My first tank

[voltron]

This thing is heavy. I live in the second floor and now i´m all sweaty
As far i can tell the move went ok, i´m a bit worried about that weird tentacle thing though - it got shaken up a bit. Maybe you can help me identify what it is?
I took a few pics
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/1.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/anemone.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/dancingcrab.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/filter.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/filter2.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/lr.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/stonecoral.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/tank.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/tentacles.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/tentacles2.jpg
http://www.schizopren.org/aqua/tentacles3.jpg

i´m off for some beer, that was quite a heap...
YAY

volt

 

[Colin]

Hi Volt, i like the German beers too

Anyway, hard to tell from the pic but i think that the weirsd tentacle thing may be a type of anemone, any better pics of it yet?

Also, your dancing shrimp wont last too long with a octopus in there LO
The stone coral is a leather coral (soft coral)

Did you get a skimmer too?

Cheers

 

[cthulhu77]

Congratulations V.!!! Yeah, they can be heavy...I get to move mine today too, so have a celebratory beer for both of us!
It almost looks like there is a skimmer hooked onto the back, is that what that is???
By the way, cool posters too!
Keep us posted on your progress, always fun to hear from you!
Greg

 

[voltron]

Thanks for you interest Greg and Colin

oi, day two 8)
No casualties so far, i´m quite relieved about that. I went to the lfs again and got another 2.7kg live rock with a really nice heart shaped hole in the middle \o/ Thats now 5.7kg live rock in there, how much more do i need?

I read octos need lots of hiding places so i guess i can build that from dead rock too?

And does anyone know whether live rock and hermit crabs from the North Sea will survive in my tank? That would come in handy, it´s just 2hours away...I wonder if they will adapt to the higher temperature.

a few more pics
coral
tank
stuff
yuck
tank2
shrimp
cthulhu
more cthulhu
coward
is this another coral?

I feel i have still a lot to learn about aquarium stuff, but the first step onto my octotank is done 8)

The Skimmer is called Aqua Medic Biostar Flotor, it can be used with up to 65g tanks so it should be sufficient.

The Filter is a Powerhead 201, on the package it says it´s only for 15g tanks, but with all the live rock and the skimmer i can maybe keep it?

Any comments on the setup or inhabitants are welcome! Though i´m reading a lot about this stuff, first hand experience is much more interesting.

Cheers,
Volt

 

[cthulhu77]

thought that was a skimmer..way good! you should be ok with the powerhead, just check the amount of brown gunk you get out of the skimmer box, and moderate from there!
Colin will have more experience than I with the North Sea (even though my parents are Danish), but I would guess that, no, stuff collected from those waters would not do well in a home tank...bummer!
Good Luck!!!
Greg

 

[maractwin]

identification

The thing with the tentacles, which you've labeled cthulhu in later pictures is a soft coral, possibly Anthelia or Xenia. It would take a better picture to be sure.

-Mark

 

[mikeconstable]

Livestock from the North Sea?

I have collected creatures from the South of England, some have to tolerate rock pools warming significantly. Common Cuttlefish (Sepia) can stand temperatures into the 80's (F) better than some tropical marine fish!

 

[Colin]

Hi again

The 'is this a coral too' is a type of disk anemone... Discosomma...

I always collect my own food from the North Sea and find that the hermits and shore crbas are easy to keep but they do require their own tank... either that or once the octo is a bit bigger i just freeze the feeders when i get back home and that saves all maintenance.

I have also stuck bits of rock in my tank but the odd thing will live for a while but then die off as the temperature is too hot for a sustained period.

I always found that a Sepia in water about the high 70s got stressed and more likely to ink than in cooler water

 

[voltron]

Thanks a lot for the help guys!

I read lots of threads on TONMO and reefcentral.com the last days to get to know my tank a bit better 8)
It seems i need a sandbed instead of my coral grain(?) bed in the long run...Is there a way to change the bed withouth killing everything in the tank?

Also i tried to gather info on my skimmer that seems to be a "flotor", but i didn´t find anything on that one. Maybe anyone else can tell me whether i can keep it or whether i should get a "real" skimmer? http://www.ultimateaquatics.co.uk/acatalog/Aquamedic_Skimmers.html

My last question for today is about live rock . I found a german mailorder that sells it semicured for 10$/kg; if i understand this right i have to keep it ca.3 weeks in saltwater with a powerhead to cure it enough to put into my tank. I planned to order 10kg so i´ll have 30lbs in my 35g tank which was the recommended amount at reefcentral. Is there anything i got wrong or anything i should consider before ordering?

Greetz
volt

 

[voltron]

I just noticed that there seems to be A LOT of debris on my recent purchased live rock that kinda contaminates my tank

It looks like brown dust and slowly spreads throughout the tank. Is that normal behaviour of fresh live rock?

 

[Burstsovenergy24]

Did you cure it?

I dont know to much about it but Ive read a few articles.
Also knowing where you got it might help cause I heard the ones at local shops were usually good and you could immeditly put it in your tank.
Did you read about this?



Jesse

 

[voltron]

Yes ik bought the rock at my LFS, i guess my skimmer is not so good

 

[Colin]

Dont worry about it during the cycling period of a new tank... its the one time you can get away with being messy

 

[voltron]

Uh the tank is already cycled
At least i hope it is

I bought it used; it has been running for 6 months before i got it. Today i´m gonna do my first water tests at my LFS, i hope it´s all well in there.

From reading up it seems there´s still a long way to go until the tank is fit for an octo (more live rock, new sand bed, better skimmer).

While we´re at it maybe you can help me deciding on what filtration i should get

I read through your equipment list and lots of stuff on reefcentral but i´m still confused on what is fit for me and whant not...

The tank came with a hang in filter on the powerhead (which seems to be too weak for my tank, it´s supposed for 60l tanks )
I also read that inside filters become nitrate factories if you don´t change them every 3 days which seems to be an expensive filtering method.
Is that powerhead filter add-on a so-called "canister" filter?
And wet/dry trickle filter are also said to produce lots of nitrate...

Basically i need some sort of hang-on filter that doesn´t take up too much space and is cheap but efficient lol
Any suggestions?

greetz
volt

 

[Castor]

Vol, congrats! I think you are on the right track.

I think a good canister filter with lots of good quality carbon and, an oversized trickle filter would be a good investment of any aquarium. That should be excellent to get you going.

To get to the topic of "nitrate factories". Any filter, except those specifically designed to remove nitrates, will be a nitrate factory. To be a little more specific, any filter that is part of the nitrogen cycle will be a nitrate producer. It is simply to end product of the nitrogen cycle, the only way to get rid of it, is to do water frequent changes, and use of a filter designed to remove the nitrate from the water. Normally called nitrate reactors, I am not entirely sure how they work, but I believe there is a colony of bacteria, that thrive in low oxygen levels, and nitrates, and their waste product is nitrogen gas, which simply floats off into the atmosphere.
Well I have rambled on unabated long enough.

Good Luck!

Felix, El Gato!