Natural seawater tank build.

[426HEMI]

Since I already posted it on another site, here is the adventure my daughter and I went on where we saw the cowry and found the painted hermit.

Decided to hike the long way around Makapu'u to the tide pool today. The short way is up the paved path and then you hike the down the mountain to the tide pool. The long way starts at the little beach and you hike around the edge of the island, dodging waves when necessary. Not advisable at high tide. Turns out the path is way longer and way more sketchy than I thought. I'd have went on if I was alone but my daughter was there to check my recklessness. We got to the point to where we couldn't safely go any further and it was 1.2-2 hours to go back, so we went up. At the end we figured out it was 280ft, up, of climbing we did. Almost as high as the Statue of Liberty. I'm going to be incredibly sore tomorrow It isn't El Capitan, but a decent climb when you aren't expecting to climb at all.

Nice little place just off the highway on the way to Makapu'u.

Looking down on where we started.

Just around the corner from the start and some others along the way.

The reason we went this way is the multiple tide pools along they way.

Looking down on the way we climbed up.

Parting shot as we left.

Picked up a cool shell on the way around and put it in my pack. Dropped it in the tank for the hermit crabs to use and had a little surprise. Contained a painted hermit crab.

And for the random sighting of the day. Several people fighting with light sabers.

 

[Quietman]

Welcome Aboard...glad to have you on R2R.

Lovely pictures and a great idea setting up an old school tank with natural seawater and critters from the sea. Big deal to us in the midwest. I suppose everyone there just calls that an aquarium.

 

[426HEMI]

Welcome Aboard...glad to have you on R2R.

Lovely pictures and a great idea setting up an old school tank with natural seawater and critters from the sea. Big deal to us in the midwest. I suppose everyone there just calls that an aquarium.

Having lived in the midwest without a tank at all, I understand.

 

[Daddy-o]

Jealous of you living somewhere beautiful like Hawaii. We started reefing with natural salt water and found that seasonally the phosphates would go up to .5 do you anticipate issues with phosphates?
Cheers! Mark

 

[426HEMI]

Jealous of you living somewhere beautiful like Hawaii. We started reefing with natural salt water and found that seasonally the phosphates would go up to .5 do you anticipate issues with phosphates?
Cheers! Mark

I'm not testing at all so I won't know if they do. I'm doing 50%+ weekly water changes so I don't think it will be a problem. We will have to wait and see. I've not seen any runaway algae growth since the cycle thus far.

Which season did you notice the increase? How did you get your water?

 

[Daddy-o]

I'm not testing at all so I won't know if they do. I'm doing 50%+ weekly water changes so I don't think it will be a problem. We will have to wait and see. I've not seen any runaway algae growth since the cycle thus far.

Which season did you notice the increase? How did you get your water?

We got water from our LFS who was getting from a guy that pumped and filtered it. I dont recall an exact time of year.
Cheers! Mark

 

[426HEMI]

We got water from our LFS who was getting from a guy that pumped and filtered it. I dont recall an exact time of year.
Cheers! Mark

Ok thanks. Mine comes from about 2 miles off shore and has some additional filtering I think.

 

[BloopFish]

Hey, I don't really know anyone I could talk to about this, but this is something interesting I thought about when reading the laws for Hawaii in collecting marine life. If you know anyone at the DLNR or people who are in the business, it'd be nice to know their thoughts on this.

HAR 13-83 Prohibits the catching of, the possession of, and the sale of Trochus sp.

https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dar/files/2014/05/ch83.pdf

This is something I found odd, since this is a title that is still active and even cited by the DLNR, but every fish store in Oahu seems to sell Trochus snails for some reason - even though that should be illegal? Not to freak you out or anything - not many people seem to know this law?

 

[426HEMI]

Hey, I don't really know anyone I could talk to about this, but this is something interesting I thought about when reading the laws for Hawaii in collecting marine life. If you know anyone at the DLNR or people who are in the business, it'd be nice to know their thoughts on this.

