Me and my boy have decided to set up a cold water marine tank. We already have the tank and it measures 2ft 6in long 2ft deep and 1ft wide. We also have and udergravel filter that will be powered by a power head pump (Marine usable). We also have a lamp but we need to build the lid portion of the tank.

Living were we do, we cannot pop down to a local aquarium shop to ask for advice but we do have easy access to sea water and creatures.

Does anyone know of a good website on cold water marine setups?

Any other advice welcome.

Bob

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From what I've read, the hardest part of setting up a coldwater marine tank is keeping it cold enough. I don't think the heater/stat on my freshwater tropical tank ever switches on, because the heat from the light, the pump and from the room is enough to keep it warm. Keeping water at 50 degrees in a room at 70 degrees requires some sort of chiller.

You have never lived in Orkney then, Colin ;-)

Being serious, I have seen this mentioned before. We do have central heating but the room the tank is going in is a bedroom (Heating on as background to take the chill off)with a north facing window so I doubt it will ever get above 60 degrees even in summer.

What I want to know is what water to use. Initally I will fill it up with sea water and I can easily nip across the road for more, for water changes but I am worried about evaperation as I believe the salts don't evaporate so should I use fresh water for topping up?

I would imagine this tank supporting locally sourced creatures such as a small Lobster (Who will get eaten if he gets to big), Some hermit crabs and stuff like mussels and whelks I doubt if it will have any fish in it unless a friendly Scorpian fish comes up in creel.

Bob

Hiya Bob,

I have a 350l Native marine setup in the living room. Have a look at my site (www.catchalot.co.uk) and click on Native marine.

As for the chiller, you only need that if you want to keep stuff from below the low water mark.

You will need a hydrometre for measuring the salinity.

With a sump tank you will cut your problems by 90%. Two tanks of the same volume one above the other will assist with maintaining a low water temperature, and it is far easier to balance the salinity of the water making all adjustments in the bottom tank.

I have a 6 foot by 2.5 foot by 2.5 foot brittish marine tank. I keep bass, eels and blennies.
I got my water from the estuary. I use an external flu val canister filter, but also have one undergravel filter tray at one end with two power heads to give a little current.
My farther had a 5 foot tank with just under gravel filters with power heads, he kept bass with no problems, just dont ever over feed them.
I lost one tank of 3 bass due to dropping a live lighting balest in the tank. So be carefull.
Ive never had to control the temp as its in a cool room. I have heard beer coolers work.

you could have a look here. loads of stuff about basic rockpool aquariums

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/wetthumb.htm

I understand a lid may help slow evaporation???. Do you have problems with algae sam? I also understand you should aim for partial water changes of about 25% every 2-3 weeks.

You can replace evaporated water with fresh water with added tap water dechlorinator. You could buy enough dechlorinator to last 2 or 3 years for a couple of quid off ebay.

You will also need to understand the cycling process, ( This site gives an easy to understand description : http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/cycling.shtml )
before adding fish although you may get away with a few crabs at the start as they are pretty hardy.

Good luck and hope you enjoy setting it up.

Davy Holt... the link from the above does not seem to work. Did you know

Not the one above... he beat me to it. I meant the glaucus one.

[ 17. August 2005, 08:49 PM: Message edited by: Sarah Stone ]