Temperate Marine Aquarium

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filby

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Jun 16, 2004
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Hi


Im just in the process of starting up a Temperate marine aquarium which I will stock from local waters (being a scuba diver and all..). The water here is around 16deg celcius (60degf) as an average and goes down to 10 (50degf) and up to 20 (68degf). Obviously cooling is an issue but hopefully got that sorted. Im going to have a hell of a lot of questions over the next months and years. Just quickly though,

Will live rock live in temperate waters?

What do nudibranchs eat?

What is the conversion to temperate waters for specific gravity ?(most of the hydrometers are setup for 25deg C (77deg F))

There will be more to come :)

Cheers,

Fil
 
In general keep any SW aquarium at 78deg F as it will pout less stress on fish and inverts. If its only fish and inverts from that area it should be fine, although 60deg F is still rather cold for most fish species.

Nudibranches eat sponges mostly, usually rare sponges, although few will eat other types of food. If its a sea slug that likes sponges, it will ONLY eat that one type of sponge and nothing else, making most a poor choice for any aquarium.


Not sure aout salinity as most SW aquariums are at 78deg F.


You might also have to check if there are any laws or regulations about taking marine organisms out of the habitat.
 
The thing is none of the fish that I will be getting from my local area (South Australia..we're pretty close to the antarctic) will not live in 78degree water! They live in COLD water not tropical water temps. Hence also for the need for a chiller in summer months where we have up to 115 deg f days. Taking from local waters isnt a problem as long as you observe size and bag limits and dont take from tidal areas.
Thanks for the info on nudibranchs. Have heard about them before only eating specific sponges, just wanted to clarify.

And yes literally, i went for a dive last night and it is only 13 degrees celcius (55deg f) in the water and the fish are looking very fiesty and happy. And yes its bloody cold....
 
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Next question:

Can I cycle just with live sand? Do i even need live sand to cycle? (sorry probably a very newb question)

Cheers
 
you'll need some sort of life or bactiera in there to cycle it.
 
In the situation you are talking about, can you legally take your live sand or at least some rock when you scuba as well? That should get you the bacteria and maybe some detrivores natural to your chosen environment and temperature...

I think there are books out there about cold water tanks, but it seems to be less well explored. Here is what wetwebmedia says:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/cold.htm

It isn't much, but they list some cold water books.
 
l live rock live in temperate waters? Yes. The bacteria will live, but they reproduce much slower, so you will want to stock very gradually and lightly. Otherwise, a spike could easily wipe out the fish an inverts.

t do nudibranchs eat? Depends on the species. Most are obligate feeders, which means they consume just one thing--could be a specific sponge, or coral. They are not great animals for an aquarium specifically for this reason.

What is the conversion to temperate waters for specific gravity ?(most of the hydrometers are setup for 25deg C (77deg F)) I would not bother with this--get a good refractometer that can be calibrated for your temperature. Too risky, otherwise.
 
OK. Thanks everyone so far.

Hmm..live rock that i have seen in stores tends to be very porous whereas I dont see much of that type of rock locally in the water. The local rock tends to be more like granite than anything else. Would this still suffice for introduction of bacteria as they are generally covered in life? Or would it be better just to use local live sand? Also would the addition of products like "Cycle" that have live bacteria ready to go, be a good addition also?


BTW Thanks for that link, very informative, but I really cant find any of those books even on amazon.... know a place that would stock that kind of book?
 
I looked it up and they are magazines:

AFM is Aquarium Fish Monthly

FAMA is Freshwater and Marine Aquarium magazine

I'm guessing that most of the other ones are magazines with issue numbers/dates. Searching for the magazine instead of the article name may yield some results.

The wetwebmedia FAQ includes several email conversations Bob Fenner had about coldwater setups:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/coldsysf.htm
 
The non-porous rock will work to introduce bacteria, but won't provide as much surface area for the bacteria to colonize. I'd probably use some of the rock you can harvest, but have the bulk of the rock in the tank be porous, dry, base rock. The bacteria will happily colonize this rock, providing you with much more biological filtration than you'd get with an equivalent weight of granite.
 
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