Virginia Tank in the Planning!

Joined
Jan 15, 2017
Messages
1
Location
Virginia
Hi all! I've been lurking on this forum since 2009; for some reason my old account from then won't let me post, so I just created this new one to finally introduce myself.

I'm a social psych grad student in Virginia, and have a 75g reef at home and a couple of small freshwater tanks. About a year ago, I started to set up a 29 gallon tank in my office on campus. I knew I wanted to do a saltwater tank, but wasn't entirely sure which route I wanted to go. Given that it's a smaller tank, I was thinking of going the species-tank route, and finally settled on an octopus tank, which I've always wanted to do but really wanted to have plenty of experience before attempting. My home reef has been up and running for almost four years now, and I finally feel ready to dive into the world of cephalopods!

The office tank was cycled last summer, and is currently home to CUC and saltwater-acclimated mollies, who are keeping the place warm until its new inhabitant arrives. (The mollies will be removed for the octopus!). I'm in the final stages of adapting the tank to be octo-friendly. I recently got a new protein skimmer for the reef, and am moving the old skimmer (with a new motor) to the office tank (it's been running skimmerless with the mollies), expanding the sump, and escape-proofing everything. It's not drilled, so I'm using a HOB overflow - and Mollies aren't very good at escaping tanks, so I haven't had to worry previously about nailing down all the escape hatches. :wink:

Given the smaller tank size, I'm looking at smaller species, and from what I've read it sounds like A. aculeatus would be a good fit for the set-up I have. I know LA often has them in stock as their "Indonesian" octopus (although no guarantees on species). A little more space in the main tank would be ideal, but the skimmer and filtration on the tank is way over-spec, I do frequent water changes, and I'm expanding the sump to increase the total water in the system substantially. I'm hoping to have all my final modifications done within the next 2-3 weeks, have my live food supplies in-place (there are plenty of hermits in the tank as CUC currently and I have good access to fresh and frozen shrimp/clams/scallops, but I'm looking to get in an order of fiddlers as well), and have the tank ready for its new inhabitant very soon. Any thoughts and comments are more than welcome, as nothing is final at this stage.

In any case, it seemed about time to finally de-lurk and say hi!
 
:cuttlehi: It sounds like you have done your reading. My only concern is, as you mentioned, the tank size. Though relatively small, aculeatus is an active species so the worry is more physical room for movement than water supply since you seem to have covered the potential water pollution issues.
 
Hi all! I've been lurking on this forum since 2009; for some reason my old account from then won't let me post, so I just created this new one to finally introduce myself.

I'm a social psych grad student in Virginia, and have a 75g reef at home and a couple of small freshwater tanks. About a year ago, I started to set up a 29 gallon tank in my office on campus. I knew I wanted to do a saltwater tank, but wasn't entirely sure which route I wanted to go. Given that it's a smaller tank, I was thinking of going the species-tank route, and finally settled on an octopus tank, which I've always wanted to do but really wanted to have plenty of experience before attempting. My home reef has been up and running for almost four years now, and I finally feel ready to dive into the world of cephalopods!

The office tank was cycled last summer, and is currently home to CUC and saltwater-acclimated mollies, who are keeping the place warm until its new inhabitant arrives. (The mollies will be removed for the octopus!). I'm in the final stages of adapting the tank to be octo-friendly. I recently got a new protein skimmer for the reef, and am moving the old skimmer (with a new motor) to the office tank (it's been running skimmerless with the mollies), expanding the sump, and escape-proofing everything. It's not drilled, so I'm using a HOB overflow - and Mollies aren't very good at escaping tanks, so I haven't had to worry previously about nailing down all the escape hatches. :wink:

Given the smaller tank size, I'm looking at smaller species, and from what I've read it sounds like A. aculeatus would be a good fit for the set-up I have. I know LA often has them in stock as their "Indonesian" octopus (although no guarantees on species). A little more space in the main tank would be ideal, but the skimmer and filtration on the tank is way over-spec, I do frequent water changes, and I'm expanding the sump to increase the total water in the system substantially. I'm hoping to have all my final modifications done within the next 2-3 weeks, have my live food supplies in-place (there are plenty of hermits in the tank as CUC currently and I have good access to fresh and frozen shrimp/clams/scallops, but I'm looking to get in an order of fiddlers as well), and have the tank ready for its new inhabitant very soon. Any thoughts and comments are more than welcome, as nothing is final at this stage.

In any case, it seemed about time to finally de-lurk and say hi!
 

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