easily collect...the one shown is a biscuit star...they have many colour variations from orange through to a deep purple....he's fine with the other inhabitants....if he ever became problematic he'd go back to sea!

 

NZ waters similar to California

Hi....the undersea world down here is very similar to your waters up there....sea temps / salinity / ph / pretty much the same.....I wish we had such a colourful fish as the Catalina Goby though.!

 

Thanks for that....appreciate it....

 

coldmarine new pics.

Here's a few new shots of the temperate tank inhabitants.