# My New Moon Jellyfish



## AlgaeBeater

I started a thread in the Freshwater DIY section. I kind of overlooked the 'Freshwater' part of that. Oops. Anyway, I'll continue it here where it might be a little more appropriate as the jellyfish are definitely saltwater.

I received the (red-eye) delivery of my new moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) in the wee hours of the night a couple days ago. It is very exciting, as I've been hunting around and waiting for them for quite some time and finally found a supplier out of Hawaii that had them on their stocklist.

They all had some measure of tissue damage or tears in their bells. I think they were caused from small amounts of air in the shipping bags that probably ended up as small bubbles through rough handling by the airline and lodged in the jellyfish's tissue which it started to decompose. But after a couple days, they are healing nicely. Two of the three jellyfish have inverted their bells which is probably due to temperature or salinity shock (even after three hours of careful acclimatization). I've been increasing the temperature in the tank (from 68.5f) slowly and they seem to be responding well to that. One is almost all back to normal and the other is still noticeably inverted but much better than it was on the first night.

The tank is functioning really well. I've set-up a couple of jellyfish tanks in the past but this was the first one that I did the construction/modification and plumbing by myself. The jellies are kept mostly suspended in the middle of the tank or riding the water 'merry-go-round' around the perimeter of the tank being pushed by the laminar water flow. Happily, the flow is almost perfect and the jellies very rarely touch the sides of the tank.

There is however a little corner that is not covered by the spray bar and I've seen one of the jellyfish get (temporarily) stuck there. I'm going to have redo the spray bar configuration soon.

I shot this video on the first day they were here. You can seen the bell inversion on the two. They look significantly better now. I'm probably going to get out the video camera as soon as I get a chance for an update.















I'll keep anyone who's interested posted. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.


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## SourGummy

thats really cool. How much ($ and time) did it take you to setup the whole thing? and how much are the jellyfish? Seems like something that I am into when I get more time and space


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## AlgaeBeater

Hi SourGummy,

In answer to your questions...



SourGummy said:


> How much $


I think the whole tank project cost me about $250 for the basics...
-Standard 3' tank (something like 35 gallons) - maybe $100 with glass top. If I were to do it again, I'd start with a 30 to 40 gallon _extra-tall_ tank.
-Acrylic - about $40
-Plumbing parts - about $30
-Pump - less than $30
-Bioballs - $20
-Filter pad - used as a screen to prevent the jellyfish from getting sucked out of the tank - $10



SourGummy said:


> How much time?


Lots. But most of that was spent tinkering with different designs. And, waiting for livestock. The most time consuming (and frustrating) part of the whole thing was actually procuring the jellyfish. They are seasonal and kind of an odball product so they not often seen for sale.



SourGummy said:


> How much are the jellyfish?


I've seen them retail anywhere from $25 to $150each in the states, and from $40 to $250 in Canada. If you can find them available somewhere.
If anyone is SERIOUSLY looking and has a tank, I might be able to help find 'em.


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## AlgaeBeater

Here's a new video of my jellyfish. I broke out the video camera (instead of cell phone video) and the editing software for this one. It shows them just after feeding time. The continue to feed for about an hour after I put the food in. Live baby brineshrimp, zooplex and frozen cyclops were fed that day. It's not the same everyday.






A lot of people have been asking about the tank. I have a video uploading to YouTube now but I'm going to have to finish it after work today. So, please stand by.

Cheers, Chris

ps. Is there a way to actually embed a video in this forum instead of a link?


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## AlgaeBeater

Just a quick update on the jellyfish...

The jellyfish are doing really well. Pretty-much all off the damage they sustained during shipping has healed up. They inverted bells have all but fixed themselves (although one of them still flops over occasionally. I gradually raised the water temperature to 75/76f and they seem to like that. Specific gravity is 1.028 @ 75f. They have gotten more active with the temperature increase.

They all lost weight/size in the first few days (to be expected with a change in diet) but are eating well now and two of them have gown noticeably.

As they are more active now, if they get moving/swimming along with the current along the top of the tank, they have enough momentum to break thru the curtain of water coming out of the spray bar and make contact with the out flow screen (which isn't so good). I'll have to fix that.


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## Ciddian

Man they look so fantastic! You must be so excited to have the finally..


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## Riceburner

they look like kleenex..... 

congrats!


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## AlgaeBeater

Ciddian said:


> Man they look so fantastic! You must be so excited to have them finally..


Yup. I kept cold water jellyfish when I lived in Vancouver. These are moon jellyfish from tropical waters. Jellyfish are not the kind of thing that you can walk into a pet/aquarium shop and find. They are actually readily available online in the USA but none of the online, retail suppliers (that I've dealt with anyway) are willing to ship them across the border. I can get cold water jellies out of Vancouver very easily. However, jellyfish from northern seas would require a chiller for the aquarium.

