NE Saltwater tank

Anyone ever setup a native saltwater tank oterf NE Atlantic species? I am thinking of setting up a tank using native crits from RI and CT.

 

thats a great idea, i've added a few things to my 29g that i found at the beach, some make it,some don't, would you believe i have some sort of brine type shrimp all over that tank! a crab i found who doesn't seem to mind the heat{75} and a live silver dollar, a frikkin huge bristleworm who has been alive for over two months but is extremely sluggish,some really strange seaweed that grows in tide pools is hanging in there to{it stinks quite a bit though},barnacles...now if you mean an actual chilled tank, my only advice would be get a generator for the power losses coming our way,if you lose power and have any of the anemones or fish or other less rough and tumble fauna they will die rapidly in warmer water,think of it like what would happen to tropical fish if the temp over an hour or two dropped to 50, but in your case, the water wouldn't be able hold enough oxygen and they might actually suffocate before the high temp killed them.

 

My tank would be set up in the basement built into a wall. I wouldn't use any heat at all just filtration and lights. Basement temps are very constant so that should be all right. Would you use live rock in the tank I would think you could and would.

 

I would use live rock yes. Another thing you have to think about is temp. How cold is the water there??? are you going to be able to achieve similar temps?? If you plan on doing a cold tank, you will need to use atleast 1/2 inch acrylic if not thicker because of condensation.

 

it really depends on what you're keeping, if you're going to collect things locally to put in the tank,i would put regular old rocks in there,kind of like an african cichlid tank,i'd be willing to bet that anything on liverock other than bacteria would be dead in minutes in those temperatures, if your basement consistently{as in all day, every day,, year round,} stays in the high 50's to low 60's you might get away with no generator, but i'd strongly recommend a chiller{they're easy to make},and heater to set a temp.a protein skimmer for aeration more than filtration, fluctuation won't fly!it only takes one off day and it's game over.
another problem is that pretty much everytime 2 animals encounter eachother in these waters one of them becomes lunch, there's no reefs or anything even remotely close to it, miles of nothing,the occasional rock,seaweed,fish etc,there's schools of bluefish,whales stuff like that,none suitable for home aquariums, there are small silverside type fish,boring and ugly!lol i feel like i'm trying to talk you out of it... again it really depends on what your plans are, just remember these animals are more sensitive in most cases then tropical ones

a terrarium would be awesome,the fauna on the shore is alot more interesting than the stuff in the water imo.i'm considering making my 29g into a terrarium with an atlantic anemone,blue damsel{not native but i already have him},silverdollar,barnacles, seaweeds, bugs,worms and a bunch of other stuff i can collect from the beach,most of the tidal stuff can survive in 75 degrees or so it seems, i'm gonna try a larger crab as soon as i catch one but have a feeling he'll eat everything in sight!