Cold temperate tank system in Sweden

[Dr. Dendrostein]

On the taped seams, if mine, I would add grey color duct sealant. It brushes on. Seals and would hold tape till if it needs service one day. Very nice work

 

[Silver Dollar]

Hehe, what do you want? The drilling machine or the tank

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hehe, what do you want? The drilling machine or the tank

I want it all. LOL

 

[Silver Dollar]

Ok, good to know!

 

[Silver Dollar]

Now we will talk about algea.

200 liter, macro algea:
Last summer it was newly started and looked clean and nice. Lighting was two Coral Box Moon LED, but it turned out it was not suitable for macros. More of that later:

Because of the bad lighting some thread algea and cyano started to grow and the macro died off. So I installed four T5-39W instead and it works much better.
I give som Iron and Iodine for better growth.

If I forget to scrape the front it looks like this!

Some of the animals in the tank. A goby

Sea squirts. They are only living for one year.

A meating calling for more food!!

A sea star who usally lives deeper, but his diet of soft corals makes him to stay here.

From yesterday.

 

[Mortie31]

Do you use the same 3D background rocks that Lasse uses in his tank??.. they look great... must be a Scandinavian thing

 

[Silver Dollar]

Yes, it is Backtonature Slimline in the macro-aquarium and modules in the large tank. I think Backtonature is made in Sweden.

 

[Silver Dollar]

This tank, 540 litre (140 G), is connected to the same sump as the macro algae tank.
A full picture ta start with.

 

[Silver Dollar]

The two biggest fishes are a cod and a male cuckoo wrasse. They are respecting each other, but the cod is a bully, big time.

This picture is from last summer. The wrasse is a bit bigger, about 8 inches...

He is a beauty...

Well, both are a beauty.

I introduced two 3 inch Merlangius to the tank...

In the morning one of the Merlangius was missing and the cod look suspiciously fat. The next day it was the second one missing.

Today the cod is bigger than the cuckoo wrasse and has eaten most of the smaller fish and stressed the others. So I will give him away to another aquarium. But I still love him!

 

[Silver Dollar]

Some more fish pics...

This is the female cuckoo wrasse. Totaly different from the blue/orange male.
The male has a harem of 10 or more females in the nature. If the male dies one of the largest female transforms to a new male. Fantastic! And all cuckoo wrasses are "born" as females...

A rock cook in the front. Very hard to find and to take a descent picture.

Ballan wrasse. Can be rather large.

 

[Silver Dollar]

Yesterday I built the worlds most ugly autofeeder. It will feed some of the 25 liter (7 G) tanks.

 

[Whysosalty]

All I can say is wow. I’m so jealous. I absolutely respect and appreciate what you’re doing!! If I can’t do all this myself, the next best thing is living the moment through someone else right? Thanks for showing all of us your enviable setups!!

 

[Silver Dollar]

Thanks for the kind words!
I have so much fun with these aquariums and glad to share the moments with the forum.

 

[Silver Dollar]

I have made some ICP-EOS tests at Marinlab on the water in the large system were I hold macro algae.

• The first test in May 29 was made one day after a water change of 100 litre synthetic salt and dosage of Iodine.
• The second test was made a week after. The only addition was Iron (Fe) on a daily basis. I want to keep the level at 0.1 ppm for the macros.

The pollutants are not shown, they are at zero.
I want to keep track of Fe, I, K, KH, Ca and Mg because of the macro algae. Any more nutriant or micronutrient I need to track?
But I'm uncertain of the decired levels for I and K in respect of keeping macros. Anyone have any info?

There are no evaporation in cold water, so it is a bit strange that Ca, Mg and K have risen.

 

[BluewaterLa]

Man You are definitely able to keep some interesting animals / critters
Your tanks are beautiful, natural looking and so full of life. Definitely a great place to live so close to the ocean and able to collect specimens to observe in your home.
Thank you for sharing / posting pictures and videos of these wonderful systems.

 

[Silver Dollar]

Thanks! I blush.
It is a great privilege to live so close to the sea.

More from the large tank 540 liter (140 G)

Give me food! I'm hungry, can't you tell??

Now I'm full, Thanks!

Mr Ugly.

The cod agian. He is bigger today and the background is more covered with algae...

 

[Silver Dollar]

We continue with the large aquarium and some of the invertebrates.

Some sort of spider crab. It often mask itself with algae and stuff.

I can't find the english name for this star fish, latin is Marthasterias glacialis. It can grow to be up to 70 cm (more than 2 feet) in diameter.

A common starfish. This one is dark brown, but the can be almost any color.

A small hermit crab.

In sweden we are allowed to fish for lobster a couple of months in the late fall every year. Last year I tried one in the aquarium, but my wife didn't allow me to keep it there. It should be eaten instead. But this year I will sneak one in

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Amazing, another reason to visit Sweden.

 

[Silver Dollar]

You are so welcome! I have some lobster left in the freezer.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

You are so welcome! I have some lobster left in the freezer.

Was that the blue one?