My coldwater marine tank (Norway)

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bullfrog

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Beautiful tank! Have a few questions myself.

1.) Since most things are collected from the wild, have you had any issues with the introduction of parasites or problematic invaders? In reef tanks you can get ich, aiptasia, asterina starfish, or a whole other host of pests.

2.) How is the long term husbandry of these creatures? It seems that it's mostly luck of the draw for whatever gets put into the tank and I assume because of that, some last longer than others. Are there creatures you just cannot keep consistently while others last for the a long time? What animal has been in your tank the longest?

3.) Do you ever have compatibility issues? Do some invertebrates like the crabs ever target mollusks or have your anemones proved problematic with fish? Or are you sure to pick out what you know to be compatible at least?
Hi there Cetus! Good questions! :) I'll answer as well as I can!

1. There have been some creatures that has shown up from time to time that I didn't intentionally put in there, but nothing that has caused me any major problems, or anything that I've struggled to get rid of.. (Except for a bit of an algea explosion atm, because of a poorly planned placement of a growlight for a cucumber winter growing project of mine in a window close by the tank...)

2. With a few exceptions, I mostly put in stuff that won't grow too big for the tank. You are correct that it's somewhat of a "luck of the draw"/survival of the fittest thing going on in this tank. Inhabitants sometimes gets caught and eaten by others. Like the stalked jellyfish, and the sea spider that I have images of in the opening post, both got eaten. (At some point I'm hoping to get a tank which can hold these two creatures alive, as I think both are incredibly cool.) I've also had sea stars that I've caught eating other sea stars, and the nudibranch I have a picture of in the opening thread, I eventually took out, because they eat anemones. I did put in a few nudibranch in the early days, and none of them survived long term. I found out that they are picky when it comes to diet, so I'm staying away from them now. My regular topknot's favourite food is gobies and shrimp, so they don't last long... Seastars, (bigger) fish and crustaceans generally do quite well, and the bigger they are, the better they do is the general rule in this tank.. My "oldest" creature in there is a seastar, closely followed by one of my norwegian topknots and some hermits have been with me basically from the beginning too.

3. As mentioned, my crabs have had it's share of "kills" in this tank, so has my regular topknots. My seastars are basically feeding on scallops and clams, and my painted topshell have eaten it's share too, including some wicked looking hydroids I had for a few days only... I've never had any issues with anemones eating, or injuring fish, or anything else that I've noticed. I have had to remove some inhabitants (mostly various crabs) because they cause too much trouble in there. Smaller stuff though, like mysis, shrimp, small fish, clams/scallops/snails and small squat lobsters I put in there for my bigger creatures to eat. Though there's been some mishaps along the way, I am starting to get the hang of what goes with what in there now.

Hope that answered most of your questions, if there's anything you want me to clarify, please ask, and I'll answer as best I can! Thanks! :)

Thanks
 
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Hi there Cetus! Good questions! :) I'll answer as well as I can!

1. There have been some creatures that has shown up from time to time that I didn't intentionally put in there, but nothing that has caused me any major problems, or anything that I've struggled to get rid of.. (Except for a bit of an algea explosion atm, because of a poorly planned placement of a growlight for a cucumber winter growing project of mine in a window close by the tank...)

2. With a few exceptions, I mostly put in stuff that won't grow too big for the tank. You are correct that it's somewhat of a "luck of the draw"/survival of the fittest thing going on in this tank. Inhabitants sometimes gets caught and eaten by others. Like the stalked jellyfish, and the sea spider that I have images of in the opening post, both got eaten. (At some point I'm hoping to get a tank which can hold these two creatures alive, as I think both are incredibly cool.) I've also had sea stars that I've caught eating other sea stars, and the nudibranch I have a picture of in the opening thread, I eventually took out, because they eat anemones. I did put in a few nudibranch in the early days, and none of them survived long term. I found out that they are picky when it comes to diet, so I'm staying away from them now. My regular topknot's favourite food is gobies and shrimp, so they don't last long... Seastars, (bigger) fish and crustaceans generally do quite well, and the bigger they are, the better they do is the general rule in this tank.. My "oldest" creature in there is a seastar, closely followed by one of my norwegian topknots and some hermits have been with me basically from the beginning too.

3. As mentioned, my crabs have had it's share of "kills" in this tank, so has my regular topknots. My seastars are basically feeding on scallops and clams, and my painted topshell have eaten it's share too, including some wicked looking hydroids I had for a few days only... I've never had any issues with anemones eating, or injuring fish, or anything else that I've noticed. I have had to remove some inhabitants (mostly various crabs) because they cause too much trouble in there. Smaller stuff though, like mysis, shrimp, small fish, clams/scallops/snails and small squat lobsters I put in there for my bigger creatures to eat. Though there's been some mishaps along the way, I am starting to get the hang of what goes with what in there now.

Hope that answered most of your questions, if there's anything you want me to clarify, please ask, and I'll answer as best I can! Thanks! :)

Thanks
Wonderful! Thank you! It's so strange hearing that starfish of all creatures do the best in your tank since in reefs they're so delicate usually. I wonder if there's a future for coldwater tanks in the hobby. There's certainly a lack of resources, experiences, and accessibility at the moment which I think is the biggest roadblock but I'm hoping improvements in chillers and livestock availability will allow us to see more boxfishes, lumpsuckers, and giant sea stars.
 
