170 litre temperate invert tank

d.fast

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I have kept a few temperate saltwater tanks, but none at home. But I have attempted to collect my knowledge gained from my previous tanks to build a nice tank keeping fauna from our west coast in Sweden. The east coast is brackish, we do not speak fondly of that...

This tank will focus on smaller and less active creatures, the tank is a bit small for active fish and the flow requirements goes down with this direction. It will have a sump for keeping the skimmer in and perhaps offer a refugium. The tank will have two viewing sides and stand next to my tropical tank as a room divider. It will have no macro algae so lighting requirements are non-existent. I have a small chiller so to prevent noise and overworking the unit the tank has to be well insulated. The tank is already up an running by now but I will tell the build from the start :)

I ordered the tank at the same time as my tropical tank. It was a very long wait before the tanks arrived, the insulation I opted to do myself. Was unsure if I could convey what I wanted the tank builder to create.

Production cold.jpg


Here is the tank naked! A production shot from the workshop. It has a overflow box with the popular two down, one up solution. By now I sort of regret this choice. I have another place where the return could go instead, but I can just cap of the return hole and put in the new return if I feel that I should do that one day. The dimensions of the tank is 57 by 70 by 50 cm. Which becomes about 22 by 27 by 20 inches.

Packa upp.jpg


One lucky the tanks finally arrived. I put most of my effort on starting the tropical tank first so this waited for a few months until I was ready. I also tested prototyping the insulation on two other tanks so I could hopefully avoid some mistakes working on this. The craftsmanship on the tanks is fabulous, almost made me feel guilty insulating this one... But only almost.

Isolerglas.JPG


The insulation has two solutions which are different depending on if you want to have a viewing window or not. The non-viewing sides are covered with 20 mm(1") Styrofoam, first I apply black plastic film and then I put some silicone which glues the Styrofoam to the side. I did this on the bottom and two short ends. The viewing sides have double glazing instead, I use aluminium extrusions as spacers and silicone as glue and sealant and then add another glass pane. Doing this is a pain because you always get some dust inside the glass. So now I have a strand of hair on one side which will always be there.... The double glazing is actually more effective as an insulator than the Styrofoam. But it is more fragile, harder to make and a lot more expensive than the styrofoam solution.

I will dress up the edges later with some trim. There is also some silica gel between the panes, my home is very dry though so I hope condensation will not be a problem. But might just as well put some there. The trim will also cover the Styrofoam.

Back 2  Back.JPG


Here are the two tanks back to back. The trim is still missing of course. I have yet to create it... But you get the idea. The temperate tank was ordered slightly thinner than the tropical tank, so that they would match up with the double glazing applied.

Scape.JPG


Here is the tank just set up. I tried hiding the pumps between the rocks, this worked ok... The idea is great, but they suck up sand and get damaged. Might work with gravel and does work great with bare bottom tanks. I will replace the left one with a Tunze 6020 attached to the overflow box. The light is an Ikea LED reading light, it's a 2w LED with fairly sharp lens, it creates this wonderful pattern on the bottom though. A bit warm perhaps but I am not too bothered. It is a pleasant light, I don't want the tank to look sterile either. The sand is some sort of white Cichlid sand and the rocks are... rocks. As of yet there are very few "rules" about what is good and not good in temperate saltwater tanks when discussing sand and rocks so I use what I fancy :) Might put some live rock in the sump though, together with some good filter media. The pretty(and very heavy) solid rocks do not offer much in way of surface area for bacteria...

The next post will proceed with the sump installation and complications that it came with.
 
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Here comes the great adventures concerning the sump. The tank ran for a month before the sump was installed, but it is up and running now, the road had a few bumps though.

1 Limmad.JPG


I made the sump myself, it is a super simple design, just one big... sump. At first there was no need for a constant water level and that is not really a problem, the cold temp makes the tank have almost no evaporation so I don't really have to top of the water.

The dimensions are 45x50x25 cm. Which becomes 18x20x10 inches. I used an old glass pane from a torn down 75 gallon tank as the bottom and ordered new sides from a local company. Made for a cheap build and at least the bottom is straight. The local glass guys might be good at making windows but I don't think they ever built an aquarium...

