reef165's coldwater build

[reef165]

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG4892.jpg

[reef165]

ok so now i know how to add the big pics.
i did allot of reading on steves coldwater tanks on the other groups he's got threads on and have took his experiance and knowlage to help with my settup and husbendery.
for my build, i was hopeing to be able to use my old tropical tank so i built myself a 10gal tank outof 1/2 inch acrylic and filled it with ice and water. The outside temp was 72 deg and the water temp was 31deg, a 41deg diff and no condensation so i thought my tank will be fine.
next since after reading abought the difficulty of nitrate export and the help of a sulfer reactor, i built one out of my old DYI cal. reactor. Hence the first pic above.

[reef165]

second, i decided on a closed loop with a snapper.http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG4916.jpg

then once the plumbing was compleat was the testing.http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG4915.jpg

final look ta closed loop after the insulation of the non view sides.http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG4920.jpg

[reef165]

ok, so i may resize the pics a little smaller.

[impur]

Looks good keep em coming!

[reef165]

Ok, so after i got the plumbing in tact i pushed the tank to the corner in the garage and moved on to the sump. I had to wrap the sump with 1 inch ridged foam because it is only made of 3/8 acrylichttp://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG4919.jpg

then i added a 5gal bucket of peagravel sized crushed coral and then two buckets of #0 crushed coral.http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG4950.jpg

[reef165]

heres what the skimmer looked like after skimming one day after adding the crushed coralhttp://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG4952.jpg

[reef165]

i do realize that the skimmer is small for a coldwater tank but i plan on adding a second one next to the one ive got.

[reef165]

next came the chiller, a 1/2 HP aquachillhttp://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG5681.jpg

i also added abought 5gal of bio-balls to the corner overflows to aid in filtration

[siskiou]

Cool! :)

Looks like a very nice set-up!
What are you planning on keeping in it?

[reef165]

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG5077.jpg we went collecting 2 weeks ago and got some starfish, rock that had some small anemones on them, snails, hermit crabs, a couple small sea apple looking things that came on the tuffs of musscles we got.http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG5075.jpg
the starfish have made short work of the musscles.http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG5075.jpg

[reef165]

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG5078.jpg
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG5079.jpg
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb121/reef165/CIMG5073.jpg

[reef165]

ok now for the sad part, the union i work for went on strike as of friday morning and its looking bad and all this may end up for sale by the end of the week.

[steveweast]

Well...it looks like you're off to a good start. Last week, I went collecting and finally brought back some VERY clean pea sized gravel from a turbulent area just off shore.....it looks very natural because...well...it is natural. You might consider changing to something like it one day if you're going for that native biotope look. I also picked up these cool, very bright, purple stars. These stars...like the kind that you have... are so great. They're so easy to feed....just throw in a few live clams from the Asian market (or better yet, bring back some free scallops or oysters from a dive) and the stars will just feed themselves over several months without spoiling food fouling the tank.

Good luck on your new system....and I hope the strike doesn't finish your system before it really has a chance to get going.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/steveweast/bluestar1.jpg

[reef165]

thankyou steve, yes the starfish you mentioned are cool, it took abought 3 days before they started eating but theyve realy torn into the muscles i got for them, then once there done the hermit crabs take over and get whatevers left.
I wouldnt mind getting some gravel to go over what ive got but im not a diver, but would love to tagalong on one of your dives to be able to get a few things. I know weve talked abought it on the coldwater group.

[steveweast]

One thing that you might consider...this time of the year at the full moon...the low tides are the lowest of the year. Last week....when we were diving at low tide.....you could have walked along the shore and picked up dozens of stars, crabs, fish, anemones, snails, coralline covered rock, etc......I mean....there were sections of ocean floor that I usually only see while diving. It was quite astonishing..... and that's how I got my purple stars. A good quality sand was also easily gotten too. Just check the tide tables online and look for something like a neg 1.5 or so....find a good spot....and bring lots of buckets.

[reef165]

I wish the pic's were still here! Trying to find pic's of my old tank to show the GF.

[jgf86123]

it looks like your photobucket acct is innactive, maybe if you reactivate the pics will show up

[reef165]

Yay I didnt think I had a photo bucket but I went and looked and sure enouph it was there! I did the cold water after I had to sell off all my collonies of sps and live rock to save my wifes (ex now) car. tank was 65 X 30 X 20 I miss it!!!!

[nwcoralfarm]

Steve

Just curious but how does one go about finding out the local laws on collecting such specimens?

[RLaForce]

I was wondering the same thing. I was under the impression that you couldn't harvest anything. I have friends that live over at the coast and I was talking to them about doing a cold water and just diving with them, and they told me that you can't harvest around here. I know people do it, but I don't think I have the guts to do it and knowing my luck I would get caught!

[reef165]

He got most of his things in the Puget sound area, When I was getting into it I found allot about Oregon by googling. There are quite a few protected areas of the Oregon coast but ya can find places to collect, I don't think I had to but I had gotten my shellfish and fishing licence just in case.

[nwcoralfarm]

Probably a good idea:)

[RLaForce]

Always loved the idea of doing a cold water tank. I think that will be my next tank when I have $$ and time to do it right!

[steveweast]

Steve

Just curious but how does one go about finding out the local laws on collecting such specimens?

Here are the Oregon rules....just scroll towards the bottom.....and stay out of reserves.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/MRP/shellfish/regulations.asp


Here are the Washington rules.....again, scroll towards the bottom. The rules are similar to Oregon. In either state, you don't need a license to collect most of the items that we're interested in.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/crabreg/otherspeciesregs.shtml

[RLaForce]

Here are the Oregon rules....just scroll towards the bottom.....and stay out of reserves.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/MRP/shellfish/regulations.asp


Here are the Washington rules.....again, scroll towards the bottom. The rules are similar to Oregon. In either state, you don't need a license to collect most of the items that we're interested in.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/crabreg/otherspeciesregs.shtml

Thanks for the info!