cold saltwater?

ongoing search temperate marine livestock

There is a supplier of temperate marine aquarium livestock in your neighborhood: www.gulfofme.com does collect some stuff that you wouldn't have access to without some pretty intensive diving or footwork in the local fishing community. However, you have to pull some arms to get any retail pricing on individual items from them, as they deal primarily in "educational supplies" and really push their "kits." www.foreshores.net which operates in the Pacific Northwest will apparently have a full retail list available next month. www.aquaticbiodiversitygroup.com offers some really, really cool coldwater species from Tasmania, but they too do not have a price list, and (I think) acquiring their stuff might involve some customs issues.
Does anyone out there know of any collectors operating out of South Africa or Northern Europe?
If you, bethkira2000, are still looking into learning more about what can be done with a termperate marine set-up, you will find some inspiration in Steve Weast's latest efforts. If you have yet to find some of his older postings, you should check out his new site at www.oregonreef.com
 
That depends... the critters you speak of (at least the Alaskan king) are arctic, rather than temperate, and would require a seriously powerful chiller. I think Marineland makes complete commercial units (tank, chiller, filter, lights) for that if you have the big bucks. For anything south of Puget Sound on the West coast or the Gulf of Maine on the East coast, a typical (properly sized, which means somewhat oversized) aquarium chiller would likely suffice. If your purpose is to observe these guys for some short time before they end up on your plate, little or no filtration is necessary (though circulation is), provided you are not feeding them. For long-term purposes you will need a filter, and a good one at that, for two reasons: 1) It's true that these creatures are scavengers, but they are very messy eaters, and 2) especially the large crabs come with a variety of arguably just as interesting creatures (sponges, barnacles, tube worms, etc.) that will require highly-fouling particulate foods, should you decide to keep them as well.
If you acquire an Alaska king, handle it with care... they just slow enough for you to let your guard down. They are unbelievably strong, and could easily injure your hands if given the opportunity.
Hope that helps...
 
what do you mean by needing circulation and not filtration, i plan on keeping these critters for maybe a week max then eating them, but i want to have them live so when i do want to eat them i can just reach in the tank, i plan on putting all different crabs in there together, king crab, dungeness crab, and lobsters. do you think a 100 gallon tank will suffice? I just need something really simple not sophisticated or top of the line
 
Well... if you are going to EAT your livestock, you likely won't have to feed it (unless you're "fattening it up"). Therefore you will have less need to implement filtration (ie. waste removal). HOWEVER, to satisfy the high dissolved oxygen demand of your temperate (or polar?) critters, you will need vigorous circulation. This requirement will be best satisfied by the installation of an external (rather than internal, or "submersible") pump, as it will add less heat to your system. You will need to install a chilling unit, which will run about 700 bucks for the size tank and "pull-down" you speak of. Make sure the unit you choose is for coldwater applications (not merely for cooling highly illuminated tropical tanks) and get the next size up, as it will quickly overheat and die if run continuously. Keep a lookout for good sales after the holidays, or watch ebay (but expect ferocious last-second bids). If you set this up in such a way that you can also keep other (nonfood-item!) critters around, it could be an interesting and rather unusual aquarium. Best of luck...
 
Hi I'm running a coldwater tank (1000l) from the north east Atlantic (Norway). Have a blog here:

http://www.jonolavsakvarium.com/blog/index.html

One of the problems with these tanks is that people don't know what size of chiller they need. You may think that the chiller needs to be enormous, but it doesn't. It is of course an advantage if the chiller is made specially for coldwater. Like these AquaLogic Delta Star Research Chillers 40°- 80°F. But it doesn't have to be. In my current tank I am using i 1/4 HP chiller. The tank has a water content of abou 180 gals. Now, since it is December there are no lights on (I don't have weak enough lights so I have to keep them off, only on for a few hours in weekends). The temp is 7C (45F). The chiller runs continously. So obviously it is too weak, still with the 1/3 HP I have ordered now I assume it will be able to keep the temp at 5C (41F) most winter without help from the 1/4 HP. I should have a 1/2 HP chiller. That would make it possible for me to keep the temp at 4C with any amount of light with only one chiller. But getting these things in my country is an issue all by itself. Remember, this is a big tank with sump, heavy circulation and everything.

Sweating is another thing. Sure that gets to be a problem when the temp goes below 10C (50F) but not before. The chiller dries the room it stands in. The relative moisture in my living room is below 30%.

Also if you want double glass that is the simplest thing in the world. You don't buy that you make it. Call you local glass dealer, the guys that change broken windows, and ask them to cut you a 4mm sheet the size of the front of the tank. Put some desiccant behind it then fix it to the front of the tank with a spacer and some removable window proofing stuff, that I just don't know the english name of now, and you are done. Take it off again in spring. You can glue it to the tank too, but then you can't take it off for cleaning later. The sides that are not viewed through can be insulated with styrofoam.
 
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bethkira2000 said:
Thanx everyone all the links have helped me. As far as diving, only very rarely, I live in Maine so I haven't the skin, or the nerve to dive. I do love tidepools, and spend huge amounts of time looking in them. I found a tidepool once with three eels in it. That is when I was bit by the bug. And I have been researching cold water tanks ever since.
Click to expand...

This is the way most of cold-tanks keepers started:)
here's my cold water mediterranean tank:

http://www.aiam.info/public/forum/viewtopic.php?p=20826#20826

temperature is about 62-66F following seasonal cycle; among mediterranean aquaria we can move among different environments and temperatures between 55 and 75F. I have friends in southern Italy keeping their tanks at 56F with a summer temperature till 106; we usually set chillers outdoors (balconies, terraces and so on), so in winter we can take advantage from external temperature, in summer we don't produce heath by chiller in the room (and our wives don't listen to the noise :grinyes:). The most important things are to wrap by styrofoam and similar the bottom and the back of the tank and the whole sump, to close the top of both the tank and the sump, and to wrap all the tubes.
ciao

Stefano

www.aiam.info
 
Wow, Mediterranean stuff, finally! Can't get your pics from this link, but would really like to check them out... could you add some as attachments?
Thanks...
 
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