HAR 13-83 Prohibits the catching of, the possession of, and the sale of Trochus sp.

https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dar/files/2014/05/ch83.pdf

This is something I found odd, since this is a title that is still active and even cited by the DLNR, but every fish store in Oahu seems to sell Trochus snails for some reason - even though that should be illegal? Not to freak you out or anything - not many people seem to know this law?

Didn't know that, thanks for the head up. I'd imagine the people that sell to the stores have the permit mentioned. I think you'd have to be doing something pretty egregious for DNR to actually do anything besides tell you to put it back. Unless they caught you with coral, I don't think they play around with that.

 

[426HEMI]

Went tide pool hunting again recently and got a couple things from a guy I know that works at the LFS. Only way to get coral, that I've found, is via fragging from others, no one is selling in the stores.

Little frag of GSP. He is mad now cause I had to reposition him again, the hermit crabs keep knocking him over. I have some glue on the way.

Nirvana Palys, I think they show the limitation of this particular light. May have to go with something better to get the real color to appear.

Little mushrooms.

One of the reasons the coral keeps getting knocked over.

Shell of the first Opihi I ate while we were out. Normally they are in far more dangerous locations, which is why they are so expensive, but found this one in an easy to reach spot. Pried him off, impossible to get off without a knife, and cut him up so my brother could try it as well. Crunchy and salty, really delicious.

The mantis shrimp isn't shy.

White lipped drupe

Little fella that I haven't 100% identified yet. Haven't seen him since I put him in the tank. He immediately went under the rocks.

Coral banded shrimp, surprisingly easy to catch.

Also had a snowflake eel in my hands, and saw a small moray. if I had a bigger tank I'd have brought one home. I freaking love having the ocean has my fish store, coolest thing ever.

 

[raketemensch]

Loving this thread. In high school we kept tanks in our marine biology class and would dragnet at the beach and keep anything interesting going for study -- now I live 1.5 hours from the shore and, of course, the stuff you find in Long Island Sound isn't quite as cool as what you find in a more tropical area like yours.

Keep us up to date on the finds, this is a really interesting read.

 

[BloopFish]

Went tide pool hunting again recently and got a couple things from a guy I know that works at the LFS. Only way to get coral, that I've found, is via fragging from others, no one is selling in the stores.

Little frag of GSP. He is mad now cause I had to reposition him again, the hermit crabs keep knocking him over. I have some glue on the way.

Nirvana Palys, I think they show the limitation of this particular light. May have to go with something better to get the real color to appear.

Little mushrooms.

One of the reasons the coral keeps getting knocked over.

Shell of the first Opihi I ate while we were out. Normally they are in far more dangerous locations, which is why they are so expensive, but found this one in an easy to reach spot. Pried him off, impossible to get off without a knife, and cut him up so my brother could try it as well. Crunchy and salty, really delicious.

The mantis shrimp isn't shy.

White lipped drupe

Little fella that I haven't 100% identified yet. Haven't seen him since I put him in the tank. He immediately went under the rocks.

Coral banded shrimp, surprisingly easy to catch.

Also had a snowflake eel in my hands, and saw a small moray. if I had a bigger tank I'd have brought one home. I freaking love having the ocean has my fish store, coolest thing ever.

The unidentified crab is a convex crab (Carpilius convexus). Zoas and palys are one thing, but heres my thoughts on the coral. I am highly aware there are aquarists in Hawaii that commit environmental crimes that are against the law. I have met people who have told me they keep corals that they illegally imported from the mainland. I have met people who have illegally collected live rock and corals. I don't have my Hawaii coral handbook on hand right now, but I am almost certain that green star polyps and mushroom corals (fungia exists in Hawaii though) are not native to Hawaii. Whoever you got it from has broken the law. Having possesion of these corals is breaking the law. I don't think its wise to post the corals or even keep them.

Mahalo

 

[raketemensch]

Wait, it's illegal for people in Hawaii to buy corals from the mainland?

Is that to protect from invasives?

