Cold Water Reef Plan

[justinl]

yeah pretty much same equipment minus the chiller and acrylic or insulated tank. remember you save on lights and livestock as well if you collect wild.

[Dale]

If I could offer any insight at all it would be to determine what livestock you intend to keep and work backwards from that. If you are mixing species it gets very complicated very fast. A specific filtration system might service some species well while causing certain death for others. Dirty tank - clean tank??? Depends what you keep.
A related point to really consider as well is food sources. Unlike many tropical species that have commercial foods available to them, coldwater species are probably going to require live foods whether it be zoo plankton, phytoplankton or micro fauna. It may get pretty expensive to repetitively dose and skim your water column.
Also, where do you intend to keep the tank? If you set it up in an unfinished basement (or garage like I did) you could take advantage of the passive cooling offered by the cement slab floor. My sump sits directly on the slab and it pulls the temps down. If you go that route the insulated cooler/sump would be a detriment.
You can also reduce heat input by using a drilled sump and a larger inline return pump (not submersible). Tee lines off of the return to create more flow in the display thus eliminating intank powerheads that will add heat to the system. I eliminated about 5*F by doing this.

Just some thoughts to keep the ball rolling.

[justinl]

just to add to the livestock question: since most coldwater tank owners will be collecting their livestock wild, it is hard to work backwards from something you can't really predict by species. instead think about WHERE (deep? shallow? intertidal?) you're collecting from and what general creatures you want (coral? fish? inverts?).

Dale has a point that all these creatures have different requirements that you may not be able to meet, so it would be best to research GENERALLY before diving and know what you might enncounter when collecting. That way you can pick and choose what you want without too much worry about its needs.

[danny zubot]

Wow, after browsing "Steve's" pics on RC its like a whole new world full of alien creatures. We get so used to seeing the typical Reef aquarium creatures that we can become numb to their beauty. Seeing these new fish and inverts makes me wonder if a cold water tank is in my future. I'll be watching the progress made here.

Danny

[Knobsmith]

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.

[Quagmire]

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

[Coldwater]

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

[fishmaster]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

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

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