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New Nano tank idea - advice appreciated


Will

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Im planning on starting a Macroalgae planted tank housing a dwarf octopus (o. mercratoris*) .

Tank: 16gal bowfront (rimless) & drilled on the left glass pane for inflow and out flow (it sits in the corner of my desk).

Sump: 20 gallon tank under the desk with 400-500 gph return pump (i dont want to have any power-heads or cords leading into the display)

Skimmer: BakPak (left over from the old tanks i had in highschool), will be placed insump or hanging onto the sump

Mechanical Filtration: Filter sock

heater: 100w

lighting: 96w powercompact (Quad)

Overflow: http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18656/si1380638/cl0/lifegardaquaticsformerlypentair34slipbulkhead

Return flow: 1/2" bulkhead with a verticle spray bar with holes drilled up and down it. there will be about 3 feet from the return pump to where it will go into the tank.

I also plan to get a sheet of glass or acrylic cut to cover the entire top of the tank.

Live rock: 5-10lbs in the display & 15lbs in the sump

Sand: live 20-25lbs for a 2-3" sand bed

Let me know what yall think

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From a hardware standpoint it sounds pretty solid.

If you haven't kept octopi before I strongly recommend spending some time at TOMNO.com. They are probably the web's top source for information and advice for keeping octopi.

You may also want to hit up our very own CafeRacerMike who's had some experienc in that direction.

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Ive kept octo's and cuttles in the past, and TONMO is the best source for Ceph info. The species im getting stays small so i wont have to worry about the small size of the tank. Do you think that the flow will be enough/too much/too little?

also as far as corals and other inverts:

Softies (probably some zoo's, ricordia, sponges, gorgonia)

LPS (favia, maybe candycane)

SPS: do you think i could get away with a monti cap in this tank?

ill probably throw a brittle star as well as snails and hermit crabs (clean-up crew/snack)

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Hmm, for the octo just fine. For the corals without haveing additional in tank circulation that will depend. Do you know what the GPH will be in tank (as opposed to the pump rating)? How will the water be returned into the tank? Via lockline jets ect?

If you need ReefCentral has a pump head calculator that can give you approx gph in tank based on pump, pipe size, and head height.

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based on the calculations it will be pushing 415 gph based on the setup i will have. I will be using a verticle spray bar with about 8 holes drilled into it. The spraybar will be located in the back left corner of the tank with 4 of the holes pointed to the front and 4 pointed across the back (im assuming this is the best layout, our would random be better?)

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Yea i know my lighting is not "ok" for sps (i have a MH 150 pendant i can use, but it is ugly). I have another pump i could use that would put out 500gph with my conditions, but i dont know if thats too much for the octo? ill post this same topic on TONMO as well.

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I have been running this tank as a freshwater planted tank for about a year and it has remained cool ~78, i have the heater kick on at 78, and it is always on (good insulation i guess). Although i dont know if the added pumps (powerhead and system pump) will add alot of heat.

Thanks what im thinking, and thats really not what this tank is for (i have done SPS before, and simply cannot afford to do an sps tank, although in the past they all seemed to migrate to SPS eventually)

I think im going to have Fishy Business drill my tank for $40 which includes one 3/4" outflow bulkhead and one 1/2" inflow bulkhead.

Physics question: being that the outflow from my return pump is 1/2" will this be the most efficient diameter for moving water, our would a larger diameter be preferred? I know resistance will be a factor with the smaller diameter, but there will also be less water weight to push up against.

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I had heard that most octos were cooler water critters? Maybe that was just a specific species. I like the idea of an octo and reef combined, but I wonder how it would fare with no real CUC. Octos are somewhat messy and without being able to keep any snails or hermits or crabs because it would just eat them, I don't know how easy it would be to do, short of a lot of mechanical or external biological filtering.

The physics question though, go with the 1/2" return. Going to 3/4" pipe will effectively mean your pump is pushing at less PSI and a similar flow rate, which will dramatically reduce the head height. Since you're not looking at a particularly powerful pump, I'd wonder if the increase in diameter would keep the water from making it back to the display all together.

You've certainly got more experience than I and your planning seems solid - but a reef with macro and an octopus in a nano is no easy task :)

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To answer your question:

2 brittle stars + small cucumber + bi-weekly water changes + nitrate loving macro algae + cheap revolving door of clean up crew (ebay). = octo tank

secondly O.mercratoris is a tropical octo from the Caribbean that will do just fine at 78 degrees (i may actually keep two in the same tank....see tonmo.com for the reason why, but they seem to be communal)

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One quick correction. Going with a larger pipe will not impact the volume of water getting to the display. In fact up to a point a larger pipe will increase the volume at a particular head height. Now squeezing that volume into a fan or jet will create a greater velocity of water but will not improve volume of flow.

You may want to play with the numbers on the ReefCentral head height calculation tool.

http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/hlc2.php

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set everything up on monday, water still a little murky from the sand, (i mixed dry sand and live sand from a previous tank, although i will never use dry again). All of the rock is from an existing tank, and i have about 15-20 more lbs in the sump(20 gal). May need a little more sand, but not sure.

Best, Will

post-1360-12689567804924_thumb.jpg

post-1360-12689567881424_thumb.jpg

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new tank pic, the water is slightly cloudy, and i dont know why.

SG: 1.024

NH4: 0

NO2: 0

NO3: 15 (A bit high, but the tank is only a little over a week old)

Ph. 8.3

I did use tap water when i filled the tank, could it be the high alkalinity of Austin water?

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new tank pic, the water is slightly cloudy, and i dont know why.

SG: 1.024

NH4: 0

NO2: 0

NO3: 15 (A bit high, but the tank is only a little over a week old)

Ph. 8.3

I did use tap water when i filled the tank, could it be the high alkalinity of Austin water?

post-1360-12692951879895_thumb.jpg

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I did use tap water when i filled the tank, could it be the high alkalinity of Austin water?

Very much yes. Austin tap water is relatively low in terms of TDS but has rather high KH/GH.

No ammonia though? Was your live rock already cured? I would have expected a *little* ammonia at least.

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the rock was from my parents tank back in dallas, and was transported completely submerged. i have tested it everyday from day 1 and never had ammonia or nitrite, nitrate was up around 60 for the first 2-3 days. The sand was a mixture of dry sand and live sand from my parents tank. I bought a damsel from aquatek and he kicked the bucket today, but the leather and mushroom that i got this last weekend looks great. I cant figure it out.

One note, i pulled a glass of aquarium water out and droppered in a little ph buffer. i found that immediately a white precipitate formed and clouded the water, similar to what i am experiencing.

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We have another member, caferacermike, who has (still has?) kept octopii in specialized tanks. He would probably be a great source of information if you needed (though I believe he has been working a lot, so haven't seen him post much recently).

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I'm running carbon as of Sunday, I will either get the Octopus from toms online or from Shane at fishy business, both seem to be able to get o. Mercratoris.

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