• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

new octo tank need help

Octoguy

Hatchling
Registered
Joined
Sep 4, 2008
Messages
2
hello i have looked and read most of the forums on tonmo over and over and am stuck with my tank right now. here i go i have had live rock in my tank for over 3 weeks now and i can clearly see organisms growing on them but i have yet to see the amonia spikes mentioned. i turned off my filter and have 3 damsels and one peppermint shrimp in my tank. ( i know to take out the damsels when the octopus arrives) can anyone help me?
 
Since you are seeing life growing on your rock you should be doing just fine. The ammonia spike comes from dead things decaying and, as Shipposhack noted, your rock likely has experienced its major die off before entering your tank. With the visible life, it means you have a healthy bacteria start (without it you have dead rock and not enough die off to cycle). Do not, however, assume you have a fully cycled tank. This assumption causes the infamous "new tank syndrome" where beginning aquarists over stock an immature tank, causing more waste than the bacteria can handle and killing off almost everything in a short time. The pepperming shrimp won't produce much waste, dead or alive even in a very small tank (unlike a dead, meater shrimp). It will, however, help control any aptasia the rock may have.

Unfortunately, we don't have hobbiest test for what should be there, only minimal test for what should not. It occurs to me that it would be a good graduate studies experiment to come up with a simple method of determine a way to test bio-load handling - might even be profitable, depending on what could be marketed.
 
ull want to get tird of the damsels when the octopus arives. their mean little things, and often will go after ur octo's eyes. just move them to another tank or find a new home.
 
yea im just waiting for the amonia to go down to 0 and i have tried everything to try to lower it. thanks for the help and advice tho guys its just frustrating ESPECIALLY when everytime you go to the lfs to pick up stuff for your tank you hafta walk by the octopus you cant wait to pick up haha
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top