Hi Dale,
Thanks again for your input. A larger in line return pump with multiple returns makes sense. As for passive cooling, it's not going to work for me. This tank is going in my living room and I have radiant heating in the floor.
BTW I'd be careful with your sump on cement. I have worked a little with glass and I've been told that you should never have glass and cement in contact. Something about a chemical reaction between glass and cement that causes the glass to break. I think that any layer between them (maybe even paint) would eliminate this problem.
As for filtration, it seems that there are many schools of thought out there. Ive seen everything from aggresive skimming, treat it like fresh water and even "I've had mine running for years with an under gravel filter only". I geuss I'll just take it slow and keep an eye on things. I only live a few blocks from the water, so if I have to send anybody back home, it's not a big deal.

Hey Danny,maybe if a few of us in town here are interested enough,we can come up with a plan for finding livestock.

Woh I just say this thread now. You made a very good choice getting an insulated tank. When I had my tank running for just a short bit I had crazy amounts of condensation on the glass. Local tanks are truly better than the tropical ones.

Matt

I'll trade you a cooler full of cold water critters for a cooler full of frags!!!:mrgreen:

That is definatly not out of the question :biggrin: But it would have to get a chiller and proper tank first

Thanks for the sump tip KS, I'll look into that. My current sump is a rubbermaid while I build my drilled permanent one (for the inline return pump) so I'm good there for now.

As for filtration I can only say again that the best plan is to work backwards - the species will determine what is best. My first foray into collecting taught me that. I gathered some macro algae, hermits, snails, barnacles, clams and oysters. All went well for awhile then the snails began eating the macro, the hermits attacked the snails and the barnacles, clams and oysters began to die off and foul the tank. In retrospect, I don't think I could have kept a new set up dirty enough for those types of filter feeders.

My sober second attempt is going much slower but is much more satisfying. I am plumbing three tanks together to create a display, refugium and sump. I have about 70lb's of LR cured at cold temps now with another 80lb's or so on the way. At the moment the system is housing a school of redear sunfish (a local FW species). They are nice fish and allow me to see how the system will function before converting to SW.

The current tank temp in the garage without a chiller is 61*F (with a temporary submersible return pump). With the pump turned off it's 56*F :biggrin:

Dale quotes:
"At the moment the system is housing a school of redear sunfish (a local FW species). They are nice fish and allow me to see how the system will function before converting to SW."

I used to keep those when I lived over there. As well I had black crappies in the tank. Neat fish, easy to keep.
Shaun.

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Stupid question, how cold does a cold water tank have to be? My basement will keep standing water at 66F no problem. :wink:

In the winter the west coast of the island is about 9 degrees Celsius. 66 degrees Fahrenheit is about 19 degrees Celsius. It can be around 8-14ish degrees Celsius (46-59 degrees Fahrenheit) at the most or less. What ever you want. The ocean temperature doesn't really change temperature much during the seasons.

Matt

Depends on what you call cold water.

Conventional thinking is that subtidal species from our latitude will probably need temps with an upper limit of 55*F or so. You may get away with 66*F with some hardy intertidal/tidepool species as they are used to greater temp fluctuations (but they do get a regular drop of temps when the tide comes in) while some species like the three spine stickleback can take higher temps in the mid sixties. It all comes down to livestock selection.

I toyed with the idea of keeping a tank at higher temps (without a chiller) but by now I am convinced that one is needed to knock the temps below 60*F at least. In your case a small chiller combined with reduced heat inputs and evaporative cooling might be all that is needed.