Going Bold with Coldwater Marine Aquatics

Thanks for the praise Matt This is Stu from Coldwater Marine Aquatics. Its always cool to see someone like yourself get excited about coldwater!

If you are thinking about giving another go at a coldwater system there is a lot of available options now I just helped one of my buddies get going with a 12x12x12" acrylic AIO made of 1/2" acrylic and found him a 1/13th hp chiller and his total cost right now other than a light and stand is just under $250

He's doing a mimic of a tank that I have right now along with the same kind of chiller. I calculated my power consumption monthly for this chiller with 1/2" acrylic and it costs me about $6 a month to run. I think I spend more of food fooding the anemones than I do chilling the tank, lol.

Here's a photo of a pair of anemones from my little 7.2 gallon nano tank

 

Well get ready for a photo bomb and as soon as I can load a video or two I will. Or maybe I should just start a thread... I'll throw in a couple teaser pics right know though here is my 28 gallon cube that had my Pacific red octopus. And in the middle is my 4 gallon nano with a japanese lumpsucker. Yes the grass is fake. Blame my GF for that.

More photos to follow. I'll need to tap into my photo bucket account to get the rest.

 

Cool tanks newcrazy. Love the bottle in there too and those stars are gorgeous!

Thanks for Joining Stu! How cool. Thanks for sharing some stats there and that cool pic. Great to have you on the site.

Mind if Can I ask I couple questions?

Are coldwater anemones any easier to keep than tropical ones?
Are any captive bred?
Why is maintenance easier with coldwater?

 

I would absolutely love to do a coldwater tank so I am following. I live in New Jersey and spend a lot of summer time at the Jersey shore (no smarts comments lol) and the Jersey bays. I pull a lot of stuff out from seahorses, pipefish, varoius fish to beutiful orange sponges and many small crustateans (mantis shrimp crabs) snails etc and would keep them for a day then release but wondered what it would take to keep long term. I guess the problem for me is we are in a very transitional place withwarm summer water and cold winter water. Now I am wondering if I can start a coldwater tank as in this thread and investigate each species I catch to see if it would fit parameters.hmmmm

 

I love to see it Bob, just make sure to look into collecting legally.

matt

 

Oh I will. The funny part is that when I mentioned it is very transitional we often get surprised (by things we catch in our crab traps and seine nets). Especially in late August every year tropical species seem to get caught in currents up to here and have pulled up baby baracuda to once a small beutiful Yellow butterflyfish. People say it is unfortunete because they will quickly die when the weather changes, but I wondered does Jersey even have a regulation on keeping tropical species lol

 

Oh my that is interesting Bob. Hopefully you don't see many lionfish.

 

Here are a couple more tanks. This one I made up for a coworker. It's an 8 gallon nano.

And here it is after spending time at her house getting mature.

 

Thanks for the write up Matt! This is Josh from Coldwater Marine Aquatics Just getting a chance to check out your forum and it looks great! All add a few pictures of past tanks when I get a second.

 

Coldwater anemones are pretty simple to take care of compared to their temperamental tropical cousins. The first difference is that most are non photosynthetic and require frequent feedings of meaty foods. Also they share space in tanks quite well. In my current tank i have 13 different species and most are very close to each other. Also they are more than tolerant to nutrients in the water. Most tropical tanks would crash if subjected to even a fraction. But that doesn't mean you can slack on water quality though. I manage my tank like a cichlid tank. As in frequent water changes especially in the beginning. Mine requires much less now. And mechanical filtration is important since there is little help, at least initially, from biological filtration. The nitrogen cycle moves much slower the colder water gets. So chemi pure elite and purigen are my friend. All my tanks usually have some sort of foam rock work. IMO it provides pretty of surface area for beneficial bacteria to live.
I collect much of my inverts from the Oregon coast. I usually tank 2-3 trips a year. Which is part of the fun really. But I buy all my fish and choice inverts from Coldwater Marine Aquatics. I've been buying from Stu and Josh since they opened shop really they are great to work with and since they are hobbiests to they can answer questions and get you started in this better than anyone out there.