Awaiting new octopus

Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Messages
1,740
Finally after such a long dry spell of not having an octopus, I'm starting up a new system. Because of various reasons I sold my 250 gallon tank and moved what few corals and anemones I wanted to keep into a 10 gallon tank. I have a 55 gallon tank stand, glass top, and canopy that was housing my freshwater vivarium. I moved everything into a 37 gallon tank and currently selling them. I just finished setting up the 55 gallon for a saltwater tank for a new octopus. I added some bio spira that is said to instantly make the tank safe for fish to help speed up the bio cycle. I'm thinking about getting a small damsel to help it along as well. As soon as it's properly cycled I'm going to move everything from the 10 gallon into the 55 gallon. I'm going to give the corals some time to completely attach to the rocks and then search for a new octopus. I'm hoping I'll be able to find another tiny O. Hummelincki as I had before. Here is a video I took a few hours ago. The tank is still a little cloudy because I just added three bags of sand.

 
I am going to have to place some more rock around the left side as the pump pushes so hard it is blowing the sand from that corner. I'm also thinking of adding some fine gravel to help hold the sand in place. I must admit I made an error in purchasing sand that was too fine. Oh well. You work with what you have I guess. To even out the look of the tank I will put some rocks on the right side of the tank as well. I am going to the store today to get a few damsels/chromis to get more biological in the tank and help it cycle faster. The water has cleared up a lot since yesterday so I will try to post a new video of it with the added rock and fish and a video of my little ten gallon which I'm debating on whether or not to make it a dwarf octopus tank as it is well cycled and doing great.
 
I have a Koralia that clears the sand in one corner and I just leave it that way. I find it much better for maintenance to leave hand room on the ends.
 
lol I would, but I'm OCD and I have to have everything even. Not to mention it cleared about 1/4th of the tank of sand and there was a huge sand dune in the center, though that would've looked awesome if I added more sand to fill the void left by the pump if only it would stay there. I just covered it with some rubble rock, and while it is not completely protected by the strong current, the rocks do seem to be doing a great job at bouncing most of the current off the bottom and back across the tank. I'll just have to see how everything settles down when I get up tomorrow. I added three quarter sized (or larger) damsels to help with the bio cycle. I feel stupid because while I baught the fish, I forgot to buy some food. So I'll have to go back to the store tomorrow lol. Here's the video I promised.
 
So I decided to add two small corals(one kenyan tree and one red mushroom) and a small patch of macro-algae(two species) to see how they do. They are actually doing fairly well. I'm going to have my water tested tomorrow to see where my nitrogen cycle is at. Right now I'm having a slight issue with heat. If I leave the glass tops on the tank can spike up to 86F. If I leave them off the water evaporates rather quickly. Dilema, dilema, dilema...
 
Just one day shy of two weeks since I set this system up and the water chemistry is Salinity - 1.034(topped off with RO to lower it), pH - 8.1, Ammonia - 0, Nitrites - 0, Nitrates - 10, Phosphates - 0.5

I went ahead and started adding some corals and macro algae to the system. Since I was running regular T5's on the ten gallon and I'm running a 150watt halide on the fiftyfive gallon I'll have to acclimate them to the stronger light. I'll keep you posted on how the coral transfer goes. All fish still doing fine.
 
So far all but one species of the corals I have placed in the 55 gallon from the 10 gallon is doing great. It's not dying, it's just not as open and full as the ones in the 10 gallon. I have moved most of the corals over and just have a few left including four anemones. I'm going to wait a few more days until I move everything else to see if the corals in the 55 gallon continue to do well. As for lighting I have a small halide/T5(actinic) combo and two 48" T12's(actinic). Currently the ballast for the T12's doesn't work so the tank is a bit more white/yellow than I'd like. My plan is to flood the tank with actinic T(whatevers) so I can keep the 10K halide for coral growth and still have that deep water blue. I'll wait at least another month or two for the corals to grow and attach themselves to the rocks before I through an octopus in there. I'd like to give the tank to have a little more time to mature as well.
 
It all looks so great! You're giving me lots of motivation to paint the bedroom so I can set up the 75 gal that's been in my basement for just over a month now... Can't wait to see an octo in there!
 
I'm glad to see that I inspire you. You're the second person thus far to grace me with such a compliment. I too cannot wait to see an octopus in this tank as well. Right now I'm fighting an issue with keeping the temperature down and the evaporation loss to a minimum. I'm also having an issue with diatoms covering everything. I'm sure once the system settles and the Ca+ goes up this will go down. The corals I added last night and all the corals I've added thus far are doing excelent except for that one species(duncan), so I'm going to add more corals tonight. I'm still kind of hesitant to add the anemones as they are fairly expensive and I don't want to loos them. They are all attached to the same rock unfortunately, so it's an all or nothing thing.
 
So I've decided to just take the plunge with the rest of my inverts(accept for the duncan corals as they are doing so well in the 10 gallon and have yet to show any signs of improvment in the 55 gallon) and place them all into the 55 gallon. Here is an updated video.
 

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