 

[BloopFish]

Wait, it's illegal for people in Hawaii to buy corals from the mainland?

Is that to protect from invasives?

Yes, you cannot possess corals unless you have permits. You can't import live ornamental invertebrates in general (some things like blue crabs are an exception), let alone corals. The one exception seems to be zoanthids and palythoa for some reason, but I have some problem with that interpretation of that law. You also can not damage live rock or corals or even possess them. This means there is no way to collect corals without breaking the law (except apparently zoas and palys in some cases) because how would you collect the coral without damaging the live rock in some way - let alone the fact that possessing them is illegal.

 

[426HEMI]

Wait, it's illegal for people in Hawaii to buy corals from the mainland?

Is that to protect from invasives?

I haven't read any laws stating such, I just assumed. LFS folks say they can't sell any, and I was told that the aquarium's collection is made up of a bunch of seized corals.

Yes I assume that is the reason.

 

[426HEMI]

Yes, you cannot possess corals unless you have permits. You can't import live ornamental invertebrates in general (some things like blue crabs are an exception), let alone corals. The one exception seems to be zoanthids and palythoa for some reason, but I have some problem with that interpretation of that law. You also can not damage live rock or corals or even possess them. This means there is no way to collect corals without breaking the law (except apparently zoas and palys in some cases) because how would you collect the coral without damaging the live rock in some way - let alone the fact that possessing them is illegal.

Interesting about the zoos and palys. I know Shark's Cove has some nice green zool/paly in it. Is it an inadvertent omission or intentional?

 

[BloopFish]

Nowadays even collecting sand in large quantitis against the law unless its for cultural reasons.
Here is a link for more info:

Marine Invertebrates and Limu

Coral and Live Rocks Limu

dlnr.hawaii.gov

You can also look up HAR 13-95, HAR 13-91,HRS 171-58.5 and HRS 205A-44

Also a word of caution, being oblivious to the law cannot defend you in court. It is every person's responsibility to read about the laws of the ocean before entering it.

 

[426HEMI]

The unidentified crab is a convex crab (Carpilius convexus). Zoas and palys are one thing, but heres my thoughts on the coral. I am highly aware there are aquarists in Hawaii that commit environmental crimes that are against the law. I have met people who have told me they keep corals that they illegally imported from the mainland. I have met people who have illegally collected live rock and corals. I don't have my Hawaii coral handbook on hand right now, but I am almost certain that green star polyps and mushroom corals (fungia exists in Hawaii though) are not native to Hawaii. Whoever you got it from has broken the law. Having possesion of these corals is breaking the law. I don't think its wise to post the corals or even keep them.

Mahalo

Convex is what I thought, but wasn't able to confirm 100%. Keoki's site is simply invaluable for IDing critters around here.

Do you happen to have the relevant laws handy? What handbook do you use? I've been looking for one.

If they are illegal, I'll dispose (properly) of them.

 

[raketemensch]

That's interesting, what's the reasoning behind it?

 

[BloopFish]

Interesting about the zoos and palys. I know Shark's Cove has some nice green zool/paly in it. Is it an inadvertent omission or intentional?

I would ask directly with the DAR. I don't want to give someone advice on something to do if laws have changed since then. For example, the law on collection of sand and corals is pretty recent. You used to be able to collect 5 gallon buckets of them every day.
The reason there seems to be (don't take my word for it at all) the ability for people to take zoanthids and palys is because they are not considered hard corals or black corals. They are more like anemones if anything. The problem is that you would have to scrape off the zoanthids off the rock in order to collect them without illegally collecting the live rock - I personally would interpret the scraping as damaging live rock... but its hard to tell because you are seemingly allowed to slightly scrape rocks for opihi. Please do your own research before doing anything like this or you can be breaking a law unknowingly.

Also a big warning. Palytoxins are well known in the hobby, and people often say they are rare... this really isn't the case in Hawaii. The native Hawaiians would use palytoxin from zoanthids and palys in tidepools to tip their spears to use against their enemies. Do to this, I'd say its pretty risky.