2 Dressed.JPG


The sump has no viewing sides, I would have to lie straight on the floor to see anything anyway, and if I wanted to show someone something they had to get down there too. And then I would have to clean the floor... Can't have that. The sump has white plastic film underneath the bottom glass. So it is nice and bright in the sump, easy to see stuff and a weak sump light will still make things visible.

4 Returledning.JPG


The pipes down were simple so I started with the return line instead. This part was easy and became neat, insulated pipe and an elbow. The pipe leads through the wall of the stand to where the chiller is residing. The pipe is 20 mm here, will not convert that to inch... Perhaps 3/4 inch?

3 Adapter.JPG


A problem was the chiller fittings. They were tiny, only 12 mm, about 1/2 inch. Restricts the flow a lot. I had to make this home made adapter from an end cap and some 12 mm pipe. With fancy blue pvc I took from an old skimmer.

Sump överblick.JPG


Here the pipes coming down are installed. The main pipe is connected directly to the skimmer. The skimmer is an Aqua Care ACF1000V which I have converted to use an airstone instead of a injector. This idea was great! The airstone will introduce almost no heat to the tank, reliable as well... But we will discuss this later. The other line is a straight pipe, just there for the occasion when the main pipe clogs. The pipes are attached with some silicone hose. This is to prevent me cracking the bottom of the tank where the tank connectors are if I bump into the pipes one day. Long pipe directly attached to the glass can be a disaster, have experience from a previous tank... This is fine in most sumps where the pipes are tucked away, but this sump is super open. I have no children so I can keep knives, dangerous chemicals and sumps out in the open.

6 vatten i lådan.JPG


Here the sump is running! Working pretty good. I am using my Sicce 1.5 here, but this pump has a slightly damaged impeller so it makes a lot of noise, so I had to exchange it. Normally I use this pump for salt mixing. I was going to use an Eheim 1048 as a return but it was too weak. It did pump the water but cried as it did so. Having the pump like this is a bit wild. If both pipes from the tank were to clog most of the sump would be emptied. The bad side of not having chambers in the sump. But this is temporary, I don't want the return pump in the water. If I mount the pump externally it gives of less heat to the water. I like chasing heat sources in the tank. The fewer there are the less the chiller runs.

5 igång.JPG


A side view. This sump is super easy to work in. So far it is quite neat as well. I will dress the sides in some sort of trim though. The Styrofoam is not pretty.

12 ventil.JPG


14 skummare.JPG


I did buy a new pump. A Jebao DCP 2500. It is much too powerful for this tank but I have it dialed to the weakest flow. This was better but the skimmer could not handle the flow so I had to add a bypass valve to it. The Jebao is nice but has created two problems for me. The first one is that it leaks for me, I just can't get it to not leak, have checked several times. So it is standing in the sump instead of externally. Another problem is that it has a... sound. It is a very quiet pump but it does create a whining noise that I just can't stop hearing. Probably not a problem in a closed stand or a fish room. But my living room is very quiet mostly so I will swap the pump. Probably for a Eheim 1050, I have good previous experience with those.

11 kopplingar.JPG


When I swapped the pump I also made new connections to the chiller! The threads on the chiller were also small but I used adapters for my garden hose(I don't have a garden, but I do have a hose) and now I can use 16 mm pipe. A great improvement.

13 Kylare.JPG


Here is the chiller by the way, it is a Teco TK150, 1/10 HP. With my current setup it runs about one hour with four hours time between runs. That is the time it takes the temp to rise by one degree C. I keep the tank at a average of 16 degrees celcius(61 F). I will try to make some insulation on the walls to keep down the chiller noise.

23 första ventil.JPG


Here is an odd thing! Guess what I use this for? Or rather used...

21 Ventil.JPG


Here it is again. I use it as a homemade valve for adjusting the flow. It is just a cap that I drilled a hole in until the flow was just right. This actually worked great, I will probably regret those words in the future... But for now it does, or rather did...

You see, I started to hear another strange noise. I just assumed it was the DC pump. But I noticed that turning of the pump did not remove the sound. So I turned off all pumps on both tanks and the sound was still there. I was both relieved and frustrated, what was the cause? It was not until the overflow box emptied itself the noise disappeared. My nice flow reducer also doubled as a whistlepipe for the tank! Very odd, had not even occurred to med that his might happen. Not super loud but a sharp sound, had do be eliminated... Fast.

