cold water reef pics

[steveweast]

I've been playing around with a cold water reef for the last 10 months....and I thought that I would show you all a few progress pics. I actually have two small cold water tanks.... one is about 120 gals and the other is about 40 gals. The tanks, and their common sump, are made from 1" thick acrylic to prevent sweating. The only equipment is a single seq 3000 gph return pump, a Deltec 701 skimmer, a PCI 1/2 hp chiller. Lighting is from a few T5's.

These tanks have been the easiest tanks to maintain that I've ever had. Minimal algae growth from the low lights.....no Ca additions required.....minimal power draw since, again, low lights (the chiller is the main draw).....and no fish disease. I keep the temperature between 58 - 60 F. These tanks are by no means finished....I'm still trying to locate a few specimens....especially strawberry anemones.....but, it's coming along.

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My male Shaws boxfish.....

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My male white bar boxfish......

my blue devil.....

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[Anonymous]

Looks nice steve. Have you considerd a second chiller for this system? It seems with the lower temps it would be the one piece of gear you would want a back up for.

 

[Anonymous]

AWESOME...

How do you obtain cold water species? Your tank is one of the few I have ever seen - and the colors are great.

 

[steveweast]

I do keep a spare chiller on hand just in case. Actually, since there are so few heat imputs (no strong lighting) and with the 1" thick acrylic, the chiller cycles about 20 minutes "ON" and 60 -90 minutes "OFF". My warm water reef's chiller actually works harder with all its halides.

Cold water stock is hard to come by....unless you live near a coast (like I do). Most of my stock came from a cold water collection/wholesale outfit in Tasmania that will ship to the geneal public. They usually deal with public aquariums.....I think that I was their first hobbiest. I have also seen cold water animals come through the warm water trade....like catalina gobies. I've seen my boxfish on warm water retail sites....but, they seem to forget to mention that they are cold animals.

 

[Anonymous]

Do you have this gear in your warm water tank gear room? Is this tank in the same room as you big tank? Love you big tank BTW.

 

[spawner]

Really nice tank. What are you feeding your inverts?

 

[steveweast]

Yes, The tanks are in my equipment room of my main system. Awhile back, I decided to turn my main tank's refugium into a coldwater system.....and when I changed over to a Deltec skimmer for the main tank, that also freed up some space for a second smaller coldwater tank. These are really just play tanks to see how well coldwater tanks perform.....some day, I might set a real display.

I use a variety of foods of different sizes ranging from cyclopese to krill. There are no filter feeders in the tank.

 

[Len]

Steve, all i can say is INCREDIBLE!

 

[NKT]

Very unique tank! It's nice to see something so different from what we're used to seeing... All I can say is those boxfish are AMAZING... I shudder to think what kind of price those fish would command, retail... Great stuff!

 

[tinyreef]

stunningly beautiful! 8)

 

[liquid]

This ought to be a Featured Aquarium in AAOLM...

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

Love the boxfish. Do the anemones need direct feeding, or are they fine with the light levels you have there?

Very cool to see something different being done. Figures that it'd be by someone who's already done so well on the conventional reef side (if your mammoth tank could be called "conventional"!).

 

[steveweast]

Everything needs to be hand fed.....the light is just for my viewing pleasure. I don't keep anything that needs a food particle size that is smaller than cyclopseze.

 

[Anonymous]

Definite Tank of the Month Candidate.

Awesome!

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Steve, you definitely have a blue thumb.

Coldwater reefs have been a pet idea of mine ever since keeping new england species, but I've never gotten it off the ground. Nice to see such a great job with it. I think if US pacific anemones were available for retail there would be a nice business with these kinds of reefs.

I would like to see your tank profiled in greater detail also!

 

[Unarce]

Amazing tank, Steve 8O Looks like you might pioneer a new trend in reefkeeping. Thank you so much for sharing!

How's the OT doing now. Getting a frag of that is still on my to do list :?

 

[Anonymous]

Well done, Steve...just beautiful!!

 

[eukaryote]

That is stunning! I've always been interested in cold-water aquaria and it's exciting to see someone actually do one.

 

[Anonymous]

Steve,
Where are you located? Strawberry anemones should be fairly easy to buy, or collect if you are near here.

 

[Anonymous]

He's in the state above us Matt I think he's coverred on the S.A. tip now