Puget Sound Biotope

Ok, 10 feet sounds more reasonable than 100 feet. :rofl:

(Who knows? You may have skillz :hey: )
 
Some anemones and nudibranch. We'll see.
Nudibranchs are hard to keep alive. They are specialist feeders and either eat corals, sponges or algae. Most of them are poisonous too so leave them in the ocean.

Yes, you can collect bottom dwelling fish. They probably figure if you are willing to go 100' deep in 46F water, you are crazy enough!
If you collect fish from deep water, be careful bringing them to the surface because they get the bends just like people do. Except it isn't nitrogen in their bloodstream. They blow up like a balloon and die in excruciating pain.

Fish from deep water also need pressurised tanks so stay within 20-30 feet.

You can use bait traps to catch small fish. Buy them from Ebay, put them in the water, wait an hour and pull them up.
 
Thanks, @Colin_T . The hope is that these guys will venture into shallower waters where they can be caught. I know the lumpsuckers do, and some sculpins have been caught at 20' as well. Not a normal occurrence, but it has happened. I have been told the nudibranch requires careful feeding, and I am also looking at sea cucumbers.
 
Sea cucumbers are scavengers and filter feeders. They are easy enough to keep as long as the water is good and you feed them a few times a week with a liquid invertebrate food or some finely chopped fish/ prawn, squid, etc. A lot of them will pick up small bits of food from the substrate.
 
Out doing some homework, studying potential occupants.

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Had a bit of a temperature issue when I accidentally left some insulating boards on top of the tank, covering the light underneath. Well kids, heat rises and it got trapped causing a 5F increase! I am lucky that everything in the tank is intertidal, so I think they'll be fine. Today it is back down to 55F. I am still researching chillers since I need the tank at 52F and now know my little hack won't go that low.

Seriously considering the 1" thick acrylic in order to deal with condensation issues. I thought it was going to be overkill, but the more I talk to people, the more I lean towards thicker walls. At least the front one. I may configure the tank so it is deeper and only viewed from the front, thus giving me three sides that can be insulated in addition to the bottom.

It is really fun to watch the barnacles opening up to eat the food I put in. The snails are eating the dead piece of sea lettuce I put in. Soon I will replace that with a live one. The creepy crawlies are happy critters, very active burrowing and then coming out running around, and so many of them!

I changed the filter direction to have a bit more water movement. Looking into what setup will be necessary if I need to add powerheads.

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The green sea anemones are cool :)
Anemones with short tentacles are usually safer to handle and less likely to eat everyone in the tank.

Don't try to remove anemones from rocks because you usually damage their base and they die. I used to carry a hammer and stone chisel when I went collecting. Just cut the piece of rock with the anemones attached and put that in a bucket of water to take home.

If the stuff is from rock pools and tidal zones, it will be fine with a slight change in temperature. As for keeping the water on 55F permanently, you probably don't have to. Monitor the temperature of the water at the beach over the course of a year (including on hot days) and that will tell you how much the water temp fluctuates.
 
The green sea anemones are cool :)
Anemones with short tentacles are usually safer to handle and less likely to eat everyone in the tank.

Don't try to remove anemones from rocks because you usually damage their base and they die. I used to carry a hammer and stone chisel when I went collecting. Just cut the piece of rock with the anemones attached and put that in a bucket of water to take home.

If the stuff is from rock pools and tidal zones, it will be fine with a slight change in temperature. As for keeping the water on 55F permanently, you probably don't have to. Monitor the temperature of the water at the beach over the course of a year (including on hot days) and that will tell you how much the water temp fluctuates.
Fancy you should mention that! I just picked up a new knife at the local dive shop to pry the whole rock and not hurt the anemone. It may not get @PheonixKingZ excited since it is a blunt tip, but it feels nice and has great weight. Can't do the fancy titanium knives because they'll be hard to see if I drop it (which I have done way too many times before!) and did not care for the handles they had.
1614726441075.png
 
Seriously considering the 1" thick acrylic in order to deal with condensation issues. I thought it was going to be overkill, but the more I talk to people, the more I lean towards thicker walls. At least the front one. I may configure the tank so it is deeper and only viewed from the front, thus giving me three sides that can be insulated in addition to the bottom.

Where are you getting the tank? If feasible, how about a plywood tank with a 1" acrylic front? You could add a port hole on the sides. With plywood, you could heavily insulate the bottom and sides. It would also save alot of money, in my area a 4'x8'x1" sheet of cast acrylic cost $900.
 
Seriously considering the 1" thick acrylic in order to deal with condensation issues. I thought it was going to be overkill, but the more I talk to people, the more I lean towards thicker walls. At least the front one. I may configure the tank so it is deeper and only viewed from the front, thus giving me three sides that can be insulated in addition to the bottom.
Yes, you are correct. I will be building the tank, and having only one side of acrylic will save a lot of money.
 
Where are you getting the tank? If feasible, how about a plywood tank with a 1" acrylic front? You could add a port hole on the sides. With plywood, you could heavily insulate the bottom and sides. It would also save alot of money, in my area a 4'x8'x1" sheet of cast acrylic cost $900.
I found 2' x 4' x 1" for $177.00
 
Fancy you should mention that! I just picked up a new knife at the local dive shop to pry the whole rock and not hurt the anemone. It may not get @PheonixKingZ excited since it is a blunt tip, but it feels nice and has great weight. Can't do the fancy titanium knives because they'll be hard to see if I drop it (which I have done way too many times before!) and did not care for the handles they had.
View attachment 130367
That’s a nice knife!

Does it have a hard sheath?
 

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