22 ny strypning.JPG


So I made this contraption instead. Several smaller holes. This has worked much better, no strange noises. I am a happy man. Well, I was.

24 Omdragning sump.JPG


You see, the wonderful airstone skimmer... It too was making noises. These noises have turned into a disease, they must all go!

I actually had the airpump outside on my balcony. But the bubbles produced a pulsating sound that I could not eliminate, I made a silencer which changed the sound. But not remove it. In the end I threw in the towel and installed my Deltec 1456 skimmer instead. This is actually more silent, but it does create more heat instead. But it is much more powerful than this tank needs so I will only runt it at night so the chiller can work harder when I sleep and less during the day.

The airstone skimmer I will use on my other temperate tank in my fishroom, it will not be noticed there. I will never get that room silent.
 
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d.fast

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We are pretty much up to speed now. I have this final post that is actually about the creatures I keep! And for now there are only two species. Those are frilled anemones(metridium senile) and nassarius reticulatus, which are very similar to the nassarius snails in our tropical tanks.

Anemone.JPG


I don't have a picture of the snails but here is the anemone. This is an old picture and I can see that now, these have grown quite a bit since this. These anemones are not photosynthetic and require feeding, they are very simple to feed though. I feed them frozen artemia for now but will move to krill and mysis when they get bigger. Can feed cyclops too but it is easier to feed these larger foods. I have a video on these when I feed, enjoy. That is it for now, will keep feeding the anemones, chase a new return pump and plan for new inhabitants.

 
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The previous post was a bit weak so I will post a few more pictures of the animals. First we take the missing Nassarius snail.

21 Hidden.JPG


Here we see... Something? A bit of dirt?

22 Escape.JPG


Add a little food and this appears. These become active very quickly after feeding the anemones and race around the tank. Not that uncommon, they act the same way as their tropical cousins. But still they are cool animals.

20 Growth.JPG


Here is a fresh picture of the frilled anemone, this is three weeks after the picture in the last post. It seems to both thrive and grow! They also split of small new anemones but I will focus on feeding the few large ones. The rest will have to survive on scraps. I can not handfeed all the anemones, then the tank will be full of only frilled anemones in the end.
 
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I was out on a collection trip today with some fellow hobbyists and got some really nice specimens with me, no fish. I am unsure if I am going to get any fish in this tank. Maybe some small gobies, otherwise focus will be on invertebrates here.

01 Sten med alger.JPG
'

Got a few small rocks with algae on similar to this, got them mostly for hitchhikers that may be in the algae. I have to little light for keeping the macros alive, though I might test a refugium in the sump.... A few common periwinkle, (Littorina Littorea) tagged along.

02 Stjärnor och hare.JPG


Also picked up a few common starfish(Asteria Rubens) and Sea hare(Aplysia Punctata). Have never tested the sea hares before, they were super abundant today though so picked up one. Very cool, can definitely see why they are called sea hares.

03 Sjöborrar.JPG


Two small urchins aswell(Psammechinus miliaris), these are lovely. I really like urchins, they are mesmerizing with their shapes and forms. These are small but have very sharp spines.

04 Trollhummrar.JPG


Also got some squat Lobsters(probably some form of Galathea). These are very cool, but secretive. Hopefully the lack of fish might make them more daring. They seem hardy and not very demanding, but are fragile.

05 Ormstjärna.JPG


Also found one black brittle star(Ophiocomina nigra), these are a big favorite as well. I like brittle stars almost as much as urchins... Maybe more. The way they move and their flexible arms are cool to see. These are scavangers and should be able to live of the left-over food i feed the anemones and corals.
 
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There was an important species missing from yesterday, and that was the tanks first coral! The M. Senile are anemones so they don't really count... :) We have very few corals at our coast but we do have all the families at least. Softies, LPS, SPS and gorgonians, anemones are the most numerous ones, a fair amount of species.

Yesterdays donation was an Alcyonium digitatum, often called Dead man's fingers. A soft coral, there are no photosynthetic corals here so it is an NPS species. My theory is that frozen cyclops should work fairly well as a food source... Though I fear I might be wrong, the size should be ok though according to some documents that I have been reading. I have a fair amount of scavengers at least so someone will be happy.

