My first O. Hummelincki

[skywindsurfer]

Ok well looks like I've found a 240 Gallon aquarium that's reef ready. All the animals are doing fine so far. I even saw bubbles walking across some of the rocks. She's (or he, I guess that's still up in the air) seems to be a lot bolder and is exploring the rest of the tank.

 

[skywindsurfer]

P.S.

My camera is not working right now so I wont be posting anymore pictures anytime soon.

 

[sulley]

so what are your plans for the animals? even if you transfer the livestock to a new tank with your established rock and substrate you most likely will have a huge spike just as you would cycling a tank that will likely kill the octo and less than hardy stock...will your lfs hold the octo for you? if you are doing this you might as well set up a tank dedicated for the octo only..just my opinion and good luck

 

[skywindsurfer]

Well as long as I do not increase the bio-load on this new tank, which I have no plan on doing, there shouldn't be much of a spike. I'm using the same water the same rocks, the same sand, the same sump. There is not a lot of beneficial bacteria attached tot he glass itself so it shouldn't matter to greatly by adding everything to a new tank. I will eventually add more rock and substrate, but for now it's just a complete switch. Plus the added water volume will help with the ammonia spike. So my plans are to keep all of my animals.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Well after Bubbles, I'm going to shoot for a larger octopus species. I was thinking either O. Maya or O. Vulgaris. When I move to the Texas Coast, I'll be keeping what ever I can catch down there (which will more then likely be O. Vulgaris). Also the only other tanks I have that I could put an octopus in are my 29 gallon biocube and a regular(not reef ready tank) 40 gallon tank. And I'm sure it's unanimous on this site that those tanks are too small.

 

[sulley]

just concerned with disrupting the substrate..keep us updated

 

[skywindsurfer]

I understand and thank you for the concern. We are about to head over to the guys house in a few minutes to get the tank. I am not so much worried about the substrate as I am the mass of clean or fresh salt water that needs to be added to the tank. I am going from a 110 gallon to a 240 gallon and that is over double the water volume. My plans are to simply move everything over to the new tank (water included), and then I will slowly add more salt water of the course of the next few weeks. I'll have my powerheads and two airpumps running in the tank until it has enough water to run the pumps and sump. I have 10 gallons of extra water sitting in jugs at home right now. Some time this weekend I'll go back to the store and grab about another 10-15 gallons. I don't want to add too much clean salt water to quickly, disrupting the water chemistry and shocking all of my animals. No too mention the possible high amonia spike I would get if I just dumped 120 gallons of fresh salt water into that tank. I'll keep tabs on this forum on my progress from setting it up tonight to the point I have it fully up and running.

 

[skywindsurfer]

P.S.

I got my camera fixed. The memory card was locked and my fiance helped to get that resolved. So I'll be posting pictures of the new tank, the old one, and all of the animals as I go.

 

[DWhatley]

Adding clean water will not cause an ammonia spike. Adding matched water may help with one that may result from disrupting the substrate.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Ok so after a few hours we finally got the 96"x24"x25" tank and 96"x24"x32" (Length, Width, Height) I figure it's about 250 gallons empty. This is what it looks like right now. I'm filling it with the water that I pulled out of the 110 right now. After I do that I'm going to start pulling water and rocks from what remains in the 110. And smack in the middle is our new dogfish. ha ha ha. lol

 

[skywindsurfer]

Ok so my fiance and I were successfully able to get almost 100% off all sand, water, rock, and live stock over to the new tank. I have a power head and an air stone on it right now. For lighting I have two T-8's. One actinic and one 10,000K. There was only one casualty. The cow fish was found dead half buried in the sand. My fiance was heart broken. She loved that little fish. No idea why it was dead. I assume it happened before we started the switch. It looked entirely healthy. It did have issues with getting stuck to the pumps a lot and I figure that's what killed it. Probably had it's insides scrambled. I don't have the sump hooked up right now because 1.) the tank is not even half full(about 40% right now) & 2.) I don't have the plumbing to run water too and from the sump/tank. I'll have to go get that this Friday. Needless to say the fish are already loving the new space, and I'm LOVING the large tank. This is going to be the last tank we buy for a very long time and I'm going to try to make it look great. No word on Bubbles as I haven't seen her/him since I moved all of the rocks over, but I'll keep an eye out.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Ok so I've decided to kind of go in a different direction with this tank. I've always loved the idea of half land half water tanks. Well I'm turning this tank into a full strength salt water estuary. Right now I'm in the process of building an island in the left rear corner of the tank. I've also added a rock jettie that blocks off the left front corner, making a sort of salt water lagoon. I'm going to use this for my fiances delicate fish (i.e. box/cow fish, pipe fish, sea horses, et cetra). The island is going to stand about an inch out of the water with some drift wood and a bowl of fresh water in it. I'm going to put some coastal green tree frogs that are native to the Texas coast, and some of the current tree frogs I have now. I'm also considering some species of crab (i.e. fiddlers or ghosts). The tank is about half full of water (about 150 gallons). All the animals are still alive and kicking it. I saw bubbles crawling around the rocks today when I got home. That made me happy. I'm waiting for the fog to go down so I can see how everything looks. I'm still trying to rearrange all of the live rock in there to make it look nice. For the most part I want the tank to be open swimming room with all of the rock pushed to the sides.

 

[DWhatley]

... and the octopus can't get over the rock jettie that houses delicate fish including seahorses that you have already seen can't live with an octopus ...

 

[skywindsurfer]

lol ya I know it can crawl over it. I'm not putting them in there now. I'm talking about long term. The jettie is to keep the fish out.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Also so that the delicate fish can be kept safely away from the power heads. That cow fish had to be removed from the power heads and over flows one too many times. So this is just a nice little sanctuary with little current and nothing to hurt them. But let me stress this again that I don't plan on putting anything like a sea horse or pipe fish in there while I have the octopus. I know I would just be trapping them in a box for the octopus to catch and eat if I did.