Scandinavian cold water aquariums a lot more diverse than you might think | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog (original) (raw)

When thinking about coldwater marine aquariums, west coast aquariums like that of Steve Weast come to mind, usually not coldwater aquariums from the supposedly “murky” waters of the coasts in Scandinavia. Recently however we’ve come across some Scandinavian cold water aquariums that throw this thought completely out of the door. The diversity in some of these aquariums simply makes our jaw drop. Keep reading to see what we’re so excited about.

Close up of Jon Olav’s beautiful aquarium

One of such aquariums is that of Jon Olav, located off the coast of Norway. The setup consists of two 112 liter (30 gallons) aquariums plumbed together, with no sump. One of the tanks functions as a plankton culture vessel and is gravity fed into the main display, providing food for the filter feeding invertebrates. A CO2 reactor keeps the pH at optimal levels for phytoplankton growth and a big chiller keeps the water temperatures between 40-60F. Double panes are used to prevent sweating, and an acrylic tray build in for easy cleaning. More info on the tank can be found on Jon Olav’s website

Jon Olav’s old 1000 liter system

Jon Olav’s previous system was quite stunning as well, but much less focused on the azoox aspect of coldwater reefing. The old system consisted of a 1000 liter (265 gallon) display and a 100 liter (26 gallon) sump with a big chiller, skimmer and ozone reactor. Since the tank was planted it was well lit by 6x54w T5’s. More info on the system can also be found on Olav’s website.

Jonas Melander’s 100 liter system, note the huge Alcyonium sp.

Another quite beautiful Scandinavian cold water azoox aquarium is that off Jonas Melander. This 100L (26 gallons) aquarium is located of the coast of Sweden. Most of the livestock is collected by hand in tide pools but recently Jonas found a diver that is able to collect livestock at 65-80 feet. The tank is kept at 50F during the summer and 40F during the winter with a big chiller plumbed into the system. Since the system contains quite a bit of azoox the system is manually fed D&D Clam, SPS and LPS every hour, but an autofeeder should be inline soon. To cope with all the nutrients added to the system a big skimmer rated for 1000 liters is employed. For more info and pictures, be sure to check out his thread on azoox.org

The tanks we highlighted above are probably just a small fraction of nice Scandinavian cold water reefs out there, and raises the question if there are more cold water aquariums out there in locations we usually don’t think off.