10 död mans hand.JPG
 
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I have attempted to feed the coral twice now and it looks fairly promising, still using frozen cyclops and the polyps seem to swallow them. Will try to put these in a water stream later on, should be able to identify one in the tank. Hard thing will be to mount the coral. These do not seem to reattach to substrate the same way sarcophytons and other tropical soft corals do. At the moment I have tied it with rubber bands to a piece of live rock, the way I would with a tropical softie.

 
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Was away on a saltwater roadtrip with some friends last weekend, lots of fun. Picked up some new food on the way home.

01 Mat.JPG


These are all interesting, I have tried the invertebrate food and lobster eggs so far. The invertebrate food is great! Seems perfect for the Digitatum, will pick up more of this in the future. I prefer cyclops still if further testing makes it seem viable, cyclops is much cheaper and easier to find. The lobster eggs are OK for the coral, maybe a bit to large. Seems great otherwise, the anemones gladly eat it. Will try the fish eggs soon as well.


02 Pump.JPG


Also got my new pump for the tank, the old Eheims have taken a harsh beating from the sand. I have mounted this above the sand so it should be fine. Gives a lot of movement to the tank, don't think I'll need more than this.

03 Handen.JPG


So far the digitatum is still looking good, has not wriggled out of the rubber band for a while so it seems promising! Very hard to get much info at all on keeping these, don't find many publications where they are propagated of kept in captivity. Guess I'll have to create my own success... :)

04 Stjärna.JPG


Here is a nice picture of a starfish feeding on a shrimp. These starfish can get massive, this is tiny comparatively. Using these as cleaners, though I might have to target feed these from time to time.

05 Utrymme.JPG


The installation of the 6020 pump was not without problems. I had to get a hole saw inside this space and twist it by hand to make a hole for the magnet.

06 Min hand.JPG


Good thing I have no musculature on my arms. Was still not really an enjoyable experience, but the job was completed :) Magnet mounts are good in the end, easy to remove the pump for cleaning.

07 FTS.JPG


Here is a fairly lousy tank shot, will probably have to get some kind of "FTS light" for doing these types of shots. If I adjust the exposure up everything slightly light will bloom out completely.
 
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A small update on this tank. Most critters are doing pretty good, not amazing though. But I have been sloppy with taking proper care of the tank, I feed properly though.

50 Näringsrikt.jpg


Check out those striking colors! ... Oh, less is more, I forgot. Pretty much of the charts. Alk had also dropped a bit but it was still at 8.3 so no danger. I changed a third of the water today, will proceed with another big change in the weekend as well. That should do wonders. Will also try dosing vinegar as a carbon source, might be good against those nitrates. Give my skimmer something to work with too. The skimmer is not doing all that much at the moment to be honest.

43 anemon 2.JPG


My anemones are a little hesitant but they to show a slow steady growth and they look nice. A big problem is that the lobsters and snails steal their food though. So I have to overfeed a bit. Later in the year I will add a few small fish so there is more to benefit from this overfeeding. I still do not feed a huge amount though. About 1/3 of a cube a day of frozen.

41 nassarius.JPG


The snails are good, although a few might have passed away. At least two are left though. These bad boys go straight up to the anemones and suck up the food from their bellies! Have to watch them while feeding. Not a behavior that I expected.

42 Hummer.JPG


The lovely squat lobsters are doing pretty great. The have grown quite bold and are often visible, even pinch me every now and then. But they don't pinch hard... yet.
 

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Very nice. Great you get to collect stock.
Really like the tank.
 
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Thanks! It's still a bit barren but by introducing species slowly I can hopefully observe and care for them better. It is also a great opportunity to learn more about the species that exist in my own waters.
 
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Thanks! I've not written here in a while now and nothing major has happened to the tank, but I have some things to share at least to keep the thread alive. I would really like to visit the ocean and collect some more creatures these days.

