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Greetings!

I'm not in a hurry, it's been cycling for a month now and I'm still getting everything straightened out. With the nitrates back at a reasonable level I think I'm going to throw in a cleanup crew and maybe a couple hardy fish (any suggestions?) I do have another tank that anything un-octopus friendly can be moved to when the time comes.

Final note on the green, it was not the issue I thought it was. The protein skimmer developed a kink in the air supply hose... I unkinked it, it filled with the most disgusting crud I've ever seen in it overnight, and the tank is (almost) clear again.
 
Thats what the fish store recommended too, so that's what I'll go with.

Actually, I'll probably head out to the Aquarium Co. tomorrow afternoon and see what is available.
 
I am not sure why you want a fish. Damsels (as well as chromis) are attactive, cheap, harty and often agressive and almost impossible to catch without taking out the majority of your LR. Unless you have a reason, there is no advantage and many negatives to adding a fish to your cycling octo tank. A damsel is not something you can leave in there as food later. If you want movement and something that can stay in the tank, add some shore shrimp, hermit crabs and other clean-up crew that will be tank benficial and not disruptive.
 
I'll second dwhatley, however I wouldn't suggest chromis as cycling fish, they tend to have high mortality rates...

A clown would be the best option if you want a fish... easy(ER) to catch (don't be fooled though), and still very hardy... the goldfish of salt water
 
Sorry if my post suggested chromis, I was trying to say the opposite, they are equally as bad as damsels to remove (maybe harder). I started to suggest clowns but I am not sure about putting them in a new tank (mine are in my oldest tank and do well but they were put there as a colony experiment, not for cycling).
 
Didn't end up with any fish, just a bunch of small snails and some mithrax crabs and peppermint shrimp (which do a remarkable cleaning job in the couple weeks they've been in there.)

One of the live rocks sprouted two of what I thought was some kind of blue flower, but after some internet searching appear to be blue "feather duster" worms. Apparently these things need to be fed brine shrimp, so I'm wondering how they lived this long and why they just now appeared. Pretty cool that something so colorful appeared out of nowhere.
 
I like to feed my feather dusters (blue sounds like a Christmas tree worm - always wanted some of those but they typically live in porites and you need to keep THAT alive to keep the worms happy) Cyclop-eeze (frozen not dried :mrgreen:). It is an all around good food for any reef tank and low on the pollution end.
 
I was debating about christmas tree worm but structurally it looks more like a feather duster... it's color does look like the christmas tree guys though. The rock is actually shaped much like a porite coral (knobs and branches) but is clearly not... maybe a very long dead porite? Not sure how that stuff works, the rock is very porous too so something that died and calcified would make sense (it is softer than the other rocks).

I think I'll try feeding it, as it is in the smaller tank which is inhabited by nothing but water, sand, and rocks... it's way too cool looking to let it starve.
 
So the tank has cycled now for 2 months this coming weekend, ammonia and nitrite have not shown on a water test in 6 weeks, and the nitrates have been consistent around 10ppm for 3-4 weeks. I think I'll start looking around for availability... something needs to let the peppermint shrimp know they don't run the place. Will Shrimp pester an octopus? I watched one kill one of the cleanup crabs (I was both impressed and surprised).
 
Peps can be very aggressive and will gang up on small creatures even if they are not ailing. I prefer to keep only one in an aquarium (but I like to keep one as they do a fair job of eating new aptasia - not large ones though). The collector I do webwork for has seen them team up on, kill and consume convict fish. Octos will eat them if they can catch them and a pesky one won't be around long. I had two in the tank before Beldar came (there was nothing for them to bother in the tank and I needed aptasia help) and one got too curious, the other stays well away and I can tell if Beldar decides to come through an opening where it is hanging out (swaying) because it will flee two seconds before the arms appear.

A more mature tank would be desirable even though your readings are stable.
 
I'm going on the assumption it'll probably still be (at least) a few weeks to locate and have it shipped... so said the local fish store guy anyway.
 

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