octofriendly skimmer :(

[Rudiger]

Help, I cant find an octofriendly skimmer. They are all either sump skimmers or hang-on back skimmers. Well, I don't have a sump (im thinking about building one) and hang-on-back-skimmer = octopus-crawls-out-back-into-skimmer. I wish I could find a skimmer that has a hose going into my tank to pull water out, skims it, and then sends the water back to my tank through another hose. Thats how my fluval filter works (except it filters not skims) and it is VERY octopus friendly. No way for the octo to escape or get pulled in. Well i found one skimmer like that but it was like $500 or something and I can only afford $100. I definitly can buy used equipment though, but still, the best ones seem to be sump skimmers. I guess ill have to spend my $100 on building a sump. Which will be chalanging since my tank is full so I cant drill it to make an overflow. Looks like my best bet is to raise the sump a few inches above the main tank, and have the sump overflow into the tank, and tank water pumped up into the sump
:D

pat

[cephalopoder]

Some people out here use a cpr bak pak hang on becaue the supply and return tube lets you cut holes in your acrylic top and seal it up nice and tight. You could use a rubbermade tub for your sump. They are cheap and work great.
Or get a bimaculoides and not even have to worry about a top.

[Rudiger]

I am planning on getting a bimaculoides. They never try to escape even if there is an obvious 2 inch long 1/2 inch wide hole in the roof for a skimmer return?

[OctoMonkey]

My tank is totally open on the top. The "bimac" is still there, no problem.

I think the easiest thing would be to have the sump above the tank if you can. I would also suggest a skimmer by Aqua Medic called the turboflotor 1000. I recently set one up for a friend and is one of the easiest to install that i have seen.

Colin

[cephalopoder]

Bimacs are tank open safe. They are not prone to escape.
Provided your water conditions are good, they will be content to stay in the tank. I have 5 skimmers right now. A AquaC remora, AquaC remora pro, AquaC ev-400, bak pak 2 and a seaclone The AquaC are nice. The turbo floaters are nice too like Colin said. One skimmer that is raved about on reef central is the PM HOT 1. And a great place to buy stuff is on the buying and sellg forum. I have got a few of my skimmers out there dirt cheap. You need to watch them all the time because stuff sells fast out there.

[Rudiger]

Ok thanks for all the tips. I bought a pump that will circulate my tank water twice an hour. I know its supposed to be more than that, but I am leaving my fluval filter connected, and that circulates the water many times an hour. The pump will send water into a rubbermaid tub which will sit behind my tank. The top of the tub will be 4 or five inches above the top of my tank. A few inches below the top of the tub ill drill a hole and have a hose go from that hole into my tank. So basically I have a backward sump :) Instead of tank overflow into sump and then get pumped up, I get it pumped to the sump and the sump overflows into tank. I should be able to build that tonight. In the sump ill put a heater, airstone, skimmer (i still gotta get one of those) and also I should be able to store hermit crabs or other octopus food. Did i explain my idea clearly enough? Anything im forgetting?

pat

[cephalopoder]

Pat
Check this out. I have been useing something just like this for a while now as a pod growing tank.
http://www.gcstudios.com/nagelsreef/Makeover/diyrefugium.html

[Rudiger]

Thank you so much. That is the EXACT idea I had in my head. I even have that pump, the minijet 404. All I need to do is run down to walmart and see if I can find a rubbermaid tub that will fit. The one in that description is bigger than i need. Im sure there are plenty that will work though :) I can probably the tub and drill holes tonight, but ill need to order the plumbing supplies. Now I cant wait to get this set up. Thanks for the tip of using a rubbermaid container, I was thinking I was going to have to drill a 10g or 20g tank, that wuold not have been fun. haha, now I have a big project to work on, this should be fun (and within my budget, yes!).

pat

[OctoMonkey]

you could have the water flowing into the sump through carbon or perhaps even make a small trickle tower to aid filtration?

I have all my equipment like that hidden in the sump.

My next tank I will build a large refugium..........

[Rudiger]

I could put some filtration between tank and sump, but I was planning on leaving my fluval filter running. It seems to be a good job and im scared to turn it off :D Its got carbon and some other good stuff in it. Since thread seems to be quite active right now ill ask this random question: How hard would it be to replace my tanks gravel with sand without draining the tank, and if i did, should I do live sand, and if i do live sand, what the heck is a plenum or however you spell it and is it needed?

[OctoMonkey]

A plenum is often used to control nitrates in a reef tank.
The bugger is that it needs to be set up before anything else goes in as it is under the gravel. It is an area which is anaerobic (no oxygen) and the bacteria use the oxygen molecule attached to nitrate to respire therefor reducing nitrate to harmless nitrogen.

you really need to leace that running (fluval) th etank would crash otherwise and anyway an extra trickle tower would probably cause ammonia and nitrite spikes so may be a bad idea for a tank with inhabitants.