71 FTS.JPG


Feeding is a bit of a problem in this tank, spot feeding works fine but is a bit bothersome, the creatures must be in the mood at the same time that I am :) I do a broadcast feeding every day with mostly cyclops and everyone gets something then. But the anemones fare much better when I feed them directly. A smaller tank would be easier here since the same amount of food that I feed now would mean a higher concentration of food in the water column. Perhaps I need to scale up instead and have more creatures and even more food instead...

83 Copepods.JPG


I have noticed for a while that I have a nice population of copepods on the glass of the aquarium. I would probably have a lot more with more light and algae on the tank. But then I would also have a very green or more probably brown tank... But I am really interested in creating a refugium for the tank in the sump. But that might be complicated, an ATS on the other hand would be super interesting to test here. My skimmer does not work well at all for some unknown reason on this tank so I have actually turned if of for the last month. Will check around for a model to buy, I don't whish to build an ATS.

93 Eremit.JPG


Here is a portrait of my hermit crab. He is doing great, but he is a clumsy one who disturbs the anemones quite a bit. So I have moved them of the sandbed.

94 Philips.JPG


I still just run lights just whenever I want to look at the tank so no regular light. I got a trio of Philips Hue bulbs that I use mostly. They work fairly well and are controllable. But the spread is not great and they are too weak to work well for photography. I want something small but powerful for when I want to take photos of the tank. These lights are fin just for looking at the tank though.

95 Appintosh.JPG


Woho, an app for my lights, feeling like one of the big boys now!

101 paket.JPG


Not only the lights are hightech now though, I also invested in a GHL system!

104 dator.JPG


I bought a Profilux Mini WiFi for this tank, I have a temp probe, a powerbar and controll two DC pumps with it. I don't do any super advanced stuff with it but it is a fun system to use and a good start for learning about automation. With the powerbar I also get a truly reliable timer for pumps and lights. I had an idea to use it to control my feeding pump for my chiller to save energy and make the chiller run less. This is not implemented yet though.

120 Pumpen.jpg


I use two Tunze 6040 with the GHL, so I have fairly strong pulsing flow during the day and calmer waters during the night.

122 Mat.jpg


I try out some different bacteria's and food, my methods are not very scientific though so I have not proven any success or failure really yet on what's good and what is not. But they do get food at least.

131 Nejlika.jpg


Here is a pic of one of my frilled anemones, this is the biggest I have. It has actually entered my streamers three times! But it has survived being mauled and is still the biggest and prettiest. But I has decided that it wants to live on the glass close to the surface and is a pain to shoot because of that.

113 anemonfält.jpg


It leaves behind a lot of babies when it moves... I can't spot feed hundreds of anemones though so these guys will have to survive on the broadcast feeding.

112 Sjöros 2.jpg


This is probably a Dahlia anemone(Urticina felina) and is my favorite in the tank for now. If it is a Dahlia it can grow huge but as for now it has not grown a lot so far. It does respond really well to feeding though and equally responds badly to missing being fed. I think I need larger food items, will try to find frozen krill. Mysis works ok but is small.

140 sump 1.jpg


I have redone my sump as well. Had to do this when I got my GHL, so this is before.

141 Sump efteråt.jpg


And this is after. Starting to be a lot of cables on the tank now. Which is strange because the tank is not that high tech. I use two streamers, a return, a chiller and my GHL... But the electricity outlets multiply anyway.

142 tina mat.JPG


A good thing about running a chiller is that the exhaust is excellent for thawing out frozen steak.

152 Salt.jpg


For water changes I have used Aquaforest Sea Salt, I buffer up Ca and Mg a little. A cheap and cheerful solution, this tank has few demands on the salt mix beacuse very little is consumed compared to a tropical reef tank. I also use tap water for the water changes. My tap water is actually of really good quality so I could probably use it for my tropical tank too but I have a RO/DI so I use it anyway.

153 is.jpg


When mixing new water I turn the tap to the coldest setting. Sometimes that is not cold enough though so then I make some mega icecubes and add to the bucked. That fixes the problem. Some other keepers are more ambitious and use a chiller when mixing water but I ain't that fancy.

154 Dubbelhink.jpg


Two 50 litre buckets for changing water. One for mixing new and one for draining the same amount out of the tank. I then pump the water to the bathroom. Trying not to carry too many buckets.

