Anyone experienced with a rockpool tank?

LuckyFish

LuckyFish

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Hi guys, has anyone experiences with a rockpool tank? West coast tank only, as I want to build one. Temperature will be around 16 to 18 degrees.
Forget about the cooling part, that I have figured out already.
Some advice on inhabitants, simple filtration, etc.

Thanks in advance
 
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could you get a tiger angel? Think thats like the best cold water fish?
 
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Pretty much everything I find and like from the rockpools. Anemones, mussels. starfish, shrimp, sea urchins, sea hare, sea cucumber, klipfis, hardes, peri winkles, crabs, etc.
 
LuckyFish said:
Pretty much everything I find and like from the rockpools. Anemones, mussels. starfish, shrimp, sea urchins, sea hare, sea cucumber, klipfis, hardes, peri winkles, crabs, etc.
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I've kept pretty much everything you mention - we also have a variety of brittlestars to choose from.
The anemones walk around a lot - I prefer the Knobbly anemones ito variety in colors as well as being hardy. avoid the smooth ones - they dislodge themselves to let the current take them to where the most food accumulate - in the tank that means they go into the powerhead...:(
if you want to keep tubeworms, specifically sabellastarte longa - for some reason the lighter colored ones have done better in my tank. you need to also consider placement - the less they retract, the better they do...
the sand shrimps (palaemon pacificus) do well but eat your pods.
there is a variety of cool endemic klipfish(mostly clinids) that are fairly easy to keep, but some of them are good predators and can grow biggish.
I did a thread last year about some of them.
phew , typing too much now - beware of local sponges - some can poisen the water.
we have some cool small cuttlefish as well as squid species as well to consider.

I don't even want to go into the crabs now.

What size tank are you going to use?
 
in my internship at global ocean in kleinmonde part of our tasks was to take care of the mini aquarium they had there, they had everything from gully sharks to anemones to crayfish..

the colder water anemones are some of the prettiest you will find, and dont need much light to survive as they are far more predatory than the tropical ones...

i would say a good skimmer is a must and i would still persue good LR filtration but with rock collected from your reqion to allow easy acclimitisation..

what have you got in mind for cooling? (somebody was gonna ask soon er or later :) )
 
SteveZi said:
I've kept pretty much everything you mention - we also have a variety of brittlestars to choose from.
The anemones walk around a lot - I prefer the Knobbly anemones ito variety in colors as well as being hardy. avoid the smooth ones - they dislodge themselves to let the current take them to where the most food accumulate - in the tank that means they go into the powerhead...:(
if you want to keep tubeworms, specifically sabellastarte longa - for some reason the lighter colored ones have done better in my tank. you need to also consider placement - the less they retract, the better they do...
the sand shrimps (palaemon pacificus) do well but eat your pods.
there is a variety of cool endemic klipfish(mostly clinids) that are fairly easy to keep, but some of them are good predators and can grow biggish.
I did a thread last year about some of them.
phew , typing too much now - beware of local sponges - some can poisen the water.
we have some cool small cuttlefish as well as squid species as well to consider.

I don't even want to go into the crabs now.

What size tank are you going to use?
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Wow, you know a lot about the local stuff. Cuttle fish? How cool would that be.
Knobbly anemones? Avoid the soft ones? They look to me all the same. How would I see the difference?
 
SteveZi said:
What size tank are you going to use?
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Hoping to get a freebee or cheap used tank. If not, then it will be 1700x650x500(H).
Around 500+ litre.
 
leslie hempel said:
in my internship at global ocean in kleinmonde part of our tasks was to take care of the mini aquarium they had there, they had everything from gully sharks to anemones to crayfish..

Shark, I had in mind. Want to get an egg.
Crayfish as well, if I can get a baby one.
 the colder water anemones are some of the prettiest you will find, and dont need much light to survive as they are far more predatory than the tropical ones...

