When will my tank be ready for a Bimac

[Asterix]

Hello!

I have a question for anyone who can answer, The tank I have set up for my octo is a 29G with a 1.5 inch southdown bed, and a 1.5 inch natures ocean live sand bed, I have about 20 Lbs of live base rock, 4 Pounds of Fiji rock, and 2 Lbs of fiji rubble and dust, My tank is at a constant 74 with salinity around 36ppm, Also, I dont think my tank has or will cycle since all the tanks water came from my long established reef tank and all LS and LR was cured prior to putting it in (let me know if iam wrong, But all Nitrate and amonina etc. are at 0) and my tank has been this way for about 2 weeks...Is it safe to put a bimac in? All in all the tank has been up for just 4 weeks, I dont want to rush it if its not time...So just let me know when I should add the Bimac ;)

[schmunkel98]

My vote is to wait at least two months before putting your octo in there. I would hate to see you get one only to have it die because of a tank that wasn't ready to support it. You could put other fish in there to give it a bioload in the meantime. Just make sue you can catch the suckers when it's time to put the octopus in!

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

[Asterix]

OK, 2 Months sounds good....Can I fire off a few more questions? OKAY........ Would putting two 27 Watt 6500K PC Bulbs and 20 Watts NO 03 Actinic be to much light for the octo? I want to try to turn my base rock into nice looking coraline covered LR and I dont think my 20 Watts of standard Flourecent light will do that for me... Are bimacs gone hate the light?....Also, Will and octo mess with Macro Algae? I wana grow some in this tank..... And do Octos eat snails? Cause now I have heard 2 Different things
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Why catch the fish when you can watch them die a bloody death by one of the octos many hands ; ) * imajine the look on a few mollies or damsels face when this mean 8 limbed super predator comes crashing in...Good stuff

[schmunkel98]

I have two actinics and two 10K lights on my 135 gallon, and I see the octo out in the "daytime" constantly. I think your light proposal will do fine. Just make sure he has some kind of rock formation he can hide under. I made a little rock cave structure out of about 6 pieces of live rock that he hides in sometimes. Also, don't underestimate how violent damsels can be. They can kill your octopus or scare it into not coming out to feed. I HIGHLY reccomend that you remove any fish that you had put in the tank before the octo is placed in there.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

[Asterix]

OK, Learned something else... Will take the fish out ; )

[schmunkel98]

Almost forgot something. You can put snails in the tank along with the octopus, but he might eat them. Mine ate one out of 7 largre turbo snails that I put in the tank. He hasn't touched the sea cucumbers or the starfish though. Just get the octo on a feeding routine, so he won't think that he has to eat the snails every day.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

[goodman770]

I may be bucking the system here, but I think the bio load from a single octo in a 29 would be pretty small considering he does have live rock, live sand and water from an established tank.
If you wanted to be ultra safe, sure...but I think it should be fine. Just keep an eye on all your levels, which you would normaly do anyway. 8-)
Everyone's opinion may be different here, but if you're not comfortable with going forward now you can always wait.
Bill

[Asterix]

I would hate to kill something as exotic and special as an octo...So I am probably just going to wait about 1 month and check the levels, If you think the bio-load from one octo in a 29 is small...then the load would be even smaller than that, cause i forgot to mention the tank is hooked up to a 10 Gallon sump\Refuge as well, Which I am working on filling up with LS-LR-Macro Algae-Mangrove

[goodman770]

It sounds like you are doing all the right things. Just for ha ha's, I would put a damsel in there to be sure that a $5 fish lives in the tank fine before putting an Octo in. As noted, remove the damsel before putting the Octo in. Good Luck, and be sure and get us some pics when you're done.

[OctoMonkey]

Just a bit of ceph info to add here.... it is accepeted that cephs produce nearly 3 times as much waste as a fish of a similar mass. Therefore it is always better to be over spec with an octopus in regards to filtration.

The longer you can let the tank cycle the better it will be in the long run... if you've got spare cash invest in a real good skimmer. i think that's the best thing I did.

C

[OctoMonkey]

oops, I also meant to add that all my tanks have really healthy growths od Caulerpa prolifera, which is harvested almost weekly. A good way of removing nitrates!

C

[cephalopoder]

3 months from the start of cycleing Is the minimum I recommend with a live fish bio load for first two months and inverts and fish ( starfish, cucumbers, snails, damsels... the rest of the time

[Asterix]

OK Thanks allot for all of your help, I will be building a protein skimmer I have someone to help me with it who knows what they are doing...I ve got another question....How 'will the octo handle Aptasia? If my tank became infested with it, Would it cause serious problems for the octo? If it wont hurt it, I would like to let the aptasia grow like crazy and take over the tank and use it kind of like a filter almost since I am limited on my clean up crew....Plus, If aptasia wasnt so evil it would in my opinion be an attractive addition to a tank....I remember when I first got into the hobby I didnt know that aptaisia was bad...I even encouraged it to grow! Then later kicked myself in the *** for it when my reef tank started to suffer...It took forever to get control of it, But now its A-OK

[OctoMonkey]

Aiptasia are fairly aggressive little anemones, but i dont know if they would sting cephs or not, probably safer to asume they would. My cuttle tank has several of them.

just recently I took out a bit of base rock which had about 20 on it and put it in freezing cold tap water for 1 hour, then returned it to the tank. the little buggers survived..... pouring boiling water on them seemed to work the next time round!

C