161 Taskig bild på mystisk varelse.jpg


Here is something weird that I found growing on my front glass lately. Have no idea what it is but it looks like some kind of filter feeder. It is tiny. This photo is of an area of about one square inch. Very cool but it prevents me from scraping the front glass... Or at least a square inch of it.
 

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Thanks! I've not written here in a while now and nothing major has happened to the tank, but I have some things to share at least to keep the thread alive. I would really like to visit the ocean and collect some more creatures these days.

71 FTS.JPG


Feeding is a bit of a problem in this tank, spot feeding works fine but is a bit bothersome, the creatures must be in the mood at the same time that I am :) I do a broadcast feeding every day with mostly cyclops and everyone gets something then. But the anemones fare much better when I feed them directly. A smaller tank would be easier here since the same amount of food that I feed now would mean a higher concentration of food in the water column. Perhaps I need to scale up instead and have more creatures and even more food instead...

83 Copepods.JPG


I have noticed for a while that I have a nice population of copepods on the glass of the aquarium. I would probably have a lot more with more light and algae on the tank. But then I would also have a very green or more probably brown tank... But I am really interested in creating a refugium for the tank in the sump. But that might be complicated, an ATS on the other hand would be super interesting to test here. My skimmer does not work well at all for some unknown reason on this tank so I have actually turned if of for the last month. Will check around for a model to buy, I don't whish to build an ATS.

93 Eremit.JPG


Here is a portrait of my hermit crab. He is doing great, but he is a clumsy one who disturbs the anemones quite a bit. So I have moved them of the sandbed.

94 Philips.JPG


I still just run lights just whenever I want to look at the tank so no regular light. I got a trio of Philips Hue bulbs that I use mostly. They work fairly well and are controllable. But the spread is not great and they are too weak to work well for photography. I want something small but powerful for when I want to take photos of the tank. These lights are fin just for looking at the tank though.

95 Appintosh.JPG


Woho, an app for my lights, feeling like one of the big boys now!

101 paket.JPG


Not only the lights are hightech now though, I also invested in a GHL system!

104 dator.JPG


I bought a Profilux Mini WiFi for this tank, I have a temp probe, a powerbar and controll two DC pumps with it. I don't do any super advanced stuff with it but it is a fun system to use and a good start for learning about automation. With the powerbar I also get a truly reliable timer for pumps and lights. I had an idea to use it to control my feeding pump for my chiller to save energy and make the chiller run less. This is not implemented yet though.

120 Pumpen.jpg


I use two Tunze 6040 with the GHL, so I have fairly strong pulsing flow during the day and calmer waters during the night.

122 Mat.jpg


I try out some different bacteria's and food, my methods are not very scientific though so I have not proven any success or failure really yet on what's good and what is not. But they do get food at least.

131 Nejlika.jpg


Here is a pic of one of my frilled anemones, this is the biggest I have. It has actually entered my streamers three times! But it has survived being mauled and is still the biggest and prettiest. But I has decided that it wants to live on the glass close to the surface and is a pain to shoot because of that.

113 anemonfält.jpg


It leaves behind a lot of babies when it moves... I can't spot feed hundreds of anemones though so these guys will have to survive on the broadcast feeding.

112 Sjöros 2.jpg


This is probably a Dahlia anemone(Urticina felina) and is my favorite in the tank for now. If it is a Dahlia it can grow huge but as for now it has not grown a lot so far. It does respond really well to feeding though and equally responds badly to missing being fed. I think I need larger food items, will try to find frozen krill. Mysis works ok but is small.

140 sump 1.jpg


I have redone my sump as well. Had to do this when I got my GHL, so this is before.

141 Sump efteråt.jpg


And this is after. Starting to be a lot of cables on the tank now. Which is strange because the tank is not that high tech. I use two streamers, a return, a chiller and my GHL... But the electricity outlets multiply anyway.

142 tina mat.JPG


A good thing about running a chiller is that the exhaust is excellent for thawing out frozen steak.

152 Salt.jpg


For water changes I have used Aquaforest Sea Salt, I buffer up Ca and Mg a little. A cheap and cheerful solution, this tank has few demands on the salt mix beacuse very little is consumed compared to a tropical reef tank. I also use tap water for the water changes. My tap water is actually of really good quality so I could probably use it for my tropical tank too but I have a RO/DI so I use it anyway.

