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Cold water tanks


half-astronaut

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Has anyone tried to do an Oregon coast tide pool tank at home? Might be the only kind of tank you'd need a chiller for these days. 
Coldwater Marine Aquatics use to run an operation out of Oregon. They were the main supplier of those animals. I'm not sure what happened with all of that. I still see one of the previous owners Stu posting about Coldwater stuff from time to time on Facebook.

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Back when reef frontiers was a thing a couple of guys did this. I got to go see them and it was incredible. I have every intention of setting one up someday. The colors on those nems were amazing and their fuges were packed with mussels for filtration. Those guys were in Puyallup, WA but you can't collect those creatures here so they would go to Oregon to collect. Are you thinking of starting one? 

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I'd love to try it someday, though having a chiller run 24/7 is a bit much. 

I love the tanks at the Port Townsend Marine Center, but those are just plumbed into the sound. 
 

4 hours ago, xxkenny90xx said:

Back when reef frontiers was a thing a couple of guys did this. I got to go see them and it was incredible. I have every intention of setting one up someday. The colors on those nems were amazing and their fuges were packed with mussels for filtration. Those guys were in Puyallup, WA but you can't collect those creatures here so they would go to Oregon to collect. Are you thinking of starting one? 

 

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I've never heard of that place and I was up that way 2 weeks ago. Sigh, I'll check it out next time. I believe the seaside aquarium has a similar setup plumbed to the ocean. 

From what I've heard the main difference is that you need a chiller and you need glass (or better yet acrylic) that won't sweat when it's cold

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You likely wouldn’t even need to put that much effort for the oregon coast tide pool tank because it would likely do just fine in the 60s. Much of the species that live in the tidepools are subtropicals (with some temperate species).  It’s only when you start to think about doing some of the deeper water species that you’re really moving into cold water territory.

I’ve been able to keep some of the nems from the tide pools, collected responsibly, with minimal effort for a few months at a time without anything besides just an airstone and some top offs while being kept outdoors. Aside from the summer months, you could get by keeping them at room temperatures or perhaps preferably a little lower (if your room temp tends to be in the 60s like mine). Or just set out said tank in your garage for most of the year and only need to consider a chiller for about 3 months of the year. Though I’ve had success keeping some of the crabs in the 70s for a prolonged time (they escaped and were found dried up, unfortunately). 

It is worth noting however that the tide pool tank would likely not end up being that exciting considering the little fish in the tidepools predate upon the clonal anemones and the crabs obviously eat anything they can get their claws on.

Unfortunately my real goal was to see whether the clonal nems would do decently in our lower temperature reefs, but I didn’t have the courage or chance to introduce them into my reef. 
 

So all in all I’d say the whole idea ends up devolving into: do you want the fish, the crabs, or the nems? If you like the colors, like me, it ends up being the third option, in which case it’s still somewhat drab considering the lack of variety. And if you want to solve that you need to take the plunge and go full on coldwater with some of the deeper water nems that inhabit the oregon coast.

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