Ok almost got part of step one.

[Swarvegorilla]

120L tank with maybe 3kg of liverock and a penguin 330 hangon filter.
May not sound like much but this morning it still had ambulia, lace plants and Val in it!
Still have a few weeks of cycling to get thru but a mate is throwing me another 330 that he has had on one of his marines for a few months. That should stabilise it a bit quicker anyway.
Getting a skimmer tomorrow. Just want something that will fit in with the cover I am planning. Hoping to use the plastic canvas you get at sowing shops.
Sorry about no photos, working on that but I keep getting distracted staring at the live rock.

 

[cthulhu77]

I don't know about the others here on Tonmo, but I usually don't run a skimmer during the initial cycling...but that is just personal preference, and I cycle for a looooonnnnggg time...
Setup sounds good, but you are probably going to want to get some more base rock and live rock for that large of a tank...if you get a chance, send in some pics, would love to see it !
greg

 

[corw314]

Sounds like you will have a great setup when you are done! Next tank I get will have to be at least a 100. My plan is when we move, to combine my 44 pentagon and the 27 flatback into a larger tank!!

Carol

 

[Swarvegorilla]

good call

Yea good call on the skimmer. But it's just that my live rock is SOOOO covered in cool stuff. SOB!! I hate cycling and losing stuff! Not going to the extremes of feeding the LR greenwater as it cures though.....

What am I saying? well now have 2 penguin 330's running. One is from another marine tank and is well and truely bacteria'lized. So I'm (shudder) gonna try and fight the initial cycle. Nothing serious as it's almost like moving a chunk of a bigger tank into my smaller tank. Checked ammonia and picked up 1ppm which is a bit nasty but no nitrite!! which made me happy. Nitrates have increased over night which is great.... well you know what I mean.

Very impressed with the live rock though. Will be easy weeks to wait if it is all this good. Just so great to see so many little crabs and snails slowly emerging. Really don't want to lose these guys to any sort of huge chem spike so ready to waterchange if needed. Yea I know, it will only prolong the agony but thats just me being stubborn. Problem is that it worked for me once and ever since I have been trying to recapture the moment.

Have been thinking about velcro.... can buy this velcro tape that is adhesive. Not that I plan on using that stuff but normal strips of velcro may very well sew (with cable ties) onto my plastic canvas lid. This will give me a good way to lock down the tank, that unlike tape I can undo the lid all the time. Because I always leave something in the tank. Am I right to be paranoid of an octo and a hydrometre?

Also thinking about maybe putting in a table thing so I can raise some of the LR right up close to the lights and create a hollow sorta dim octopus lair underneath. That way I can spy on it. Heh heh. Sure it will foil my plan but I'm gonna make it work hard to do it. I mean if I make the table out of an inverted clear plastic box, I can cut holes in it that the octopus can't drag LR thru. Sneaky hey?

Dam it is hard to work on other peoples tanks all day when you know that yours needs immediate love.


1 day in and I already got algae happening!!!!
Yea baby! I love algae. Serious. It's great stuff and not to be fought!!


Photos in a few days when my bro gives me my vid camera back. Until then gonna work on my lid. Seems like it may be the most important bit of all!

 

[Swarvegorilla]

plan B

Ok ammonia kinda hit a little bit........ saved my shrimp and a few crabs and put them in a different tank. Ok so it had a mangrove jack in it but ya get that sometimes.
Cleaned a marine cannister filter today and poured 1L of filthy filter sponge juice into tank. Gonna be cloudy for a little bit but that should help stock it with some more bacteria. Most of the LR life is hanging in there. A few sponges looking a bit pale though. Not really holding out for them but their is a few feather worms on other side of the rock so no great loss.

Going shopping for more LR on Sunday hopefully.
May have to settle for less powerful lights for a little while as kinda torn between them and a new parrot. Both would be pretty funky but either one would be nice.

I heard a mantis before. Click.
Hope he survives long enough to be eaten by the octopus.


Went for a snorkle this morning and didn't see any octopus. Did manage to get stung by a blue bottle though which sucked a bit. A customer brought back some scats they bought from us. They are the coolest fish and let you pat them. It's like patting a cats tongue.

 

[Swarvegorilla]

what does my beach look like?

Ok so where I live right has some sweet surf beaches. It's also surrounded by a marine park. Luckily there are some great places I can catch food for my octopus that are outside this marine park and not far at all away (30min).
Anyway if anyone would like a quick look at where I snorkle rocky shore study pdf file

Anyway it's no tropical reef thats for sure but we do get tropical stragglers. I have a pet Pseudolabrus guentheri that I caught in the nearby ballina river for example. Very pretty sorta tropical looking dude he is too.

Anyway may sorta show why I like algae and theres even a pic of the type of rock octopus I would like to keep. Have to look into the legality of capturing one as don't think they can be taken from rock platforms. A prawn trawler skip told me he could get me as many as I wanted but not so sure about the brackish species in the area as they seem to get pretty big.

Cycling cycling cycling...... didn't manage to get any more live rock as it all looked a bit ordinary. Ain't paying for ordinary when I know if I wait I can get spectacular!! Shame as I would really like to get this tank seriously underway. fiddle fiddle.... fidgit.....

 

[Swarvegorilla]

Well progress is made...

Tank is looking really nice. ditched 303's for cannister filter. Have been busy and not had a chance to actually get an octopus.
Water is very nice and have some surgeons swimming around now.... gonna miss having little dory hostages in my room.

 

[Swarvegorilla]

Dam he is slack.......

Well have been offline for a while now.
Have had some great fun keeping the local rock octopuses.
Gotta rush to work now but a few things i have noticed.........

Octopus seem to go a bit crazy on certain nights. Some tanks have been seperated by many kms and the octopuses still have a crazy night.

Octopus do not escape any where near as often as i thought. Keep water perfect, lots of feeders and a nice territory to hunt in and they just don't seem to bail..... maybe i am lucky hey?

My main problem is them being cheeky and squirting water over the floor when they are hungry.

Still though I have to say that despite the fact I went into this mission a bit worried about being able to keep an octopus, they have proven to be quite the enjoyable and hardy pet. Certainly my freshwater planted tank takes 5 times as much work.

Now of course I am seriously considering a breeding attempt...... this time though i'm thinking an outdoor occy pool. Filling it is a bit insane but it's gonna be well worth it. I can get live big occys from the trawler guys but as far as pets go the babys are the go and around here that aint easy to find. What else do you do with a 5,000L goldfish breeder pond thru summer?