153 is.jpg


When mixing new water I turn the tap to the coldest setting. Sometimes that is not cold enough though so then I make some mega icecubes and add to the bucked. That fixes the problem. Some other keepers are more ambitious and use a chiller when mixing water but I ain't that fancy.

154 Dubbelhink.jpg


Two 50 litre buckets for changing water. One for mixing new and one for draining the same amount out of the tank. I then pump the water to the bathroom. Trying not to carry too many buckets.

161 Taskig bild på mystisk varelse.jpg


Here is something weird that I found growing on my front glass lately. Have no idea what it is but it looks like some kind of filter feeder. It is tiny. This photo is of an area of about one square inch. Very cool but it prevents me from scraping the front glass... Or at least a square inch of it.
Great update! I do have some thoughts on a few things- Firstly, I think part of the issue with a skimmer in a temperate system is that the bacteria in a temperate system is less efficient that those in a tropical system, which may have an effect on skimming. Secondly, I love those frilled anemones- I used to see them all the time in beaches in the northern Atlantic; one year when I went you could turn over any rock in a tidepool and see a couple tiny ones- exactly like the picture you posted. The last year I went, which must've been a year or two ago, I couldn't find any- no idea what happened. That last picture looks like some type of hydroid to me. Pretty cool to look at and usually harmless- if you like looking at it, keep it!

Are the starfish and squat lobsters still around? Those guys were super cool and I have never seen them where I went tidepooling. Those green urchins are everywhere though- how are those doing? I'm also really curious how that sea hare is doing and if it made it- I always wanted one, but I'm terrified that it would die in my tank, which would cause a multitude of issues. Clearly this build has piqued my interest- I've always wanted to set up a tank of coldwater species I find in tidepools, but I only go on vacation and chillers are extremely expensive... I get to live vicariously though!
 
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d.fast

d.fast

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I am very unsure what makes the skimmer perform so badly, or more specifically so badly in this tank. I have kept a few temperate tanks and the others have had functional skimmers. This one defies that. I have actually changed the skimmer from a Deltec Sc1456 to a Bubble Magus Curve 5 and that also performs mediocre. The main thing that is different from previous tanks is the lack of light though, perhaps that is a part of the problem? Perhaps certain compounds are not produced without the micro algae in the tank? Will need more investigating...

The frilled anemones are great! They are easy to find and adapts well to the tank, they reproduce and are easy to feed. They are also in my opinion not demanding very cool water either. And yes, I keep all creatures I can get or find :)

The starfish are not around anymore, I need to feed larger food items for them I believe. You can feed them frozen shrimp and other meaty foods. I brought a few small specimens for scavenging but since they disappeared I think there was too little leftover food. One green urchin is left, it doesn't find much to eat in the tank either. They are supposed to be omnivores but perhaps mine is really picky. I feed it fish food tabs and that seems to work fine. They might prefer to eat kelp otherwise.

I have two squat lobsters left, they are getting larger little by little. Really cool guys though they nip at the anemones sometimes. We catch the squat lobsters with a certain contraption. We have a few plastic tubs with holes that we fill with rocks and lower to about 7-10 meters depth. And every now and then we pull them up and check what has taken refuge in them. There are often a bunch of these squat lobsters in those hauls, I don't think they are often in tidepools, at least not here in Sweden.

The sea hare did not make it, it decided to enter the skimmer. These sea hares are tiny though so they don't really risk to ruin the tank if they do not make it. I have kept these kinds of Sea hares a lot longer in a previous tank which was algae focused, a better environment for them.

Chillers doesn't have to be that expensive, my first chiller was a Resun Mini-200 which cost 200 $ from China at that time. Though I got import duties of 150$ due to a fault in the declaration export... But that was the shops fault and I got a gift voucher for my next purchase so no harm there. Now I am using a Teco TK150 which I bought for about 150$ used, so it was cheaper than the tank :) The trick is to get or build an insulated tank so you can get away with a smaller chiller. It also makes the tank use less electricity so win-win.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 58 50.0%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 64 55.2%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 27 23.3%
  • None.

    Votes: 28 24.1%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 7.8%
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