Artemia based 'simulator' tank.

[ezrec]

Ya know, I'm starting to think an 'Artmeia' tank might be a good
introductory tank for people who think they might be interested
in saltwater. It would allow them to get all the plumbing up, get
them into the practice of water tests and changing, and have
something fun to look at while they save up for their real reef.

The only problem is that Artemia is not very "pumpable".
More like... "blendable". So, since most reefers seem to
use under-tank sumps, I would need a pump that can
pump with low shear forces to a head of approx 4-5 feet
at approx 100 Gph.

If I can find an inexpensive Artemia-safe pumping system, all
someone would need to "see if they have what it takes" to keep
a simple saltwater aquarium would be:

Plumbing:

* < 55 gallon tank
* A PVC siphon overflow (no tank drilling!)
* Some buckets with garden hose or PVC siphons as the
overflow intake, refugium, and sump.
* A plankton-safe pump (this is my dilemma)
* A garden-hose return

Substrate:

* Reef salt (whatever they can get - Artmeia isn't picky)
* Declorinator (Novium, Start-Right, air stone & bucket, whatever)
* 1/2" layer of calcium carbonate sand (ie argonite)
(in both the tank and refugium)

Lighting:

* Freshwater-class hood (dime-a-dozen)
* Flourescent "Grow Light" for the refugium

Bio Load: (subject to change, I'm testing...)

* Biozyme (or Live Sand) for initial bacteria
* One dead frozen shrimp
After that has cycled till the ammonia is gone...
* Chaeto in the refugium
After that has cycled until the nitrites are gone...
* A pinch or two of brine shrimp

Testing:

* Hydrometer
* Ammonia
* Nitrites
* pH
* Copper (to determine if they have to use DI/RO or Tap)
* Thermometer (and not one of those crappy stick-on-tank LCD ones!)

Total cost should be under $200, and something any high school
kid could do. The theory being is that you now have a 'play' setup
with an active, cheap, forgiving, and easily replaced bio-load that
simulates the chemistry of a reef setup.

And, once said newbie finds that they actually have the patience,
funds, and nerves of steel to "go reef", they have a cheap source of
Artemia!

(Oh, did I mention that I was also one of those 'said newbies'?
I figure that if I can't keep Artemia alive, I should really stay away
from the reef.)

 

[IslandCrow]

Interesting idea, but I don't think most people would be all that interested in spending $200 on a sea monkey tank. Other than setting up the tank and plumbing like you said, I don't see how it really helps someone get ready for a marine tank. Artemia have such a short life cycle that you don't really experience meeting a living creatures needs. Also, are you planning on culturing phytoplankton to feed them? If not, they're just swimming around until they starve to death. Not much of a lesson there.
Truthfully, I think a constant culture of brine shrimp could be more difficult than a simple fish only tank. I'm definitely an advocate of starting off slow, but this may be a little too slow. May as well just throw an easy fish in there, like a damsel. You've spent the money, get a fish.

 

[ezrec]

Also, are you planning on culturing phytoplankton to feed them?

Good point there. I am looking for a good microalgae. Currently,
the Artemia food source is baker's yeast. (One pinch per culture).

Primarily, at this point, I'm hung up on plumbing - being able
to pump plankton (ie, Artemia that went down the overflow,
or are living in the refugium) back up to the display tank without
blending them up into Brine Shrimp Soup. Until that problem
is solved, this system is just a way to waste time and money.

With a plankton-safe pump, however, we may come closer
to closing the nutrient loop for a balanced reef aquarium. I feel
that the sump return pump will turn out to be an important
factor in Reef tank design, since a 'blendy' pump is effectively
de-encapsulating the nutrients locked up in the plankton, and
dispersing them into the water column.

And as for 'entertainment value' - I find the adult Artemia pretty
cool, and much more fun to watch than a single stressed out fish
while my tank is cycling.

 

[IslandCrow]

Well, don't put a fish in the tank while it's cycling. . .

That said, the only thing I can think of for circulation other than your standard airline bubbler is perhaps some sort of surge type device. Let's say you use an aqualifter or some such device to slowly pull water from the tank up into a bucket or some other sort of recepticle. Then, once this bucket is filled, it can dump its contents back into the tank. You'd probably need to put some sort of fine mesh over the intake tube, like bridal veil or maybe even a couple layers of window screen. For a very small tank, perhaps you could go with some sort of magnetic stirrer, but I'm not sure how cost effective such things are.

 

[rayjay]

I have Never seen a pump that artemia could survive going through for any length of time and I've been raising brine shrimp for many many years.
An airlift tube has limited lift capability but can lift water containing earlier stage artemia but the force of air required would blow apart the adult artemia.
As for feeding the artemia to get them to live and grow to the life expectancy of 3 plus months, you need a density of food that provides a continuous flow by them to allow for capture. Such a feeding density will promote very high nutrients which become food for nuisance algae in your tank.
I use home grown greenwater for the first two weeks of their life, followed by cryopastes like Tahitian Blend and some individual pastes, from Brine Shrimp Direct thereafter.
You won't need to add the frozen shrimp because all the molts the shrimp go through will produce plenty of ammonia in the water to feed the bacteria.
Another important problem is the fact that the cysts can harbour nasty bacteria that at times wipe out the culture, or, after converting the tank to normal salt water tank, could possibly wipe out that future population.

 

[ezrec]

rayjay: Yep. I've come to pretty much the same conclusion. The only thing the adults seem to be able to survive is an Archemedies screw, but that's just too unweildy for my tank.

What I have found is that a 'vortex impeller' based centrifugal pump is the least damaging of the centrifugal style pumps, and that I can get artemia up to survive up to 2mm in size. Oceanaic plankton should have no problem.

So that's what I'm going to use for circulation and sump in my 'real' system, and I'm cancelling my Artemia project for now.

So, it's on to my next adventure - Algea vs The Blue-Legged Hermit Crabs!

I'm going to see what types of algea I can grow, and ways to starve off them individually. Without killing either of my two my hermit crabs.

I've already "mastered" cyanobacteria. It's "primary nutrient" is light, and a 2-3 'cloudy' days of actinic-only wipes it out.

My next victim is some sort of fast growing red macroalgea (looks like tiny bushes right now - < 10mm). I think it came with my Cheato, and I can't wait to see what it's adult form is!

Why, you may ask, is this poor bastard playing all these games with minimal livestock tanks? Because I want to see the tolerance paremeters of the tank's critters (especially nusiance critters!) before I invest $$$$ in 'real' livestock.

BTW: Done anyone have any Aiptasia(sic) they can send me? I live in Pittsburgh, PA.

 

[rayjay]

If you ever want to get back to artemia, the most informative information available is on a U.N. website for production of live foods for aquaculture, with the artemia information coming from the Artemia Reference Center at the University of Ghent.
CLICK HERE AND SCROLL DOWN TO SECTION 4.0, ARTEMIA