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Coldwater Marine Setup in the Garage

It seems as though cyanea needs a huge tank, but I have heard hummelincki is a good alternative. I have also heard that feeding octopuses less regularly slows growth and lengthens life span. In the MBA they had a 3 year old 20cm europaean cuttlefish in a 30 US gallon tank. They feed cephalopods twice a week with 2 or 3 medium Necora crabs.
 
Did you check out the link I provided above? Roy (Neogonodactylus) seems to feel the need for a huge tank is way over rated and that the one you are looking at would be more than adequate.
 
Aah sorry I didn't notice the link! Very interesting, I would love to keep the octopus interested and try to test their intelligence.
 
Been a while!

Hey sorry I haven't posted in a while! I managed to buy the 736 litre tank, along with all the equipment and livestock. The tank is just under half way full at the moment, even after many times of driving to and from the LFS with RO water. I checked with the local marine laboratory, and they told me a place where the water quality is near perfect, so I took some seawater from there and treated it with UV as well. The tank is in the garage, but it is tropical marine so it has piles of insulation on it along with backup heaters. I haven't plumbed in the sump yet, so at the moment I'm relying on live rock filtration and a protein skimmer. I am trying to find someone to buy the fish but the LFS will only take them off me for free "in case they die". The total value of the fish is around £200 - £250, so if I managed to sell them, I could buy myself a decent external canister filter and make a refugium under the tank instead of a sump, with mangroves, live rock and caulerpa for nitrate removal. It would also be a great place to keep the live food and as a coral nursery. It would also house the protein skimmer and a heater. Water would be fed into the refugium by gravity then pumped through a canister filter and up into the tank.

Overall, all the fish (and the sea urchin) are happy and healthy, with a pH of 8.3 and zero ammonia. Looks like keeping an octopus is out of the question for the next few months, maybe even years until the tank is completely sorted out!

Here is the tank:

14658_188928248807_658378807_2893484_7975750_n.jpg
 
Congratulations on getting the tank.

You asked in an earlier post about using local (cold water) live rock instead of tropical live rock. I have a cold water tank with a bimac octopus and local rock (southern California). Tropical live rock works as a bio-filter because it provides a lot of places for bacteria to live, both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. It does this because it is very porous (lime stone). In California (and I think in Britain) coastal rock is hard, non-porous rock, and so provides very little bio-filtration. It looks like your tank came with live rock, so if you decide to replace it with local rock, you will need to add a filtration system to replace the tropical live rock.

Why the long wait to get an octopus? Once the tank's bio-filter is stable, all you need to do is make the tank escape-proof, find a reliable source of octo food (I use thawed pieces of scallop meat for my bimac), and find a source for a species of octo that likes your water temps. Go for it!
 
Half way there!!!

Hi,
I have rehomed all but a pair of clownfish and three damsels. I have added a Sinularia coral and a featherduster worm as well as some green polyps, which should spread hopefully! Also, I found an amazing piece of live rock with mushroom corals, various sponges & sea squirts, snowflake polyps, coralline algae, sargassum algae and I added some turbos and red legged hermits. Unfortunately, I have a bristleworm hitchhiker but every time I have tried to catch it, it either tries to bite me (very aggressive!!) or escapes. I also have many crab hitchhikers which will hopefully be food for the octopus in the future. Almost everything is perfect, nitrates are on the high side so I will need to stock the tank with macroalgae and probably use a 'nitrate absorber'. The tank is very well oxygenated, with a a V2 skim 800 blasting O2 into the water and an Ocean Runner 2500 placed near the surface to create a strong surface current with waves. Today I managed to buy a 90 litre tank for £5 which will be used as either a Kreisel or deep sand bed under the tank. I am also planning on building a large refugium under the tank which will be home to mangroves, macro algae and corals. There will be a portion of the refugium which will be out of the water to keep land hermit crabs and possibly attempt to breed them. I have so many ideas at the moment, and I am looking forward to perfecting the tank this year! I have also found how frustratingly annoying it is to get hold of an octopus in the UK!! I am thinking hummelincki or cyanea at the moment! Joe, I will have a lot of work to do escape proofing the tank, the top of the tank is really strange with support bars all over the place, creating lots of holes to somehow block securely! :L The tank is still only half full, I really need to fill it up soon!!
Thanks
James

Below are some pics of the tank taken today. Sorry for the salt creep on the glass!!
 

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Actually, if you want to use ($$$) acrylic, those support bars are a blessing. Think in terms of hinged lids in stead of one large one. Your brissle worm comment is curious though. There are various kinds and this is definitely not the kind we typically see but I am wondering if is it one like those I saw a mote (very scary critters).

I am still thinking screened in porch effect for the garage with a reading chair, refreshment frig and microwave for summer relaxation. Sort of a marine inspired gazebo. :biggrin2:
 
Yep that bristle worm is evil!!! For a small animal it is scary! When I first saw it I recognised it was a bristle worm so I thought I would take it out to take some pictures for an ID. As soon as my hand went near it, it started twitching and aimed its evil little black extendable mouthpart at me in the style of alien! I bought powder free latex gloves to try and catch it but it bit right through one! I haven't seen it in about a week now but I am still very wary of putting my hands anywhere near the live rock. I have now come to the conclusion that it is not the good type of bristle worm...
I am not looking forward to making a lid for the tank. I think I would probably be better finding a 6x2 sheet of perspex and putting the lights on top of that, then surround it in thick insulation. I'd love to make the garage into a relaxation area, it would be amazing! I am planning on some temperate marine tanks in there too now, hopefully by the end of the year I will be able to charge an admission fee, members of Tonmo come free :wink:
Thanks
James
 
I've never had to deal with bristle worms, but I think that people buy little plastic traps for them that are left in the tank over night. Your LFS should sell such things, just get one that is the right size for the beast in your tank. There may also be DIY bristle worm traps you can read about online.
 
I don't think he has the same little pink worms that most of us are accustomed to seeing. Most unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of the OTHER kind that we saw at Mote during TONMOCON II but here is a picture of something like what I expect he is talking about:

http://scienceblogs.com/zooillogix/Giant Reef Bristle Worm Newquay.jpg

As I recall (can't believe I don't have a picture) the ones at Mote were different looking even from this one.
 
Wow that aquarium is quite close to where I live! They had an amazing giant octopus. I have just found out my worm is a bobbit/eunicid worm!! It's horrible I really need to get it out before it grows HUGE but it hides inside a piece of live rock covered in polyps and mushroom corals. I'd hate to damage that rock or the animals on it. Even worse than a bristle worm, it makes me shudder!
 

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