Cold Marine Tank set up

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#1 Post by **seanyroche** » Sat Dec 11, 2010 11:24 am

Hi Not sure where to put this one. I would like to convert my Juwel Vision 180 Tropical aquarium into a cold saltwater one.

The intention is to use all local rocks, sand, plants, sea water and animals ect that you would find in rock pools then if I dont want somthing i can release it back.

I am finding it easy to get infomation on tropical marine but there seems to be very few people with cold salt water tanks.

from the few articals i have found some people around the UK have managed to set up such tanks without the need for chillers ect. this will be put in a cool room and rockpools by thier nature heat up and get fairly warm, so I guess that after millions of years of heating up and cooling down the plants and animals of rock pools should be fairly hardy.

What are the nesessary new parts i would need for such a set up. bearing in mind I want to keep it as simple as possible, I would prefer not to have a sump, skimmer and a chiller.

If anyone on here has a cold marine set up i would love to here about it.

Heres a web page I found that will show you the diversity of what can be found localy. http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/
Thanks Sean

#2 Post by **daminim** » Sat Dec 11, 2010 12:43 pm

Get in to dbrock from the forum here. He will be able to sort you out I'm sure. I think he owns a tropical fish shop..

Conor

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#3 Post by **croppyboy** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 6:19 am

dbrock will give you all the info u need Denis has his own shop

#4 Post by **chuckaroo** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 11:38 am

the only person i ever heard of who had/has a cold water aquairum was a woman called Julia Nunn who works for CEDaR up here in Belfast/Holywood. I have just met her briefly before and collected specimens for the aquarium, she's not necessarily a big 'friend' as such
you will find contact details for her by doin a google seach. Maybe she will advise you and maybe she wont, i dont know, but i am sure that she could be worth a try. nothing to loose. Good Luck!

#5 Post by **kevin o connor** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:27 pm

Why not contact the National Aquarium in Bray. They may be able to give you some advice. They would be the experts in keeping salt water fish.

#6 Post by **spiral** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:44 pm

The thing with the rock pools is that they heat up and cool down for a short period of time, then the tide comes in and the fish or invertebrates inside the pools can move off while the plants and rock get a good refreshing rush of nutrients.
I doubt very much if you will be able to place such a set up in even the coolest of rooms in the average house without the use of a chiller, also the main problem with cold water marine set ups is that you get condensation on the outside of your tank ruining your view, which defies the reason people keep aquariums. You'll probably have to use a skimmer too. I looked into the cold water marine tank idea before but settled on going for a warm water marine aquarium. I hope you find more information than I could and you get to set up such an aquarium.......if you manage it put up a few pics please

#7 Post by **Dave Jolly** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 11:24 pm

Joe byrne who fishes with e.f.s.a ireland has a saltwater aquarium, and is forever looking for weevers, poorcod etc etc for his, I will try get you a number.
Dave

#8 Post by **samo** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:56 pm

Go onto the irish fish keepers web page and there is a section on it.

#9 Post by **baitdigger** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 2:40 pm

You can get a chiller from a pub for next to nothing. I worked in the National Aquarium in Salthill for a few weeks last year and some of the smaller tanks there have chiller units on them. Your main problem would be, to see the fish you will need light and light gives off heat.
However they do have a few touch pools with fish in them, I suppose they are maintained by constant water changes and filtering.

#10 Post by **dbrock** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:23 pm

had one for a good few months then got bored and changed to a planted tank, turned out great ill try find some photos for you, i mainly used rock pool stuff as i found you can keep them without a chiller,
fed them some rag,lug, tiny bits of mussel,mac and sand eel, i used some of the sand from the local area but im sure you could use silver sand, did 20 to 40 percent water change once a week, the main problem i found was you could get a quick whiff of the sea as you walked into the room, herself wasnt impressed

if you have any specific questions pm me ill try answer on my own experience with it

after a water change

#11 Post by **dbrock** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:25 pm

sry for got to say i used a product called organic aqua,(salt water version)

http://www.organicaqua.com/freshwateraquariums

#12 Post by **wayne riley** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:05 am

Impressive set up ye had der denis

#13 Post by **seanyroche** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:58 am

dbrock wrote:had one for a good few months then got bored and changed to a planted tank, turned out great ill try find some photos for you, i mainly used rock pool stuff as i found you can keep them without a chiller,
fed them some rag,lug, tiny bits of mussel,mac and sand eel, i used some of the sand from the local area but im sure you could use silver sand, did 20 to 40 percent water change once a week, the main problem i found was you could get a quick whiff of the sea as you walked into the room, herself wasnt impressed

if you have any specific questions pm me ill try answer on my own experience with it

after a water change

Some color in your tank, looked the job. I Now have mine up and running so heres a video of the tank. thankfully there is no smell off mine and my girlfreind (who didnt want it) now sits looking at it cursing me

my two year old son loves it too.

cant wait to go to the beach and collect some new sea weeds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDuXn0j19oM

Sea Angling Ireland