• 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.

Power Outage

corw314

Colossal Squid
Staff member
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Nov 20, 2002
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Last night the power went out for about 3 to 4 hours. I didn't think anything of it as the tanks started fine. Today, I fed Gimpy, and he was still out pacing like he wanted more food. Squirting water up at the hood, knocking the magnet off everytime I fixed it. I finally checked my ammonia and it had risen to .50. I really believe Gimp was trying to tell me the water was going bad. This is the second time he has done everything is his power to get my attention. After I did a 1/2 waterchange, he settled down to normal behavior and now has retired to his den to rest.

I think it is so important for octo owners to be aware of what is considered the norm for thier particular pet so should their behavior be off even a little bit that gives the heads up something could be in the early stages of going wrong with the tank.
 
It's awsome that he associates you with maintaining the tank parameters, not just acting stressed but activly getting your attention to fix it. Is an octos size related to intelligence? I ask because I will most likely be getting a pygmy club octo, which is pretty small ( up to 8 cm arms)
 
At a 50% water change, is there any risk of breaking the tank cycle? I thought this was a very risky idea... However I understand the curciumstances, would it be better to use products like Coral-Vital LSB, or Bacta-Vital and a smaller percent of water change? Im not knocking you, just wondering for myself, if I ever run into the same problem.
 
Interesting question. I have always run my tanks with Eheims which I donot touch if I need to do a major waterchange. I have also always done an extreme waterchange in the face of life threatening conditions. I would be interested to hear what everyone else thinks about this. I do know I would not touch my Eheim also at the same time as a major waterchange. Maybe this is why I haven't (knock on wood) ever had a major problem from correcting a problem drastically.
 
tjohnson said:
At a 50% water change, is there any risk of breaking the tank cycle? I thought this was a very risky idea... However I understand the curciumstances, would it be better to use products like Coral-Vital LSB, or Bacta-Vital and a smaller percent of water change? Im not knocking you, just wondering for myself, if I ever run into the same problem.


I'm under the impression a 50% water change is a pretty common emergency practice. Most of the nitrogen cycle bacteria live in the filter media, LR, tank walls, etc, so a big water change shouldn't have much effect on the system's nitrogen processing capacity. I think the biggest worry is that the new water has different concentrations that might shock all the critters. I would be more inclined to do a water change like this than add a chemical.

Dan
 

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