In the downtime between ceph inhabitants, I renovated the plumbing on my 75 gallon tank. I have a similar thread on TONMO. I'll probably also double-post it on the DIY forum.
I basically cleaned up the plumbing a bit to make things quieter and have less water in the drain system to end up in the sump when the power's off.
Here's what it looks like with the room lights off. Its an Oceanic 75 with a DIY external overflow on an AGA pine stand. To the right is a trickle filter made from a 5-gallon bucket, elevated to the correct height by a $4 laundry hamper. In the scientific literature some (but clearly not all) bimacs have grown well over two pounds. Its often quoted that a ceph generates about three times the nitrogenous waste as a fish, so you can see why I wanted a massive biofilter.
The return spray bar is 1" PVC and comes through a threaded bulkhead in the back of the tank. Two 45 degree elbows bring the outlets up to the water level to minimize backflow when the power's out. Using a bulkhead for the return means I don't need anything passing through the lid, clearly advantageous for an octopus tank.
Here's a closeup of the spray bar. Fiberglass window screen and cable ties will keep a curious octopus out of the holes.
Here's the external overflow and biofilter. The overflow is just four panes of 1/4" glass cut to size by a glass shop. I cut twenty four 3/4 x 1/4" slots in the top of the tank's side pane (shown below) for the actual overflowing using a Dremel and a diamond bit. Behind the biofilter you can see the Aqualifter pump I use for my automatic topoff system.
Here's a closeup of the slots from outside the tank as water cascades over them. This overflow has been setup for about a year. The cable ties keep the octo-proofing in place (see below).
More fiberglass window screen keeps an octo out of the overflow. To keep the little guy from peeling it back and climbing under, my LFS gave me some nice rigid plastic stuff to sandwich the screen in.
Here's a short (1 mb) video of the overflow doing its thing.
I basically cleaned up the plumbing a bit to make things quieter and have less water in the drain system to end up in the sump when the power's off.
Here's what it looks like with the room lights off. Its an Oceanic 75 with a DIY external overflow on an AGA pine stand. To the right is a trickle filter made from a 5-gallon bucket, elevated to the correct height by a $4 laundry hamper. In the scientific literature some (but clearly not all) bimacs have grown well over two pounds. Its often quoted that a ceph generates about three times the nitrogenous waste as a fish, so you can see why I wanted a massive biofilter.
The return spray bar is 1" PVC and comes through a threaded bulkhead in the back of the tank. Two 45 degree elbows bring the outlets up to the water level to minimize backflow when the power's out. Using a bulkhead for the return means I don't need anything passing through the lid, clearly advantageous for an octopus tank.
Here's a closeup of the spray bar. Fiberglass window screen and cable ties will keep a curious octopus out of the holes.
Here's the external overflow and biofilter. The overflow is just four panes of 1/4" glass cut to size by a glass shop. I cut twenty four 3/4 x 1/4" slots in the top of the tank's side pane (shown below) for the actual overflowing using a Dremel and a diamond bit. Behind the biofilter you can see the Aqualifter pump I use for my automatic topoff system.
Here's a closeup of the slots from outside the tank as water cascades over them. This overflow has been setup for about a year. The cable ties keep the octo-proofing in place (see below).
More fiberglass window screen keeps an octo out of the overflow. To keep the little guy from peeling it back and climbing under, my LFS gave me some nice rigid plastic stuff to sandwich the screen in.
Here's a short (1 mb) video of the overflow doing its thing.
