"Slight" change in plans

I have decided to do cold water moons instead of warm water moons. The reason being that warm water makes jellies grow at a much quicker rate, however I suspect it will shorten their lifespan and possibly make them more susceptible to disease. By the end of April, I should have the money to buy myself a small chiller. I am planning on getting the JBJ Mini-Arcticta Chiller. This chiller is discontinued and was $400 when it was for sale. I have found someone selling surplus for $300. I'm going to connect it to the plumbing in my tank, and then have it return water to the pump chamber in the tank. I have decided not to do the refugium in my tank and just make that compartment a "reservoir" for the heater and any other additional things that I want to add to the tank. I returned the light and mud for the refugium, and now I have $100 more for the chiller

Because the chiller is rated for up to 40 gallons, I can add another 25 gallons onto it. That means I will probably be adding a 24" x 24" x 8" tank to the system in the future to hold larger jellies. (considering i am successful with the tank I have now)

Also, Sunset Marine Labs sells coldwater moons (3"-4") for $30 a piece. If I am not able to obtain some jellies from the public aquarium, I will definitely go with these.

If you are not planning on keeping strong life support systems and being very serious with this hobby, you should go with warm water moons in a cheap jellyfishart tank. You'll spend a fraction of the money and time, even if it means replacing lost jellies a few times.

Since I'm not doing the refugium, the jellyfish tankmates article will have to wait a little longer than expected. I need to get some Cassiopeia, Catostylus, or Mastigia jellies to do some experimenting with.

Setting Up the Tank Again!!!

Hello!!!
So I've decided to set up my tank again. This time it will not be used for breeding though. I'll keep grown jellies in it.

So far, I've spray painted the whole thing black so it will be better as a display.

The pseudo-kreisel will be used for moon jellies. I'm going to get a Multi-Color E27 LED Light Bulb with Remote to put in the goose neck lamp above the tank.

Then, what used to be my polyp chamber will become a refugium. I've already got a T5 fixture for the refugium. It has two 10,000K daylight bulbs in it for now. Do you think I should put an actinic bulb in there?

I will keep a few macroalgaes, a snail or two, and some small upside down jellies in it. I will start off with the macroalgaes while the tank is cycling and maybe a piece of live rock. Then I will add some hermits and snails to make sure the tank can hold animals without killing them.
Then I'm going to get two upside down jellies to make sure the bio-filter is jelly safe.

Later, in a month or two, I'll add one moon jelly to make sure the pseudo-kreisel is moon jelly safe. Then if he does fine, I'll add two more.

Here are some pictures of the tank all painted up!

Front of the Tank

Filter Side

Refugium Side

And I know I was promising an article on Jellyfish Tankmates, I've just got to get a little more experience so I have no false info. Hang in there!

I regret building my own jellyfish aquarium. I do not yet know if it will work, but the siliconed edges aren't as nice as I would like them. If I could go back, I would have bought the P-E combo system from Jelliquarium.com as a starter tank. I spent about the same amount on my tank that I would have on the P-E combo tank, or maybe a little less. It's better to start off with a perfect tank, so you don't end up disapointed with the flaws in your DIY tank.

New System

Here's my new system. It's the most basic thing I could think of.

The light helps me see the polyps and ephyra better.

There is a jar with slow moving bubbles for the ephyra and a dish with a slow bubbler for the polyps

The ephyra jar with frozen rotifers in it. There are three epyhra in it.

The polyp dish has an acrylic slide that I scratched up with sandpaper so that they could attach better.

I'll be upgrading this with glass petri dishes and v-shaped beakers as soon as I order them.

Doing things right.

I've decided to keep my jellies the right way. For almost a year (or around six months) I've been failing at keeping the ephyra alive. It's because I'm trying to keep them my way. Clearly my way doesn't work. I'm going to have a chat with Jellyfishart.com so they can give me some tips (Thanks Alex!). I'm going find a method of raising jellies that works! So stay tuned. Soon, I'll have a system that works and perhaps some of you may try also.
And I'm losing my polyps for some reason.
There is a thick brown algae growing around them and they are disappearing.
I hope I can pick up this slack!

Keeping Polyp Colonies

When you are keeping a colony of Jellyfish Polyps, use a small tank. The food is more concentrated and the water changes are smaller. I recently set up a 2.5 gallon aquarium for my polyps. The water flow is too fast to allow the ephyra to not get sucked into the filter, but now I'm just trying to expand my polyp colony.

What I have is a 2.5 gallon tank, a whisper 10i (internal filter), and a large heater with my polyp colony on it.

(pictures coming very soon)

I will try to add a piece of rock to the tank and make sure it has no hydroids. I think it will be much easier for the polyps to stay attached to some rock than glass. The rock will also provide biological filtration.

Sad Update On My Tank

The tank hasn't really changed lately. The polyps are growing in numbers and forming a small colony.
I've been feeding them baby brine shrimp every other day.
I have no medusas though. I am not able to keep them alive for over a week.
The psuedokreisel that the ephyrae were supposed to go in still doesn't work (but I have some ideas of modifying it again)
So when I do get ephyrae, i feed them daily. I put about 4 or 5 in a small water bottle lid with water in it. I dissolve some frozen rotifers in the water too. I put them back in their dish i keep them in about 5 or 6 hours later. They live in a little dish about 5" in diameter with about 3" of water. I give them daily water changes.
Any ideas?

I had hoped that I could have some pictures of 4" moon jellies for you by now. Sorry

But here is a picture of my polyp culture. They are growing on the heater. odd. When I feed them, I have a light up against the glass that attracts the brine shrimp.

Warmer water = more ephyrae. So growing on the heater isn't necessarily a bad thing...

Ephyra Problem

I added a new page up there ^Jellykeeping Basics^
Check it out!

I have a little problem. I put an aerator in the ephyra dish. I thought it would circulate the water enough to keep them off the bottom along with the food. Then they would be more able to catch the food. When I came home that evening, all the ephyra were very small and barely pulsing. I gave up on them and poured them back into the tank. As the water from the dish entered the tank, I saw the fresh water mixing with the saltwater (if you own a saltwater aquarium, you should know what I'm talking about). But that seemed pretty weird because I meant for the ephyra to be in saltwater. I'm guessing that the brine shrimp I'm feeding them had some extra fresh water and that diluted the salt. So, I believe that the fast current and low salinity worked together to kill the little jellies. I turned up the temp and the next day had 5 more ephyra (works like magic doesn't it?). They were forming for a while before but I'm guessing the heat sped them up. So, that's what's going on in my tank.
Also, I'm still trying to fix the ephyra section of the tank to not suck them up in the screen. I emailed Jim Stime (Jelliquarium.com owner). I told him all the specs of my tank and he said my flow was too strong. I will turn it down with the valve I have. I will also get a smaller screen.

The screen I have now is:
Nylon Mesh 60 Micron Opening 47 Micron Thread Diameter 35 Percent Open Area
The screen I'm looking at is:
Polypropylene Mesh 1000 Micron Opening 500 Micron Thread Diameter 44.5 Percent Open Area

So, things I conclude from this are:
Ephyra need little flow.
Put as little brackish water from brine shrimp as you can in the tank.
There still may be a chance in fixing my tank!