I'm actually more excited that the tank I did for them is working as well as it does!!



Riceburner said:


> they look like kleenex...


Yes... yes they do.


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## AlgaeBeater

It's taken a little while to get together but here's the video of the jellyfish tank in operation.






I haven't really attempted to make the tank very pretty. Just bare-bones and easy to maintain.

Since the video was shot, I've replaced the filter pad / intake screen with egg-crate. It seems to let the water through it more evenly. And, it doesn't collect gunk that ends up in the main tank when I take it out to clean it. I added a filter pad to the top or the bio-balls to collect the gunk. I've also increased the flow rate a bit. It's harder on the jellyfish but better for the bio-balls.

As mentioned before, the jellyfish ride the laminar water flow around the aquarium. This flow helps minimize the contact that the delicate jellyfish makes with the sides of the tank.

It all starts with the spraybar which pushes the jellies down, away from the filter intake. The filter intake is huge compared to the small amount of water flowing through it. The large, diffused surface area ensures that the jellies don't get sucked in.

The spraybar along with the tank's rounded corners create a smooth current around the perimeter of the aquarium. The jellyfish very rarely make significant contact the the sides of the aquarium.

The filter intake screen is a filter pad from a canister filter. The water enters a thin chamber directly behind the screen and goes up and over a weir that keeps the water level in the main tank from fluctuating. The water is then channeled to where it drops into a chamber with bio-balls. Note the slow flow rate in the video. Jellyfish tanks only require enough flow to maintain the correct current pattern in the main tank.

The water passes through the bio-balls and goes down, under a baffle which helps to minimize the bubbles being pumped back into the main tank. Then back up a narrow chamber that contains the heater and a bag of carbon. Then over another weir which maintains a constant water level in the bio-ball chamber. And, finally into the return pump chamber

Where the thermometer is. The water is currently being kept at 75f and a specific gravity of 1.027. The return pump is a MarineLand Maxi-jet 400. This sends water up into 1/2" pvc pipe, thru a ball valve that allows the flow rate to be regulated and finally back out to the spraybar in the main tank.

To encourage evaporation which cools the water some, there is a fan blowing across the surface of the aquarium's water. Between the fan and the heater, the aquarium's temperature is very stable

There are two lights illuminating the aquarium. A blue LED strip above and a dim color changing LED strip under the tank.

The curved corners are thin acrylic, bent into a 10" diameter curve by using a heat gun to soften the acrylic and a stove pipe as a form/mold. The rounded corners of the tank are removable and not water tight. I did that so I could use really thin acrylic and not worry about the water pressure. I just take 'em out occasionally and clean underneath them.

-The spraybar is 1/2" pvc pipe with 1/8' holes drilled every half inch.
-All of the pieces used to modify the tank are acrylic.
-The acrylic is cemented together with Weld-On #4.
-To hold the acrylic parts to the glass aquarium the edges were roughened and lots of MarineLand silicone was used to glue them in.
-Since this build, I have now found that Dow Corning 795 or CWS is a MUCH better glue for gluing acrylic to glass. (of which I have some leftovers if anyone wants to buy some)


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## Ciddian

that is a really beautiful vid. Really, you did put wonderful effort into it and thank you so much for sharing that. <3


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## Kerohime

I'm speechless, that is just gorgeous. I look just like my avatar watching those videos!


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## AlgaeBeater

Kerohime said:


> I'm speechless, that is just gorgeous. I look just like my avatar watching those videos!


 Nice avatar!!


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## AlgaeBeater

Well, I'm back at it again. My Jellyfish lived out their lives (they only live about a year naturally) and that old tank is drained (actually, I cracked it during a move... oops).

So, on to bigger and better things... A 120-gallon, 4-foot tall, viewable on 3 sides, moon jellyfish aquarium. I have the tank and the conversion to a jellyfish aquarium is in the planning stages. If there's interest, I'll post the progress here.


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## appak

AlgaeBeater said:


> Well, I'm back at it again. My Jellyfish lived out their lives (they only live about a year naturally) and that old tank is drained (actually, I cracked it during a move... oops).
> 
> So, on to bigger and better things... A 120-gallon, 4-foot tall, viewable on 3 sides, moon jellyfish aquarium. I have the tank and the conversion to a jellyfish aquarium is in the planning stages. If there's interest, I'll post the progress here.


Let me be the first to express interest. 

If you can include build photos as well that would be spectacular!


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## noy

definitely keep us posted!

this sounds very cool!


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## Midland

I want to tag along as well. Your videos are informative and awesome! Great work.


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## silent1mezzo

tagging along for the ride. This is awesome!


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## Mikeylikes

Mesmerizing .. thanks for sharing that video! Well done


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