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Tank setup: Am i missing anything?

Drakanorn,

Sorry to deliver frustrating info but it will actually be harder to find a Briareus than a Bimac. We are fortunate that members have been able to raise the Bimac eggs and sell tank raised roughly once a year (Zyan still has almost adults available from his overly successful first attempt and will hopefully have tank BRED available later in the year).

Briareus are another story. The best diver/collectors have a difficult time telling apart young briareus and adult mercatoris (with an occassional vulgaris thrown in just to make life interesting ;>). The East Coast animals will all be nocturnal (vulgaris are somewhat diurnal but need a very large tank), wild caught and there is just no good way to know what you might get. Trapper was supposed to be either Briareus or Vulgaris but turned out to be fertile female Mercatoris. She was bigger than most of the pygmies (possibly because of the ripening eggs) and the person who acquired her for me felt certain she was not a pygmy because she did not look like the ones he sells in the early spring. I still plan on buying a chiller for the octo tank just for the ease of keeping it regulated and eliminating the always in the way fans but Trapper's eggs hatched and I am enjoying raising the small brood (only 6 hatched and one died the first week - it was preserved and went to a child that requested report info here on TONMO - the others are 7 weeks old now). If I am extremely lucky, I may never have the opportunity to try a Bimac unless I start up yet another tank :octorun:
 
Really, bimacs have been difficult to get a hold of, too. I think the very last group of bimacs from Octopets was about two years before Zyan came on the scene this winter. The nice thing is that if you order a bimac you know you're going to get a bimac. IIRC the last couple years there's been an "A. aculeatus season" where a number of them will show up in LFS distributor lists--that seems to be the only species out there you can reliably expect to get your hands on. I don't know how long they live after showing up, though.
 
thank you all for your advice :smile: here is my new list

-------------------
45$ my bimac octo(if i cant find briareus)
6$ FW - Black Molly (for cycleing) x3
-------51$-------
110$ 55 Gallon Tank from perfecto
28$Instant Ocean Salt 160 gallon Bucket
18$ Aragamax Sand 30lb (Sugar-Sized) (Carib Sea)
100$ Caribbean Live Rock - 40 lb
100$ Caribbean Live Rock - 40 lb
------356$------
108$ Coralife Super Skimmer - 220 Gallon
65$ Marineland Tidepool S.O.S. Skimmer
------173$-----
19$Saltwater Basic Test Kits (pH, nitrite, nitrate, alkalinity, ammonia)
70$Milwaukee TDS Meter
8$ Hagen Test Kit(phosphate)
7$Aquarium Systems (A Marineland Company) Instant Ocean Hydrometer
-------104$------
so far thats...684$
(assuming my math is correct)

and then ill have to buy
-shells or rocks (for shelter)
-baby safe toys(eg. big lego blocks)
-wights or ducktape(to hold lid down)
-mesh tank lid
-a big bucket
-aquarium tubing
-and food
 
Oops, I replied to the posting in Octopus Availability. I don't mean to crowd that thread so if you want to reply to my post there you can bring it here.

Mea culpa,

Dan
 
You can pickup a TDS for about $15 on eBay. I have a similar one to this: http://cgi.ebay.com/HM-TDS-EZ-Meter...QcategoryZ20684QQtcZphotoQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem and it suits my needs just fine.

I would like to know where you have found a 5 gallon pail of Instant Ocean for $28 though. If the pricing is from a chain or on-line store, I'll switch for that price if shipping does not bring it to the $40 ish price I am now paying.
 
Just a few comments:

I think 80 pounds of live rock will overwhelm a 55 gallon tank. Since you want to leave some room for your octopus to come out and play, the 1 lb per gallon ratio works better.

I'd skip the TDS meter and the phosphate tests and the hydrometer and instead get a good quality refractometer. pH is usually measured more accurately through a meter, too. I'm assuming that you'll purchase RO/DI water to mix with the salt.

I assume you're not using a sump. How about using a canister filter and a good protein skimmer - I don't think you need the SOS skimmer as well.

Often people put a powerhead in an octopus tank.

I don't think this adds cost, just rearranges it a bit.

Nancy
 
thank you all for the imput (: i switched the sos to a canister that only added about 40$ to the toatal and the extra live rock will probably go into a small tank shrip tank that my friends giving me -freebies are a wonderful thing-
 

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