Puget Sound Biotope

eatyourpeas · Feb 26, 2021

Silver Dollar said:
This is a really good start! I am a big fan of macro algae and its a big challange.
If I'm allowed to come with some of my experience I would say that lighting is one of the key ingredients. My previous 200 litre tank had 4 pieces of T5HO 54W. Go for daylight (about 6300K). Do not use lighting for tropical aquariums.

You have to dose some nutrition on a weekly basis:
Iron and iodine

The weekly water changes are important to maintain the level of potassium, manganese and other trace elements. Start with 20% and increase if you need to.

When you have so much light regular hair algae starts to grow in a alarming level, so if there are some algae eaters in Pudget sound - Go and find them.
If that doesn't help, you need to have hard laminar water flow that shifts direction often (every 30 seconds). When I say hard I mean storm.

Some of the macro algae makes the water yellow and it can lower the pH. Ozone can help. Activated carbon will not help in my opinion.

I dont want to spook you, but its a challenge to keep macro algae. But the reward when it grows is fantastic! Dont forget to post more pictures and your progress.
Good luck and enjoy this fantastic hobby!

(Sorry for my bad English, Im from Sweden)

Thank you! There is a lot of wonderful inspiration here. Lots of studying and budgeting to do. Very exciting!

eatyourpeas · Apr 15, 2021

A little window into my test tank to see how the marine life fares. This little guy has been running now for two months.

eatyourpeas · Apr 23, 2021

So, the clam and I seem to have this redecorating conflict. He is determined to rearrange the tank, and I am going to let him win, of course. In the process of assessing his nightly work, I came across this guy who I did not even know existed in the tank.

I believe it to be an Abarenicola pacifica, and will leave it in the tank for now. Needless to say, it brought back the story of the worm in @steveweast tank.

So far, I have been following most suggestions when sourcing the marine life myself, and it has been quite a fun and learning experience. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and great advice.

The next step is to build the tank. 1" thick cast acrylic, and after much deliberation, about 30 gallons. I have space limitations that are not negotiable, so need to work within those constraints.

The test tank today:

I will post a list of inhabitants in a later entry.

eatyourpeas · Apr 23, 2021

@steveweast , quick question? Did you have the tank pressurized? How did you bring the deep creatures?

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Apr 23, 2021

The creatures really arent that deep here. Sorry if i missed and she has some deepwater creatures. Lol
Man. After my reef tank im really wanting to do a 1"+ thick acrylic local biotope. Love it! Great tank. Keep at it!
D

eatyourpeas · Apr 23, 2021

monkeyCmonkeyDo said:
The creatures really arent that deep here. Sorry if i missed and she has some deepwater creatures. Lol
Man. After my reef tank im really wanting to do a 1"+ thick acrylic local biotope. Love it! Great tank. Keep at it!
D

Not yet. So far I am staying intertidal because I am using this tank to learn. I am new to SW, so if I am going to make stupid mistakes, they better be on the test run.
Thank you for the compliment!

steveweast · Apr 23, 2021

eatyourpeas said:
@steveweast , quick question? Did you have the tank pressurized? How did you bring the deep creatures?

Nothing that I kept was deep enough to warrant decompression. The deepest that I collected from was about 120ft. Most of the stock was from 40-60ft.

steveweast · Apr 23, 2021

Before getting too far into the next system, you might want to go through a summer to see if chilling the system to a proper temp is something that works for you on a long term basis.

Lowell Lemon · Apr 23, 2021

@steveweast are you the previous owner of the orchard near Sherwood that had the Leafy Sea dragons back in the 90's? Was it Pacific Aquarium Supply? Memory is a little challenged these days.

steveweast · Apr 23, 2021

Not me....I believe that it might have been Steve from Pacific Coast Aquariums. I haven’t talked to him in years....but know that he was into temperate tanks and livestock.

I remember his telling me about how he would go down to Port Orford and got the sea urchins farmers to bring him back rocks covered in corynactus. I guess that there are pinnacles off shore where there is all kinds of livestock that we would be interested keeping. Unfortunately, when I was looking for stock, the local urchin farming no longer existed and moved up to Alaska.

Lowell Lemon · Apr 23, 2021

steveweast said:
Not me....I believe that it might have been Steve from Pacific Coast Aquariums. I haven’t talked to him in years....but know that he was into temperate tanks and livestock.

I remember his telling me about how he would go down to Port Orford and got the sea urchins farmers to bring him back rocks covered in corynactus. I guess that there are pinnacles off shore where there is all kinds of livestock that we would be interested keeping. Unfortunately, when I was looking for stock, the local urchin farming no longer existed and moved up to Alaska.

Seems like his name was Weeks....love the video of your tank and nice to meet you! He had a permit to collect for several years but just lost touch with him over the years and a change to a new industry.

eatyourpeas · Apr 24, 2021

steveweast said:
Before getting too far into the next system, you might want to go through a summer to see if chilling the system to a proper temp is something that works for you on a long term basis.

Thank you! Yes, it is very easy to get impatient and do everything fast. This little tank is already so full of surprises and I am learning a lot. The ability to keep the tank to temperature is my biggest concern. I know our house can get to 80F in the Summer if the outside temperature is 90s or above.

steveweast said:
Nothing that I kept was deep enough to warrant decompression. The deepest that I collected from was about 120ft. Most of the stock was from 40-60ft.

Good to know. Thank you