primer for new keepers

Greetings

I am a High School Marine Science teacher in Ohio who has a great deal of tropical reef keeping with a 412 gal display in my classroom along with a 200+ tree mangrove swamp. We have successfully demanding stony corals and regularly have fish breeding within our system

we have thought about keeping a cold tank but have no real good idea regarding idea set-ups the needs of such a system (both annually and regularly) , and what sorts of creatures make suitable captives. We make every effort to only buy captive bred creatures (although not completely possible) and if we do take steps into the chilly water want to have the same best-practice approach

is there a decent book or resource that will give us enough background info to begin asking experienced keepers manageable questions

Although there are many temperate/coldwater species that have been successfully bred in captivity by public aquariums, there are literally zero captive bred fish that I know of commercially available.

I'm slowly trying to change that though

Most inverts are much easier to propagate in captivity, specifically anemones that reproduce by division. We have had success with Corynactis Californica, Corynactis Viridis, Anthopleura Eligantissima, and Actinia Equina all in captivity.

The Vancouver Aquarium in British Columbia Canada has had the most success with captive bred temperate species.
http://www.vanaqua.org/act/research/fish/fish-research-propagation-project
Follow the above link for more details, but here's a short list of what they have bred.
Species Common Name Year Details
Agonopsis vulsa Northern spearnose poacher 1996 reared 1st time
Agonus acipenserinus Sturgeon poacher 1996 reared 1st time
Anarrhichthys ocellatus Wolf-eel 2001 reared on pellets
Anoplarchus pupurescens Cockscomb prickleback 1997 reared re/ hybridization
Anoplarchus purpurescens X insignis Hybrid blenny-eels 2006 reared (died before juvenile)
Apodichthys flavidus Penpoint gunnels 2000 reared
Artedius fenestralis Padded sculpin 1998 reared
Asemichthys taylori Spinynose sculpin 1996 reared 2nd time
Aulorhynchus flavidus Tubesnout 2006 F8
Chirolophis decoratus Decorated warbonnet 2004 reared
Chirolophis nugator Mosshead warbonnet 1997 reared 1st time
Chitonotus pugetensis Roughback sculpin 2000 F2
Clinocottus globiceps Mosshead sculpin 2002 reared 1st time
Clupea harengus pallasi Pacific herring 1997 reared re/ food and display
Enophrys bison Buffalo sculpin 1997 reared re/ nesting parasitism
Eumicrotremus orbis Pacific spiny lumpsucker 2003 reared
Gasterosteus aculeatus Threespine stickleback 2001 F2
Heptacarpus kincaidi Kincaid's shrimp 2002 reared
Hexagrammos lagocephalus Rock greenling 1997 reared 1st time
Hexagrammos stelleri Whitespotted greenling 2000 reared
Hippocampus abdominalis Pot-bellied seahorse 2005 reared
Hippocampus erectus Lined seahorses 2001 F5
Hippocampus ingens Giant seahorse 1998 F4
Icelinus borealis Northern sculpin 1996 reared 1st time (complete development series)
Jordania zonope Longfin sculpin 1997 F2
Lebbeus grandimanus Candystripe shrimp 2002 F4
Lebbeus schrencki Okhotsk lebbeid shrimp 2003 F7
Liparis cyclopus Ribbon snailfish 1998 reared 1st time (complete development series)
Lopholithodes mandtii Puget Sound king crab 1997 reared 1st time (to juvenile stage only)
Metacrangon munita Coastal spinyhead shrimp 1997 reared 1st time
Nautichthys oculofasciatus Sailfin sculpin 1997 reared
Odontopyxis trispinosa Pygmy poacher 1996 reared 1st time
Oligocottus maculosus Tidepool sculpin 2001 reared
Oligocottus snyderi Fluffy sculpin 1997 F2
Ophiodon elongatus Lingcod 1996 reared re/ transplant study
Oxylebius pictus Painted greenling 2006 reared
Paguras armatus Black-eyed hermit crab 1996 reared 1st time
Pandalopsis lucidirimicola Sparkling shrimp 1997 reared 1st time (undescribed species)
Pandalus danae Coonstripe shrimp 1998 reared (previously domesticated)
Pandalus eous Spiny pink shrimp 1998 reared
Pandalus hypsinotus Dock shrimp 1998 reared
Pandalus platyceros Spot prawn 1998 reared
Pandalus stenolepis Roughpatch shrimp 1997 reared 1st time
Paracrangon echinata Horned shrimp 1997 reared 1st time
Rhamphocottus richardsoni Grunt sculpin 2006 reared
Scorpaenichthys marmoratus Cabezon 1998 reared 2nd time
Sebastes caurinus Copper rockfish 2006 reared 1st time
Syngnathus griseolineatus Bay pipefish 1998 reared
Triglops macellus Roughspine sculpin 1996 reared 1st time
Xiphister mucosus Rock prickleback 2006 reared

Your best bet for tank setup and information is to read through past threads here or on other sites. To date I think anyone has published a book that goes over any setup for coldwater marine tanks. I had the benefit of having Steve Weast living 20 minutes from me when I started my tanks, but alot of it was learned on the fly.

This is probably the best place to get started though

thank you for taking time to share this with us. If we ever do construct a cold water tank it will only be after many weeks of reading.

Would you care to share a bit about your set-up and the creatures you are keeping. also if you could share a bit about the level of care demand and feeds etc.

Sure thing

I started out with a 110 gallon Marineland BW-1 lobster tank that I refurbished. They are a great system if you can get them cheap and fully functional. They come with dual paned glass, a 1/2HP chiller, UV filter, Protein Skimmer, Bio Wheel, tricklefilter. They work on a reverse upflow system so you dont get compacted waste in the bottom at all.

Down side to them is they are generally loud and weigh about 600lbs dry. They are on wheels so they are great for a garage or classroom in that regard.

The keys to your system will be taking care of the basics first and answering a few questions.

Make sure you have a chiller that will support the gallons of water you have in your system.

Figure out your dewpoint for condensation in the environment your tank will be in. You can do this at www.dpcalc.org You'll want to find out what the temp and humidity of the room your tank will be in maxes out at during any time of the year.

Once you have that information you can make the best decision on what material to build your tank out of. Do you have thick acrylic? Dual Paned Glass? Fiberglass tubs for a tidepool?

Filtration wise you will want to focus on chemical and mechanical filtration using skimmers, carbon, GFO, etc. The rate of waste removal you want to have will depend on the animals you want to keep. If only deepwater filterfeeders than you will be feeding alot and you will want to get the excess food that is not consumed out quickly. If you have tidal animals, then you can feed more sparingly and let the food make it to the bottom since tidal animals let very little go to waste. Or run a combination of both and try to balance them equally, which is what I prefer to do personally.

I am a sponsor here and a retailer of coldwater livestock, so just let me know if you want anything in particular. You can also check out our website www.ColdwaterMarineAquatics.com to see what kinds of animals we get and keep. We also have a FAQ section on there that you can find here: http://coldwater-marine-aquatics.myshopify.com/pages/faq

Also feel free to hit me up anytime

thanks for the time sir!

We are still in the distant planning stages:

I know my students will not want to go away from the tropical reef work we are doing but there may be a day when we can add a new element into the lab.
In the mean time it does not cost us anything to read and learn about