Blue Ring Octopus Tank (Hapalochlaena)

[alphaceph]

Most of this sounds great, but copper is a huge no-no when it comes to cephalopods. They have copper in their blood and use it to bind oxygen to their bloodstream. Any trace amounts of copper in your system can and will kill your animals. I would recommend adding a copper absorption media asap to keep your animals safe. I can provide a link to what I use if you'd like.

Copper... Is it really that deadly?
Here is a link to another TONMO conversation about copper in ceph-tanks. One of our moderators shared some insight they have from 10 years of experience. Copper is bad.

Thanks for the article, today I made 10% water change and added Seachem Prime, which according to the instruction removes heavy metals. Also, I noticed that my PO4 levels are at 0,05-0,1 ppm, is it a concern for BROs ?

Nitrate was 10ppm before water change.
Nitrite 0,1ppm

 

[alphaceph]

Added carbon in external filter
They ate one more hermit crab
Last two days they spent most of the time hiding in the rock in different places
Water quality is the same

 

[pkilian]

Your phosphate levels seem fine, I wouldn't be worried about them at that level. In addition to adding carbon to the external filter you could also add a mesh bag with a small amount of CupriSorb (this is one brand recommendation, but there are others available). CupriSorb more specifically targets copper in your water, and actually changes color if it is absorbing copper, so you will have an easy visual indicator if your system has a lot of copper remaining. Seachem Prime will probably be fine for you but it is really only designed to remove trace amounts of heavy metals found in municipal water (per their product support).

 

[alphaceph]

Guys, do you think that BROs will catch camel shrimp ? Since almost 3 weeks, they didn't eat any of them. Big concern for me, as I noticed shrimps eating coral polyps.

Tried to make a trap with a food inside of a bottle - they don't get into it.
Hope octopuses will eat those evil shrimps, as I can not catch them...

 

[alphaceph]

Added CupriSorb

 

[alphaceph]

It's funny how one of them blocked entrance to the cave by a shell of hermit crab

Temperature was 23,9 C in the morning, now 22,6 C (opened window). I haven't purchased coolers yet. Hope that 24 C was ok for them...

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0,1 ppm (JBL test kit)
Nitrate 10 ppm
Salinity 1,025

 

[alphaceph]

Day 24

Removed carbon from filter. CupriSorb is still there.
I want to purchase a big canister filter (11 liter space for media) and fill it up with live rock to eliminate my 0,1 ppm nitrite.

 

[sedna]

Guys, do you think that BROs will catch camel shrimp ? Since almost 3 weeks, they didn't eat any of them. Big concern for me, as I noticed shrimps eating coral polyps.

Tried to make a trap with a food inside of a bottle - they don't get into it.
Hope octopuses will eat those evil shrimps, as I can not catch them...

I had some with a briareus. They lived peacefully together for months- then one day they were all gone!

 

[sedna]

It's funny how one of them blocked entrance to the cave by a shell of hermit crab

Temperature was 23,9 C in the morning, now 22,6 C (opened window). I haven't purchased coolers yet. Hope that 24 C was ok for them...

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0,1 ppm (JBL test kit)
Nitrate 10 ppm
Salinity 1,025

View attachment 76538

Was it a female who pulled the shell into the den? Some species just do that, but in several species the female does this when she’s making a brooding den. You’ll have to watch and see what happens over the next few weeks.

 

[alphaceph]

I think so, because it's bigger than the other one... Also, today I found that she/he released the shell.
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Unfortunately today I had 0,25 nitrite. Probably due to skimmer working improperly. (video below) I suppose its because I've added 5ml of Seachem Prime(my tank is 130liters), that according to reviews may alter skimmer performance.

Or maybe my new 11liter external filter that arrived yesterday was an issue, as live rock inside may have absorbed some waste particles from the water and they decayed inside.

Also, as I have purchased a new live rock - I fragmented it into parts to put inside, occasionally some living things like worms may have died causing contamination. (doesn't answer the improperly working skimmer problem)

Another reason probably is that yesterday I was also cleaning my skimmer (reassembled it and took out waste from rotor), but I don't think that's the case.

So, nothing changed except:
new filter with live rock
5ml of Prime
reassembly of skimmer.

As for now the skimmer is still working the same way... I'am really worried about my inhabitants
Maybe anyone has a clue what's going on ?

P.S
Did 15% water change today to address the Seachem Prime issue. However, if it is the root of a problem, 15% probably is not enough.
Removed some small fractions of live rock from the filter to prevent organics accumulate there.
Added DVH BioGro