Forget Deep Sand Beds for octopuses, i couldnt ever see that working properly.

Is there a reason for removing the sand?

[cephalopoder]

Here is a pic of my set up. I do not have this connected to a tank. I use it to grow pods and macro. If you have a lot of macro in it and use it as a sump it will bring your nitrates down. There is zero nitarates in my set up. I use the seaclone on this and it works fine.
I would wait till your octo and eggs are gone before replaceing the gravel in your tank. I switced out my octo sand for a eco sand plenum a year ago and couldn't be more impressed. Their cheap and work GREAT! For info call 1-800-499-9040 Talk to richard brown about it he knows me well. The plenum works great for a octo tank and GARF uses it on all their tanks. It's different than any other plenum.
And best of all a octo can't mess it up lol.
If you need bulkheads and stuff call around local. There are some shops that sell them in NH.
Here is a pic of my rubbermade tub. The lightis awesome! You find them at wallmart for 25 bucks and its 65 watts of pc lighting at 6500K temp.

[Rudiger]

Thanks for the info on the plenum. I think for now ill just keep my gravel, maybe make the switch to sand in the future.

That looks like a cool refugium/sump you have there. Mine won't be quite that big. I just got home from walmart. People were giving me weird looks as i stood there with a tape measure measuring all the rubbermaid bins and trashcans. I finally found one that is just perfect. I need to fill it gallon by gallon to know how much it holds. Looks like maybe a little less than 10. I bought two of them though, so if i need more volume I can just set up a double overflow (one overflows to the other which overflows to the tank), that would be interesting. I also got eight feet of tubing for 99 cents, you can never have too much tubing you know. I got a turkey baster so I dont have to feed my anemone with a syringe (well a syringe minus the needle) anymore. Its also good for picking up junk in the tank. And guess what, I got all the way to wal mart and back with only hitting one red light, i think thats a new record :D

[Rudiger]

Originally posted by Rudiger

That looks like a cool refugium/sump you have there.
oops didnt read that you said it isnt connected to a tank :D

[cephalopoder]

Pat
someone in the selling forum has a prizim skimmer for sale. You might be able to get it for 50 bucks shipped if you ask.

[Rudiger]

would you recommend a prizm skimmer over a seaclone? Because I can get a seaclone for the same price.

pat

[OctoMonkey]

Hi Pat

I have used a sea-clone in the past and they dont skim they suck!

They are very difficult to get going, they do produce skimate but only just and I had to change the air flow almost every day. Better post on another forum for some ideas on cheaper skimmers. I think consensus will go with the prism

[cephalopoder]

I have a seaclone too:( Its ok on a small tank like a 10 or 20 gallon. You need to change the air valve and use a maxijet 1200 and make sure your riser tube is under 4". I have it on my rubbermade tub and I agree it kind of sucks, but it is cool looking lol. I would choose the prizim over the seaclone. I hear the prizim is much easier to use and better over all.

[Rudiger]

phew, that was close. I had ordered the seaclone (fishsupply), and I called them up and UPS was going to come pick up the box in the next hour. I told them to switch it to a prizm. I really like the people at fishsupply. They actually care. When I mentioned I was planning on buying an octopus from them sometime in the future he gave asked me some questions to make sure I knew what i was doing, something my LFS has never even come close to doing. He was also nice enough to warn me that the prizm is a little noisy, again, my greedy LFS would try to make a sale at all costs. I alread knew about the noise issue though.

pat

[cephalopoder]

Fishsupply is great! Jack the owner is my pal. I have been working with him from the start. Thats how he knows how to ID a bimac:D He is going to be comming out with a new web site soon. I am working on a new care sheet for him to up date the one I have on there. When you order your octo tell him you know me and he will take extra good care of you. He will even take a digital picture of the octo he is holding for you and send it you before you buy it. And rememember, order the small size.
chris

[OctoMonkey]

Yeah, get one like me...... so small it can squeeze through the molecules of glass hahaha
:D

[Rudiger]

My order from fishsupply came in today. Now I have a skimmer (finally!) and the plumbing to set up my sump. Tonight I made the stand to hold the sump. I drilled all my holes and tomorrow I should be able to buy some tubing and get the thing running.

Ill also have to stop by Dartmouth's bio lab and steal some more of their RO water to fill my sump. I should really ask them what else they can hook me up with, they have so much stuff. The woman I know there gave me a master key to get into the room with the RO water, and while I was at it I peeked in some of the other room- they have the coolest stuff, a million tanks full of all sorts of stuff. Im pretty sure they can give me some good octo food, or at least order them for me real cheap. I wonder if they have an extra chillers I could borrow for the summer....

pat

[OctoMonkey]

Pat,
Dont worry if the skimmer doesn't produce foam for a couple of days; they go through a break in period, just in case you thought it wasnt working :)