• 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.

Hi all. Newbie seeking advice.

Ubenripped

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I came across this site while searching for proper octo care. Lots of good information I've found so far. I think I've learned more in 30 minutes on this site than I have after hours and hours of searching anywhere else. I would like to set up an octo system but am still in the research phase.

I have been keeping saltwater FOWLR and reef tanks for about 4 years now. I finally set up a 135 gallon inwall tank a few months ago to upgrade my 75 FOWLR and have a large fish room behind that wall (WAS a spare bedroom). The total water volume of this system is slightly over 200 gallons. I have the old 75 gallon I would like to drill and tie into the current system and use for an octo tank. This would put my total water volume around 300 gallons.

My question is about inking. How quickly does the ink start to affect fish and the octo and does the larger water volume make a significant difference as far as the inking goes? I know it helps for the bioload but is it enough to dilute the ink?

For instance if I were at work and the octo inked, am I going to come home to a tank full of dead fish? The system is running a skimmer (I have a spare one I will be adding in addition to the current one if I decide to do this octo tank) and I can run carbon in the refugium.

Any information is greatly appreciated.
 
If you have a large skimmer I don't think it would be that much of an issue. my octo(the late Olorin) inked a few time when I fed him in front of other people and I never had a problem. But he never inked that much.
That being said you may want to wait to hear from the pros. Welcome to TONMO!
 
:welcome: to TONMO!

I've never heard of ink causing problems for other animals, but most people keep cephs in a species tank. Although it's a bit at odds with octoproofing, maybe having a separate skimmer on your octo tank would take care of most of it locally, as well, and having extra filter capacity never hurts on a ceph system. I think Thales has several tanks plumbed together, and I know a lot of the pro aquarists like Jean and the NRCC folks have cephs in linked systems, and I haven't heard of ink causing problems, but I'm sure they'll speak up, too.
 
I was under the same impression which is why I was asking. My sump is a 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank and my refugium is a 30 gallon tank fed from and returned to the sump so I have plenty of room to add any extra filtration needed. I just want to be sure I have sufficient filtration to prevent any disasters while I'm at work.
 
I have only kept two species (so far :wink:) in species only tanks with minimal soft corals. Each has shown a different kind of ink, one very thick and nettable with a brine shrimp net, the other very thin and not removable by hand, and neither has caused a problem. I have noted that some of my rock and plumbing seem to have a browish color that may be related to the thinner ink but I can't be sure there is a relationship. None of the corals or octos even seem to notice.
 
I have an octo tank that is tied to a reef tank as well. I was worried about the same thing so I bought an oversized skimmer. My octopus has inked a couple of times and I have never seen any reach the reef tank. It all gets skimmed out really quick. Granted, when he inked it was only a little but it was not an issue at all. I would say that if you run both skimmers you would be in good shape. I also have an overflow though which incorporates some mechanical filtration which helped as well. If you are drilling the tank it may be a little different.
 

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