- Joined
- Jan 30, 2009
- Messages
- 3
Greetings!
My Name is Torsten Schneyer, I live near Frankfurt in Germany. Because of that my english could sound a little bit strange for you, so I am
apologising. . Since I was a child i am fascinated by octopuses, and now i have decided to go a big step beyond an keep one. I may be a
beginner in octopus care, but not in the wide field of reef keeping. If you like to, have a look on the linked tank picture below, its an actual
shot of my reef tank and should speak for itself. Your Forum is the best source for information in the www and I read it with great
enthusiasm. I would like report my efforts to keep my first octo step by step from the begin on, and invite you to advice and criticize me if i do
something wrong.
First of all there is the choice of the species and there is the first big problem. Here in Germany octos ar very very rare in the saltwater
shops. The only species, that is continuously imported, is...
...the blue ring.
Before you start bashing me now: I am a very responsible and experienced keeper of poison animals. I kept Snakes, scorpions and spiders for years, had
the official licenses for that and you may trust me: I am not one of this idiots who don't know what they are doing. Also I live alone and
don't have kids. So its going to be this wonderful small tropical species, I guess.
What did i do until now?
I ordered a cubic 26 us-gallon tank and build a strong column-table for it and all the electronics.
http://www.riffaquaristikforum.de/forum/galerie/mittlere-bilder/mittel-9690.jpg
I want to concept the Tank after the "berlin system". I am nut sure if you use this term, here in Germany does it stand for: live sand, many live rocks and a good skimmer and
sometimes coal. As a streaming pump I am going to use just a small Coralia like that one:
http://www.aquaristikshop.com/pictures_g/548000.jpg
The skimmer will be an aqua medic miniflotor:
http://www.ecotronics.de/images/aquamedicminiflotor.jpg
As lighting i have choosen a small Aqualight 2 x T5 8W (one white, one blue):
http://shop.aqualight.de/images/product_images/info_images/936_0.jpg
The top cover (right english word?) of the tank is a heavy selfmade construction from coated wood, that lays closely fitting and overlaping
on the glass border. Its 25 cm high and includes the skimmer pod, the light and a ventilator. All air holes and the ventilator are secured
with close wire. I am sure that there is no escape.
The tank is right now filled with new saltwater (used distilled water and my favorite reef salt) with the density of 0.1025.
Tomorrow I am going to buy the sand and the live rock and then the tank will mature till the water parameters are ok.
While maturing, I want to add some caulerpas, soft corals and snails to help the tank biology to evolve.
Is that all as appropriate? Did I forget something important? Don't hesitate to give me, please.
No I have some further questions!
1. Is my light to bright for an octo? I don't want to keep my tank to dark because i think, light is the engine of the reef biology and the live rock
will filter much better with enough light.
2. Is the skimmer adequate for the supply with oxygen or should I install a additional air pump?
3. In this article Cephalopod Care the density of 1.026 is recommended, or the octo will be killed.
Most reef tanks i know are runnung great with 1.024-1.025. I cant imagine that a tropical octopus should die because if that?!
That's all for the moment, thank you for your attention and for your help.
Yours, Torsten.
My Name is Torsten Schneyer, I live near Frankfurt in Germany. Because of that my english could sound a little bit strange for you, so I am
apologising. . Since I was a child i am fascinated by octopuses, and now i have decided to go a big step beyond an keep one. I may be a
beginner in octopus care, but not in the wide field of reef keeping. If you like to, have a look on the linked tank picture below, its an actual
shot of my reef tank and should speak for itself. Your Forum is the best source for information in the www and I read it with great
enthusiasm. I would like report my efforts to keep my first octo step by step from the begin on, and invite you to advice and criticize me if i do
something wrong.
First of all there is the choice of the species and there is the first big problem. Here in Germany octos ar very very rare in the saltwater
shops. The only species, that is continuously imported, is...
...the blue ring.
Before you start bashing me now: I am a very responsible and experienced keeper of poison animals. I kept Snakes, scorpions and spiders for years, had
the official licenses for that and you may trust me: I am not one of this idiots who don't know what they are doing. Also I live alone and
don't have kids. So its going to be this wonderful small tropical species, I guess.
What did i do until now?
I ordered a cubic 26 us-gallon tank and build a strong column-table for it and all the electronics.
http://www.riffaquaristikforum.de/forum/galerie/mittlere-bilder/mittel-9690.jpg
I want to concept the Tank after the "berlin system". I am nut sure if you use this term, here in Germany does it stand for: live sand, many live rocks and a good skimmer and
sometimes coal. As a streaming pump I am going to use just a small Coralia like that one:
http://www.aquaristikshop.com/pictures_g/548000.jpg
The skimmer will be an aqua medic miniflotor:
http://www.ecotronics.de/images/aquamedicminiflotor.jpg
As lighting i have choosen a small Aqualight 2 x T5 8W (one white, one blue):
http://shop.aqualight.de/images/product_images/info_images/936_0.jpg
The top cover (right english word?) of the tank is a heavy selfmade construction from coated wood, that lays closely fitting and overlaping
on the glass border. Its 25 cm high and includes the skimmer pod, the light and a ventilator. All air holes and the ventilator are secured
with close wire. I am sure that there is no escape.
The tank is right now filled with new saltwater (used distilled water and my favorite reef salt) with the density of 0.1025.
Tomorrow I am going to buy the sand and the live rock and then the tank will mature till the water parameters are ok.
While maturing, I want to add some caulerpas, soft corals and snails to help the tank biology to evolve.
Is that all as appropriate? Did I forget something important? Don't hesitate to give me, please.
No I have some further questions!
1. Is my light to bright for an octo? I don't want to keep my tank to dark because i think, light is the engine of the reef biology and the live rock
will filter much better with enough light.
2. Is the skimmer adequate for the supply with oxygen or should I install a additional air pump?
3. In this article Cephalopod Care the density of 1.026 is recommended, or the octo will be killed.
Most reef tanks i know are runnung great with 1.024-1.025. I cant imagine that a tropical octopus should die because if that?!
That's all for the moment, thank you for your attention and for your help.
Yours, Torsten.