Setup and cycle that bad mombo-jehambo!

[O. Eye]

I have a naked tank in my basement all clean and new and ready to be drilled and filled and all that cool stuff. But this is an octo tank, not the DSB neat-O reef tank that I've read and learned about in these forums and on the world wide hype.

Here's my question - are you ready, great.

If (based on reading and asking in these forums) a shallow sand bed for an Octo is mo-bettah than a DSB...how am I going to 1st, cycle the tank and 2nd, keep my nitrates and other funky junk down?

A refugium would be sweet to go along with my sump, but with two Iwaki pumps in the tank stand (they're kind of long and take the space being external and all) and with space being limited since the stand is for a tank that is 36x18...I'm really having to be creative in figuring out how to get all this cool gear into the box that is (will be) my stand.

Anybody else pulling this off (sump and refugium) with such limited space?

SO! The question I'd really like some expert advice on is...how do I cycle and maintain my octo tank when I have a WSB (Wimpy Sand Bed) of around an inch (as suggested by my octo expert friends in this forum)?

Or! Maybe I misunderstood and I should go for the full-on 4-6 inches of sandy goodness even though it's an octo tank.

I want to hug all of you who contribute and then feed you all breakfast in our kitchen here in Iowa.

Thanks,

Kip

 

[cephalopoder]

The tank set up I use has a special plenum in it made by Corals and Clams of utah. It is called a eco sand plenum. It works the best of any of the tanks I have. My new design consists of a tank with two bulk heads drilled near the top on each end of the back wall. The plenum will be in the main tank with 4-6" of course plenum aragonite/ live rock. The sump below will contain skimmer and carbon and can double as a refugium/ holding tank. The return water will be pumped though two sprey nozzels mounted in a acrylic strip on the top of the tank. The plenum takes care of the nitrates. And the design alows for escape proofing for species like O.vulgaris.
chris

 

[O. Eye]

Plenum is a fancy name for deep sand bed, isn't it? What you have going on will be a little more specific than Southdown sand from HD.

Doesn't your Octo jack around with your sand? Others have said that DSB in octo tank is bad. Obviously you don't agree. I'm definately listening to you.

Is it worth my effort and cash to get the same sand you have? How much is it per pound? Available over the web? Could my LFS maybe order it in for me (I'm guessing yes)?

About the two spray nozzles at the top of your tank...if you have a top on the tank to prevent break-outs, then that means your spray strip is below the lip of the tank (?). Where do you maintain your water line of your tank then? In other words, how much space is there between the lip of your tank and the liquid?

I appreciate your helping me set up this tank. Your advice in the past has greatly effected how I'm going to set things up since there aren't a lot of places to get information on setting up an octo specific tank.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions.

Kip

 

[cephalopoder]

The plenum is a plate that sits under the gravel.The one I use is unique. I has very thick course mesh on top that the gravel sits in This is critical because if something starts to dig in your tank, the animal can not distirb the low oxygen bacteria that is responsible for breaking down your nitrates. In a regular deep sand bed thats been aged for a couple of years this digging can hurt the effiency of the sand bed. Im not saying that a deep sand bed will not work, I just prefer different methods.
I have also found the plenum to work great for sand dwelling species of octopus that refuse to live in pvc tubes. The mimic that I kept would live under the plenum plate at night and emerge in the day time. In a thin fine sand bed tank, a sand dwelling species might be stressed with no where to sleep. We all know, some times when you order a octopus, you never know what you are going to get. It pays to be ready for any thing that comes in. Understand though that I make recommendations based on my own experience. None of the knowledge I share with you was learned with out a little trial and error by me or someone else.
You should realy call Richard Brown of corals and clams(1-801-201-9962) and talk to him about the plenum and see if the concept is right for you. I know it is something I have fallen in love with and swear by.
As we all know you can walk into several different LFS and get several different answers on how to set up a tank. For octopus, this plenum is my favorite ot of everything I have tried.

chris

 

[OctoMonkey]

Chris, do you use that egg crate stuff and how big a gap is in the plenum?

Colin

 

[cephalopoder]

Colin, the plenum comes pre made. It consists of egg crate with 1" pvc on the bottom. The top is coverd in very fine window screen. Then it has about 1.5" of very course plastic mesh on top that the gravel falls into. It's a kick butt design.
chris

 

[OctoMonkey]

Do you have a link for it Chris?

 

[cephalopoder]

Colin, their web site is down right now. If you do a serch on the eco sand plenum you may find some info. If I can find and decent onlune info I will shoot it your way.
chris