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Wonderful! Thank you! It's so strange hearing that starfish of all creatures do the best in your tank since in reefs they're so delicate usually. I wonder if there's a future for coldwater tanks in the hobby. There's certainly a lack of resources, experiences, and accessibility at the moment which I think is the biggest roadblock but I'm hoping improvements in chillers and livestock availability will allow us to see more boxfishes, lumpsuckers, and giant sea stars.
You're welcome! :) It depends on the type of starfish for sure (I had one die relatively quickly in the early days, that completely clouded up the tank. That was before I got a chiller though, so I'm guessing too high temp, and temp fluctuations was the reason there..) Also I know there are some that are quite picky with their diet. Most of the ones I have now eat almost anything, which makes it way easier.. ;) I have had stuff dying for no apparent reason too in the tank, but a lot of the cold water creatures do seem to be quite hardy. As I said no obvious diseases, parasites etc. Maybe that is less of an issue in cold water, or maybe I've just been lucky... I'm a bit surprised too that is isn't more popular tbh. Especially for people living close to the ocean, and who are allowed to collect. Sure you do have to go through some trial and error moments, as there aren't too many into this (there are some though, so there is a lot of info out there too if you look for it). And the chiller is a big and expensive thing, and if you need a thick acrylic tank, that'll be expensive too, but I've seen some of the prices on tropical saltwater stuff, so... :p Seeing all the complicated stuff with tropical tanks, all the water parameters that has to be absolutely perfect etc, I think cold saltwater could be a good way for people to get into saltwater, as I'm convinced it's WAY less complicated for most stuff.. (I've only ever measured ammonia, nitrite and nitrate (and PH and phosphates once, as I was trying to figure out an issue with my anemones. That turned out to be an issue not related to water quality though..) And my nitrates would have been way too high for a tropical tank, I'm sure...

Anyways, I'm just going on and on here... Sorry about that, haha.. Thanks again for your feedback Cetus! Much appreciated! :)
 
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So, a "no fun" update here.. Just as I've been talking about how relatively easy a coldwater tank is, I had a really bad experience a few days ago.. I was catching shrimp/mysis to feed my fish at my usual spot. Found a couple of pieces of nice seaweed that were connected to rocks, so I brought them home, and put it in the tank. Bad idea, because the next day, I woke up to all my norwegian topknots, and another couple of fish dead... :( Only thing I can think of is that there must have been some kind of contaminates with the seaweed (or less likely, with the mysis). There are a few boats located close to that area, so there might have been some "spill" or something from those. In any case, a real bummer the whole thing. I've learned to be way more careful with where I get stuff for the tank. I decided to shut the whole thing down, and give the tank and equipment a good cleaning... I was debating whether to take a break, or set up a new one. I decided on the latter though, as the living room looked quite sad with an empty tank...
 

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So, a "no fun" update here.. Just as I've been talking about how relatively easy a coldwater tank is, I had a really bad experience a few days ago.. I was catching shrimp/mysis to feed my fish at my usual spot. Found a couple of pieces of nice seaweed that were connected to rocks, so I brought them home, and put it in the tank. Bad idea, because the next day, I woke up to all my norwegian topknots, and another couple of fish dead... :( Only thing I can think of is that there must have been some kind of contaminates with the seaweed (or less likely, with the mysis). There are a few boats located close to that area, so there might have been some "spill" or something from those. In any case, a real bummer the whole thing. I've learned to be way more careful with where I get stuff for the tank. I decided to shut the whole thing down, and give the tank and equipment a good cleaning... I was debating whether to take a break, or set up a new one. I decided on the latter though, as the living room looked quite sad with an empty tank...
I'm sad to read this update, I've really enjoyed following along and learning. I hope you'll continue when you are ready
 
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A little time off made me get things started quicker then I expected.. Got the tank filled with sand, rocks, shells and water already, all from the same beach. Will have it up and running again in no time! :) Still haven't decided what to have in there. Thinking of focusing mainly on some smaller critters + anemones at first, but I don't know yet.. No rush with that though..

So this is what it looks like now.. Not sure I'm entirely happy with the new look, but I'll give it a while, and see if I'll get used to it..

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Also, I've uploaded another video from the "old" tank. The Fivebeard Rockling. A fish that was in hiding most of the time, except for during feeding time, when it became really active.. A fish I will have in a tank again at some point for sure!



Hope you enjoy! :)
 

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Very cool tank!

Been thinking for a long time that I want to set up a tank with species indigenous to my area.
 
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Very cool tank!

Been thinking for a long time that I want to set up a tank with species indigenous to my area.
Thanks Dom! Go for it! Are you allowed to collect in your area? That makes it a lot more fun I think! :)

What lights do you run? I need to replicate these settings!!
I honestly have no idea... I just bought the whole thing as a second hand package.. For sure nothing fancy.. ;) It's a led tube is all I know. I have some blue lights too, but I honestly rarely use them...

Here are some pictures of the light that's on in that video, that will hopefully help. :)
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Thanks Dom! Go for it! Are you allowed to collect in your area? That makes it a lot more fun I think! :)

Lite harvesting is overlooked in my area. I've only observed Fish & Wildlife come down on people collecting 5 gallon buckets filled with rock crab.
 
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Another little update about my new tank. Starting to add a little bit now. Have decided what to do with the tank (for now at least). Will try to make a little "micro-environment" in there, with only smaller creatures. There are some cool tiny life I've wanted to have earlier, but it's always been eaten quickly by bigger creatures, so.. :p Not too much interesting added just yet, but it's some life!

The starfish in the video have been expelled from the tank already though, as they've already had their first "kill", and don't fit in with my "micro-plans"...

 
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Made another little video from the old tank. This time a really cool looking creature, the sea spider. This is one of the creatures I would love to include in my new tank. I don't find them this big very often, so might take a while though. (Have already added quite a few tiny spiders to the new tank, and they've already made their presence known(..), but more about that in the next tank update..)

So cool to watch them swim!



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