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not octo related--opinions on sw tank set up

dawnchihuahua

GPO
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Jan 24, 2005
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Has anyone had experience setting up a tank completely from things found at the beach? Today I got buckets of sand and shells and water from the "filtered SW tap" at the beach... I was hoping to put crabs and shrimp and other octo num-nums in there as a buffet holding tank. Is this a bad plan? opinions, please!
 
Actually, a holding tank for octo food is ceph-related. Do you what is coming out of that "filtered SW" tap - what is it used for?

I think Carol (corw314) keeps a feeder tank with crabs and other things she finds along the shore. But I'm sure she has a filter on it. She is on vacation this week, so we'll have to ask her later.

Nancy
 
hm...is unfiltered sea water called filtered after being in the tank for 2 weeks going round a small carbon filter and bacteria wheel? It's also been growing alage.
 
hi
sand from the beach needs to be washed carefully before use... also, run a magnet through it to remove small bits of metal which can contaminate a reef tank. The metal comes from shipwrecks and rubbish etc

cheers
 
I use primarly "found" stuff. Pretty much everything in my tank is from the local beach. I use local saltwater and decorations. I plan on feeding my O. Rubecines with shore crabs, hermit crabs, shrip ect from the open ocean. When I kept the one at bamfield that is all I used and had no problems. The current tank is just going through its cycles. But I never have many problems. Mind you my tank will be kept at a constant 8 degrees, mimicing the local ocean.
 
Nancy said:
Do you what is coming out of that "filtered SW" tap - what is it used for?

It is used for the fish breeding program at UNCW, I was lucky enough to get the info about the tap while I was at work, it seems to be a well kept secret! I guess one of the advantages of working at a petstore! They have two taps there, one filtered and one raw... I went with the filtered.

Thanks all for the advice!
 
i think a filter is a good idea - the sand might containt little baddies too but maybe the good will outweigh the bad i really havent got a clue - jus the danger of parasites on the crabs and shrimp getting passed on but then it certainly beats freshwater guppies lol

oi think the risk is negligable and it sound like an interesting experiment!! have u though of setting it up like a side by side refugium plumbed into the system? i am still looking at something like this but with seahorses... good luk
 
oscar said:
have u though of setting it up like a side by side refugium plumbed into the system?

I haven't contemplated that yet! I actually set everything up since I had an empty 40 gallon just sitting around, in it are my original 3 damsels used to cycle my octo tank, a store bought hermie and snail, and a bunch of found clams, shrimp, and other critters... Everything is still living, especially since I give it a double dose of NovAqua + every day haha! The octos on octopets seem to be backordered so as long as everyone in the "found stuff" tank is still living by then I guess it might be safe to store food in there for him...

Good luck with the sea ponies, I am thinking of starting a sea pony ranch myself :razz:
 

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