My First Collecting Trip in Oregon :)

Leaving tomorrow to get some rocks and substrate to start cyling the tank

Also going to checkout a local small Aquarium in Seaside, OR.

Tides worked out perfect, High tide is early in the mornig about 6:30 and low tide isn't until around 1:30. So it will be going out the entire time we are there

Here's some links to the places I'll be visting.

http://www.coastalatlas.net/index.php?option=com_custompages&r=3&Itemid=72

http://www.coastalatlas.net/index.php?option=com_custompages&r=1&Itemid=72

http://www.coastalatlas.net/index.php?option=com_custompages&r=2&Itemid=72

have fun abd be careful. those rip tides are strong at those points.

Have fun!

Have you done this before?

I did, and the die off was huge. Just about everything will die and take a long time to rot. Even if you take all the stuff from the ocean, it won't have much in the way of BB on it. There isn't a very high level of the waste in most sea water for these bacteria to grow.

Still a good idea to have all of it collected, but you could be in for a VERY long cycle! lol

My plan is to cycle the tank with non ocean rocks and sand, and then once it is cycled add some live local sand. This was all the nice living things in the sand won't be killed in the cycling process.

I wont be using sand, all rock : )

The substrate will be all 1/2 inch and larger rocks and then some very large rocks.

I think the only live stock for now may be a few hardy fish to go through the cycle, definitely no inverts yet.

If you can get any gunnels and or stag horned sculpins They would be my best guess.

It's legal to collect stuff from a state park?

Yup, as long as its not posted as no collecting, or in a "marine garden"

Interesting. Here in canada you can collect anything from anywhere UNLESS it is in a park (or privately owned, obviously). I had this discussion lots about collecting trees from the wild for bonsai.

Oh.. and protected species are also a no go.

Michael Milligan wrote:
Interesting. Here in canada you can collect anything from anywhere UNLESS it is in a park (or privately owned, obviously). I had this discussion lots about collecting trees from the wild for bonsai.

Oh.. and protected species are also a no go.

those rules are same here. anywhere but parks. strange. oh well if you are wrong I wont say anything

I'll be okay this trip anyways since no inverts are coming back with me this time.

AquaticEngineer wrote:I'll be okay this trip anyways since no inverts are coming back with me this time.

The truth is that no one cares but us. PERHAPS if you were making a bunch of money, but no one is interested in a handful of sea creatures. Consider how may of these things are smashed or taken home in buckets by children every year! Never heard of a cop checking buckets for starfish at the beach.

Trip was good, got there a little late and the tide was already starting to come in though

Managed to get some good medium sized rocks, I couldn't find any large deposits of smaller size rock that I could use for substrate and wasn't prepared to bring home any really big rocks.

There were some hitch hikers on the rocks, some macro algae and limpets. I was able to catch about 5 small sculpins. Its an ok start to get it all cycled I think.

Sounds like you got what you really need in any case. Pics?

No substrate. eh?... What is plan "B"?

The tank I had before was rocks with a bare bottom covered in shell fragments. If worked very well and I could clean nicely with a 3/8 " hose syphon that wouldn't fit the shells but sucked all the gunk up from underneath them. Little hard to collect enough shells to fill a big tank, but it was nice.

Hopefully at the end of the month I'll be able to go and gather more rock for the bottom of the tank. Got some good spots that I know pretty well I'm going to go to that are a couple hours south from where I went last time.

That's strange how there was a shortage of rocks. Here on the SoCoast we get tonss of rocks that wash up.

All I get here is sand, mud, and oil. An oil substrate might work,

Heres some pics from the trip

Definitely a nice area.

Pufferfreak wrote:Definitely a nice area.

The low tide for that day was still on the plus side. I'm really looking forward to collecting out there during a minus tide

Heres one of the sculpins I collected there. I'll post the more detailed pics in the other thread about them.

Nice picture!

Thanks, taken with my T-mobile Mytouch phone.

Haha nice. My Verizon Samsung Rogue takes nice pictures as well .

Wow very nice stuff. taht nem is amazing.

I have never seen a green sculpin like that. wow