Supernoob's 250 gallon tank buildout! Help!

[skywindsurfer]

Most animals you put in with an octopus will either eat the octopus or be eaten themselves. That being said, when using live crustaceans for food you will have to pick up after your octopus as they do not eat everything and will leave bits and pieces around the tank to rot. As far as water changes you do not want to do any water changes until the tank has cycled. The more you do, the longer it will take to fully cycle. I used to use live food for my animals, but it was a hassle for me to clean up after then and I just used frozen foods that were already pealed or easy to peel after they were thawed. I'm sure I speak for the rest of TONMO when say we'd all love to see some pics/videos of your completed work.

 

[Supernoob]

Ugh! Cycling takes so long!

 

[Supernoob]

There is my tank everybody! I glued undergravel filters over the tank overflows to octoproof. Looks like this on each side.

Two cyclone 150 protein skimmers. One on each side.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Ugh! Cycling takes so long!

lol I fully cycled my 55 gallon within two days shy of two weeks.

 

[Supernoob]

I did a full water test last weekend and everything was zero. Only thing is the ph was a bit low.

 

[Supernoob]

Video tour! Thoughts?

 

[skywindsurfer]

The tank looks nice, but I would re-think a few of those fish if you plan to keep fish with your octopus.

 

[Supernoob]

I don't mind if he eats a few, I just don't want any to mess with him. Are there fish in there that are aggressive towards octos?

 

[skywindsurfer]

That's what I was getting at. You definately have a few I would pull out, but its up to you to see if any of them give your otopus trouble.

 

[Supernoob]

I had a miniatus grouper and an undulated moray in there for awhile, but I returned the eel to the wild and traded the grouper to my LFS in preparation for my octopus. I wanted the tank to be used to large messy predators. I recently introduced a partridge tun that I found in Kaneohe bay while out torching one night. According to my research it poses no threat to octopus, it only eats sea cucumbers. It's a really cool creature though.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Remember that behavior and diet may when placed in captivity.

 

[Supernoob]

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep a close eye on things. Can I use ph buffers in an octo tank? My ph is at 8.2. I think I remember reading it should be 8.6 for cephs.

 

[CaptFish]

pH of 8.2 is fine. the recommended pH is between 8.1 and 8.4. You could buffer a little, but I wouldn't recommend you go chasing numbers trying to get a perfect pH.

 

[Supernoob]

Thanks CaptFish. I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get any lower.

 

[DWhatley]

Looking GOOD. Most any mollusk is fine but remember that it may become lunch (and I would not want my cucumbers to be dinner for a snail ). Keeping it fed might be problematic so watch it closely or you will have a gooey mess in the tank.

A caution about returning things to the wild. If you don't have an ocean flow through (usually only a few major aquariums have this kind of set up) with only local everything ever in the tank, it is unwise (and sometimes illegal) to return critters to the ocean once they have been in an aquarium. You can unwillingly spread protentially harmful bacteria that could have disasterous results to the ocean animals. The examples I know about were not caused by aquarists but in FL, conficated collections are never put back because of historic problems. The queen conch and the long spined urchin being two casualties of rapid bacteria spread.