• 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.

Escaped but alive??

i read that a chemical called Prime helps keep it under control, but i never trusted chemicals too much, has anyone used this or other chemicals to keep nitrates down? I personally think the best way is just water changes and macro algae..
 
simple;103713 said:
i read that a chemical called Prime helps keep it under control, but i never trusted chemicals too much, has anyone used this or other chemicals to keep nitrates down? I personally think the best way is just water changes and macro algae..

Almost all of those chemical don't really do what they say they will do. Pretty much every experienced aquarist avoids them. The biggest problem with the additives is that people use them in place of good husbandry practices - its like spraying Lysol on the kitty littler box, but not actually changing the litter.
 
Thales pretty much hit it right on about the nitrogen cycle, so I'll try not to go into too many details about that.

Nitrates are generally considered "safe" under 30 parts per million. Shooting for 0 is always the best goal of course, but that depends on your boiload, filteration, age of tank, and some other things. The best export for NO3 is water changes. After the Ammonia turns to Nitrite and the Nitrite turns to Nitrate, the Nitrate has nothing to turn into but Nitrogen gas. How much is turned in to Nitrogen gas depends on the amount of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria you have in your tank, generally found in the sand bed. At least 90% of all tanks are not likely to have enough bacteria to sustain the Nitrate levels under 10ppm, what I would not want my water above. That's where water changes come in. As you (hopefully) know, water changes are a wonderful way to get rid of dissolved organic matter (PO4 and NO3) as well as other unwanted whosawhats that are in your tank. A standard water change of 20-30% should suffice for any excess you have of any compound you don't want. I don't typically recommend water changes ^40%. Once you get there you can run into larger problems than you already have. If the water is not where you would like after the change, wait at least 24 hours for the water to mix in and get to be not-so-foreign. I will usually tell people to wait 48-72 hours to make sure parameters stay stable (the ones you want to, this is).

Never, ever let your Nitrates reach 50. This generally means you already went through a large Ammonia spike, as well as Nitrite. Some gunuses of Macroalgae are excellent at removing PO4 and NO3 from the water, which they use to grow, the most widespread being Caulerpa, with several species. A close second is Chaetomorpha. When constructing a refugium for this purpose you want it to be as big as feasible. A 5 gallon refugium will do next to nothing for a 50 gallon tank, for example. In my opinion, refugiums are fairly pointless unless they are at least 1/3 the size of your display.

Hope I helped someone :smile:
 
Hey all - thanks to those who tried to help out my little self-mutilating friend. I checked the water levels, they were all on target. We get our water straight from a filtered ocean tap, so I did a 1/3 change, but he is just getting worse. He is no longer moving, even when food is right by him...though he did try to reach out for my hand when I put it in there. Big bummer, he'll be dead my morning. I think I'll go cry now.
 
Chia;103734 said:
Hey all - thanks to those who tried to help out my little self-mutilating friend. I checked the water levels, they were all on target. We get our water straight from a filtered ocean tap, so I did a 1/3 change, but he is just getting worse. He is no longer moving, even when food is right by him...though he did try to reach out for my hand when I put it in there. Big bummer, he'll be dead my morning. I think I'll go cry now.

The biggest pitfall of being a responsible Octo keeper is the death of the octo despite best intentions. Sorry to hear about all this.

IMO, nitrates are best kept low by macroalgae (sump/refuge), water changes, and deep sand beds. I used chemicals as a new tank keeper decades ago, but never a good idea for long term at all IMO.
 
shipposhack;103729 said:
A 5 gallon refugium will do next to nothing for a 50 gallon tank, for example. In my opinion, refugiums are fairly pointless unless they are at least 1/3 the size of your display.

Im gonna have to disagree with you there. Every bit CAN help, and it also depends on how it is set up. A 5 gallon macro algae tumbler (string algae) with a strong grow light can pull out HUGE amounts of nitrate from a tank 10X its size. You can put alot of algae in 5 gallons if its tumbling below say 20-40 watts it will fill that entire space.
 
:sad: Sorry to hear the octo's getting worse. It sounded pretty grim, but I was hoping it would recover.
 

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