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coldwater

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  1. [M] Cold water marine?
    by PLai/cup.portal.com (Patrick L Faith) (27 Apr 92)
  2. [M] Cold water marine?
    by PLai/cup.portal.com (Patrick L Faith) (Mon, 27 Apr 92)
  3. [M] MH and cold water. (was Cold water marine?)
    by rbrown/bbn.com (Ralph Brown) (28 Apr 1992)

[M] Cold water marine?

by PLai/cup.portal.com (Patrick L Faith)
Date: 27 Apr 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria


	Anyway, the author tells of a cold water marine aquaria that can be 
>maintained on a "shoe-string budget". The only filtration in the tank was a
>UGF. The livestock were collected from temperate regions and included gobies,
>shrimp, and an anemone. NO HEATING REQUIRED.

A inexpensive and perty temperate tank can be maintained between the
temperatures of 55 and 85 degrees, with an average temperate not more
than 75 degrees.  If you have a room that is within that temperature
region, then you can have a temperate tank with not much fuss - as the
author explained.

You need to be careful which temperate inverts you buy though, you basically
want to stay with "tide pool" inverts, like the aggregating anemone that
will breed and coat all your aquarium walls, or the giant green anemone.

One little note, instead of using an undergravel filter, I would use something
like a skilter 250 which can be mail ordered for 30 $ , or some other outside
power filter - its just such a hassle vacuming the tank.  The anemones wont
mind gravel thrown all over them though, since this happens every time the
waves come crashing over the tidepools - and they love all the scum that
floats around when you do clean your tank.
>He didn't have very much lighting for the anemone (two? flourescent strips).

I would recomen 1 watt per gallon in a small tank of 20 gallons, then
one 20 watt actinic day bulb (i.e. 50 % actinic, 50 widespectrum -
although you can probably get away with using any old light ) 

                              PLai (P.L.Faith)


[M] Cold water marine?

by PLai/cup.portal.com (Patrick L Faith)
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria

Ralf ! bless you !!! I have been debating if I should go
to higher wattage light for my new temperate reef tank ... and
your the first person I know of that has said they have put
metal halides on a temperate tank and have it do any good.
(oops for those that didn't read what ralf said here it is)

>I ran my 70 gal tank for several months with 2 40W primactinics. About 2 months
>ago I added a 175 Watt MH at one end of the tank. This has resulted in a
>tremendous growth of macro algae, mostly sea lettuce and sea fern with some
>dulse, although the dulse seems pretty happy at the shaded end also. I
>like the effect, although I'm not sure it won't get a bit out of hand.

Though this is off the path a bit ... could you explain a little more
in detail your setup ... lighting ... growth rates ... how did you
establish the macro algea ... do you think vho would do as good as
job .... I'm just about to buy my lighting setup for a 60x18  by 24 highth
tank ( around 125 gallons - has some edges shaved) and am debating on
putting in enough light to have macro algea grow ???

                              PLai

p.s. what do you think of putting two 24 inch vho lights of a temperate
tank ? i was thinking vho being cooller than MH and would be less 
expensive to run ??
    

In addition to local New England collecting, I've bought anemones from
California Reef (in FAMA) and would highly recommend them, nice people and
fair prices. Everything arrived in excellent condition.

Ralph


[M] MH and cold water. (was Cold water marine?)

by rbrown/bbn.com (Ralph Brown)
Date: 28 Apr 1992
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria

In article <58088-at-cup.portal.com>, PLai-at-cup.portal.com (Patrick L Faith) writes:
|> Though this is off the path a bit ... could you explain a little more
|> in detail your setup ... lighting ... growth rates ... how did you
|> establish the macro algea ... do you think vho would do as good as
|> job .... I'm just about to buy my lighting setup for a 60x18  by 24 highth
|> tank ( around 125 gallons - has some edges shaved) and am debating on
|> putting in enough light to have macro algea grow ???
|> 
|>                               PLai
|> 
|> p.s. what do you think of putting two 24 inch vho lights of a temperate
|> tank ? i was thinking vho being cooller than MH and would be less 
|> expensive to run ??

I have a 70 gal tank with 2 primeactinics, one down each side. The top
of the tank is open (13" wide) for viewing, the tank has a short end 
against a wall, so it's visible from both long sides and one short. The
MH is in a DYI hood, which is 10" long and 13" wide at the wall end 
of the tank, thus leaving most of the tank top open. The reflector is 
set up to spray light about 2/3 of the way down the length of the tank.
This light gradient allows putting light loving stuff (a giant green 
anemone and some aggregating anemones) there, and creatures that like
lower lighting at the other.

When I first started using MH I also used Coralife macro algae nutrient
and iron, 3 Tsp per week each. I stopped using it after 5 weeks because
I don't want the tank to fill up with sea lettuce. I may start running
the MH fewer hours per day for the same reason.

I had had a little dulse growing about 1/2" long and a couple of tiny
pieces of sea lettuce and a little green hair (not the red/brown hair
seen in tropical tanks). About 3 weeks after starting the MH 14 hours per
day there was a lot of micro algae everywhere and the sea lettuce in
particular started expanding. Over the next 4 weeks the micro algae has
subsided and the macro algae taken off! I have one piece of sea lettuce
over 2 feet long, several 6"x6" patches 8" long, about 4 areas of dense
sea fern 3-4" long. The green hair has expanded but is only about 2" long
whereas under just the primeactinics it was thinner but 5-6" long.

My seeding technique was very simple, I just gathered stone from tide
pools last Sept. It had no visible macro algae on it when gathered, 
evidently the sea weed has been biding its time waiting
for some light and nutrients.

I wouldn't be suprised if the vho would work, however, since I'm
interested in the aesthetics of the tank, I must say that the MH
lighting is really beautiful and dramatic. By having the light all
at one end, there is a strong backlighting effect and the concentrated
source gives nice glitter lines on the bottom and reflected onto the
room ceiling. The long strands of sea lettuce in particular are a 
translucent electric green and waving in the current look like some
sort of computer animation. The flat lighting of a area source like
fluorescents doesn't give this sort of effect.

I run the tank at 15-16C, change 20% per month, and use RO water to 
make up evaporative losses which also requires use of about 1tsp per
week of marine buffer.

Ralph


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