Check out this cold marine reef tank

Love The Tank Mate. I'm also from NZ but up North in Tauranga. What kind of habitat do jewel anemones like? I'm not having much luck finding the,
There's lots of info on this thread....corallimorphs/jewels can only be found in areas of high water movement where there's plenty of nutrients passing through, usually on off-shore reefs or rocky outcrops....you'll need to dive/snorkel to look for them.If you're lucky in finding some, then they need to be in a very large volume tank,with very high water flow,and kept at 12-15 degrees with a chiller.....good luck!!
 
ColdMarine007,
Beautiful tank! I live, and dive, in southern California, and I've been running a 60 gallon tank with similar animals for about a year. I just discovered this thread, and I have a few questions for you, since your animals are doing so well. Tell me about feeding and filtration. I have a lot of strawberry anemone (corynactis californica). I want to know about feeding them. What, how often, and how much do you feed? From the thread it seems that you feed finely crushed flake food. How do you grind it up, just in your fingers? How do you keep it from being filtered out of your tank?

Filtration: what do you use, and how do you keep it from filtering (or skimming) the food out of the water as soon as you put it in? Do you use store bought live rock? I wanted to be able to return things I catch back to the ocean without having to worry about introducing non-native animals, so I can't use store bought live rock, and the local rock is not pourous, and does nothing for filtration. I have a big wet/dry filter, and a skimmer, because I have an octopus, which is a messy eater, and the wet/dry can handle the heavy bio load.
Good questions Chilly!
Southern Californian waters will be similar to ours...unfortunately no beautiful Catalona Gobies down here!
It has really been trial and error,after converting from tropical to temperate....I actually still use three of my Eheim wet/dry canister filters,even though a trickle is supposed to be the way to go. As well as the usual filter medium inside the Eheims I also always have several bags of Seachem Seagel within the canisters,and clean them every three months or so....they do a great job,and with me being away on business for periods of time I don't have to worry about overflow problems!
Since I don't have a sump I have a hang-on Red Sea turbo skimmer,that has been with me for years....actually does better on the temperate,with no salt clogging due to the lower temperatures....and a large 1 HP chiller.
I used to keep an octopus, but he was too destructive and went back to sea...trouble with occies is their waste...they need to feed well and produce far too much crud,which easily overloads the system.
As for the feeding I really do just use mostly dried food with a very occasional feed of blendered clams. The dried food is SF Bay plankton and also brine shrimp plus Wardley marine flake.I put them all in a blender which turns them into a powder which,when introduced into the water resembles marine snow....the jewels seem to thrive on it. I never turn the filters or skimmer off when I do this....because it's dry the skimmer never tries to suck it out,and the particles are so fine they just keep circulating which gives the thousands of jewels several goes at catching their food.( I do turn the skimmer off when the clams are introduced).
As for the rock situation,I simply put the jewel rocks straight into the tank....as I've said on a previous thread there's no die-off as the finds are in the tank not long after they're gathered....sounds as though you are able to do the same...I have supported some of my aquascaing with old corals that are light and easy to manipulate, to enable me to create the wall....jewels are now starting to encrust some of them.
That's about it really....I do think a bigger tank would be better.....mine is 200 gallons....especially with an octopus on board. One more thing...I have found a big difference since I've had the Vortech,with it's huge water flow....expensive but well worth it....hope this helps....any more questions do get in touch...
 
007,
thanks for the reply!

How much flake do you feed, and how often? And don't the Eheim's filter the food out of the water?

I asked Steve Weast (oregonreef.com) the same questions, and he said he has an automated feeder that feeds three times per day, and has an automated valve that diverts tank water around the sump/filters for 30 minutes each time the feeder feeds. I'd like to avoid the high-dollar solution if I can find a manual way to get the king of results you are getting.
 
007,
thanks for the reply!

How much flake do you feed, and how often? And don't the Eheim's filter the food out of the water?

I asked Steve Weast (oregonreef.com) the same questions, and he said he has an automated feeder that feeds three times per day, and has an automated valve that diverts tank water around the sump/filters for 30 minutes each time the feeder feeds. I'd like to avoid the high-dollar solution if I can find a manual way to get the king of results you are getting.
Hi chilly,
I feed 4 large pinches a couple of times a day....the Eheims probably suck some of this,but not enough to ever be a problem....the powder is very fine. I'm sure some will stick to the filter pads, but on my 3 monthly canister clean-ups the pads are seldom badly clogged....I was concerned when I started this system, but after 18 months with this routine in place the "proof of the pudding" is in the health of the tank as you can see from the pics.
 
Chilly....one important thing I forgot to mention is water quality....I do use natural seawater down here...crystal clear with no pollutants...lucky in that regard.... so the PH and salinity are exactly the same as the animals are used to in the wild....I'm sure this is a factor in the success of the tank. I do small water changes and never need to top-up with RO water as the evaporation levels are minimal....even with the open top tank.
 
Thanks mate. I got my dive cert, no gear as yet though so been snorkeling mostly. My tanks 150g and I got a 1/2hp chiller which should be all good seen as my tank is in the basement and the sump outside keeps it real cold, will collect NSW as well. Got 4 x 5000LPH pumps, and tunze nano and seio so alot of flow. Might take the seio out but ill see how it goes. Thanks your tanks real nice. MORE PICS!
 
I use natural sea water too. I've kept the strawberry anemone for 8 months, and they've thinned out a little. I think my problem is that I haven't been feeding nearly enough, and I've kept the water at 64 degrees F (18 C) which might be a little warm for the strawberry anemone. I've also increased flow recently, which should help. Thanks for your advice.
 
NEW PICS FROM COLDMARINE

Just a few more pics...a pinkstripe anemone....an unusual colouring on a lone corallimorph that has left it's colony and found an old shell....a starfish on the glass....a white sea urchin amongst the jewels, and a small colony of orange striped anemones.

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I once had the pleasure of studying the geology of a coral reef mound off of S. Ireland in a kilometer water depth. Check out the corals Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata for some really amazing coral. Corals in 2 degree C water!
 
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