Cold water tank w/ local animals - need help

[Nanook]

I'm about to start a cold water tank for local San Diego coastal animals. I've done lots of research and preparation, but almost all of the information out there is about warm water tropical tanks, and I'd really like to get a few pointers from someone with experience keeping local animals.

I've got an insulated 65 gallon tank with 1/4 hp chiller, a over-sized internal wet/dry filter, and an AquaC Urchin skimmer (in-sump version of the Remora). I plan to keep a bimac octopus, and not much else since they don't play well with others. I'm planning to us local rock (non-porous so not very valuable as "live rock"). Lighting will be medium to low, so I can't keep plants animals that depend on sunlight. I'm going to keep the tank at local temp (currently about 58 degrees)

What I need to know about is how best to set the tank up and get to go through its initial cycle. Some of my questions are:
1) I'm going to use sand as substrate, should I use local "live" sand (taken from deeper than the lowest low tide) or should I buy clean sand?
2) What is the fastest and best way to get the bacterial cycle going and stabilized?
3) Should I try to cycle the tank at 58 degrees or room temp? Warmer might be faster, but would warm water favor the wrong type of bacteria?
4) What, if any, animals should I keep in the tank during the initial break-in /cycling period? Octopus are messy eaters, and eat a lot, so the load after break-in will be high, but they are also sensitive to water quality, and so may not survive the initial break-in / cycle. What to do?

I would really appreciate help from any of you who have kept local animals before. Thanks very much for your help.

[treylane]

Stocking a 60g with local critters/sand/rock/etc sounds like a heck of a challenge on a couple fronts, not least of which the amount of rock you're going to have to sneak away from the beaches. :D

Can't help ya with some of your questions, but I can summarize my experience in case any of it is useful to you:

I had a 7g "local critters" tank for awhile, with an iceprobe chiller hooked into the back. I collected sand from sunset cliffs as well as LJ shores - the point loma sand was better imo, a bit coarse but the lj sand too fine. The rock came from sunset cliffs as well. Rock and sand cycled very fast, just a week or two, then I started adding various critters from tidepooling and diving - nudibranchs, strawberry anemones, those awesome neon orange pest anemones that cover kelp in the summer, crabs, barnacles, starfish, sponges, etc. Nudis weren't worth the effort, didn't last very long. The orange anemones SEEMED (?) to be slightly photosynthetic, and very sturdy - I'd even seen them in tidepools. The strawberry anemones are doable, but they require CLEAN water, and FOOOD on a very regular basis, which is a pretty rough combination. Crabs/small brittle stars/etc were no problem. I eventually broke the tank down as the tiny little chiller couldn't keep up with the summer heat.

[Nanook]

Thanks for the reply. Your answers are just the type of thing I'm looking for. You implied that it is illegal to take rock from the ocean. Do you know where I can get a reliable account of what the laws are that I need to know? I've check the Dept of Fish and Game site, so I know all about what animals I can and can't take, but sand and rocks not their area.

Thanks again!

[treylane]

Do some google searches for the details, but it's essentially illegal to take ANYTHING from a preserve or tidepool. You can take fish, crabs, scallops, and a few other things from non-preserve areas with a fishing license, and as far as I can tell anemones and stuff are off limits.

So it's somewhere approaching impossible to set up the tank you want legally, without something like a scientific collection permit.

[Nanook]

The Dept of Fish and Game regs give a precise list of what can be taken from tidepools, and it is essentially everything that is legal to fish for and eat, like crabs, muscles, octopus, turban snails, etc. That means I'm ok to collect an octopus, and octopus food. You're right about anemones though (nuts!)

[Jessy]

The Dept of Fish and Game regs give a precise list of what can be taken from tidepools, and it is essentially everything that is legal to fish for and eat, like crabs, muscles, octopus, turban snails, etc. That means I'm ok to collect an octopus, and octopus food. You're right about anemones though (nuts!) I thought the La Jolla tide pools were completely off limits to anyone.. is this wrong?

[treylane]

CA is fairly strict about what you can/can't collect from tidepools, and you can't collect ANYTHING at ALL from between la jolla cove and the scripps pier.

[Nanook]

You're right! I meant that unless a particular area has special protection (Marine park, reserve, etc.), state law allows normal sport fishing, and makes no special rules for "tidepools". I don't know if there are any tide pools around SD that happen to be outside of a protected area, but if there are, I can get an octopus there.

What about sand and rocks? I can't find any rules about that.

[Shells]

I can tell you that 10 years ago (before kids) my husband and I had reef tanks and we tried to keep a local tank (COLD water - we got them while diving so deeper than tide pools and colder) - granted it was 10 years ago and we have learned a lot about reefs in the past 10 years - but it was virtually impossible and super time consuming - after seeing to many things die - it was NOT worth tanking ANYthing out of our local waters.

Grated I just got back into reef tanks now that the kids are older and there have been some improvements in reefing but I am not saying it can't be done just going to be a lot of work on your part.

Good luck if you try it.

[Nanook]

Thanks for the reply. I'm definately going to do it, and I'll let you all know what I learn.

I'm surprised that none of you are keeping a cold water tank for local animals. I dread the process of learning how to keep local animals alive through trial and error, and I was really hoping to learn from the experience of others, so if you know anyone who can give me a few pointers, but may not have seen this post, please try to get them to reply.

Thanks for all your help.