I posted 35 pictures in Henk's not a rookpool tank about pictures I took in the rockpools. Fantastic nennies.

i would say a good skimmer is a must and i would still persue good LR filtration but with rock collected from your reqion to allow easy acclimitisation..
Yes, a skimmer. Filtration? I'm working on that one.

what have you got in mind for cooling? (somebody was gonna ask soon er or later :) )
Sooner! Check post no 9.
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;)
 
salty dog said:
Tagging because I've always wanted to do this. What are you doing for cooling if I may ask?
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I don't want to tell right now, but it would be to easy to just use a chiller. And to expensive in power consumption. I have something in mind, that will be efficient, cheap
to built and cheap when it comes to Eskom.
I spoke yesterday to 459b about it, and he said it will work.
I want to create an affordable system, so that other reefers can go the same route to get the coastline into the living room.;)
 
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LuckyFish said:
Knobbly anemones? Avoid the soft ones? They look to me all the same. How would I see the difference?
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The knobbly anemone(Bunodosoma capensis) has a column with little bumps on it(hence the name).
This species is very variable in terms of coloration – usually the bumps are a different color than the rest. The tentacles are usually also a different color.

Keeping a local tank takes just as much consideration in terms of the compatibility of the tank mates, as with a standard tropical reef setup.
You are going to run into problems if you just add anything you find.
If you intend to keep Chaetodon marleyi, say goodbye to any chances of keeping anemones or tube worms.
Good luck also on trying to keep more than one of these beautiful butterflies together.
A Lot of the local fish species are territorial and aggressive.
Some of them are picky eaters as well, but a lot of them are gluttons…
The local urchins are notorious for moving rocks – make sure your rockwork is well secured if you intend to introduce some of them.

Don’t get too attached to your benthic invertebrates – some will end up as food.

LuckyFish said:
I don't want to tell right now, but it would be to easy to just use a chiller
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Are you secretive about it because it might be something you want to market? or are you just not sure if it will work?
 
for cooling you can also use an open algae scrubber with fans mounted to blow over the screen. A lot of evaporative cooling. Bonus is the benefit of algae removing excess nutrients. But your RO consumption is a lot higher. Still cheaper than Eskom
 
SteveZi said:
The knobbly anemone(Bunodosoma capensis) has a column with little bumps on it(hence the name).
This species is very variable in terms of coloration – usually the bumps are a different color than the rest. The tentacles are usually also a different color.

Keeping a local tank takes just as much consideration in terms of the compatibility of the tank mates, as with a standard tropical reef setup.
You are going to run into problems if you just add anything you find.
If you intend to keep Chaetodon marleyi, say goodbye to any chances of keeping anemones or tube worms.
Good luck also on trying to keep more than one of these beautiful butterflies together.
A Lot of the local fish species are territorial and aggressive.
Some of them are picky eaters as well, but a lot of them are gluttons…
The local urchins are notorious for moving rocks – make sure your rockwork is well secured if you intend to introduce some of them.

Don’t get too attached to your benthic invertebrates – some will end up as food.



Are you secretive about it because it might be something you want to market? or are you just not sure if it will work?
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Thanks for your input, Steve. Where is De Duin?
I don't want butterflies and yes, I will consider what goes together. Also it is planned, that some invertebrates will be housed as live food.

No, I do not want to market the system. I am sure it will work, but I also don't want to post how I want to do it, as it would open up a big discussion with plenty of other options.
I want to build it, then post it, then discuss it and maybe I have to change a few little things. But in total the system will work. It has to be cheap, so many others can go the same route.
Where could I find cuttle fish or squid? Haven't seen it before around Cape Town.
Seahare, sea cucumber, octopus (not planning to keep a messy guy like that), shrimps were the rarest I saw here.
 
RiaanP said:
for cooling you can also use an open algae scrubber with fans mounted to blow over the screen. A lot of evaporative cooling. Bonus is the benefit of algae removing excess nutrients. But your RO consumption is a lot higher. Still cheaper than Eskom
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I am targeting 16 to 18 degrees and I would never ever use an algae scrubber in any system. But for a change, I will do a DSB in the DT.
 
LuckyFish said:
I want to build it, then post it, then discuss it and maybe I have to change a few little things. But in total the system will work. It has to be cheap, so many others can go the same route. Where could I find cuttle fish or squid? Haven't seen it before around Cape Town
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Cool.
I will PM you some details when I get home tonight from work.
 
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