Well, fun news - I have found an old bowfront tank with a bunch of equipment, so that's going to be a tank for our current fish (in the 60 gallon fish-only tank). I may make it a macro tank, I may make it a full on reef - I am open to doing either. That's not important right now though.
Anyways, the 60 gallon is now going to be an octopus tank! That is my dream animal, so I am over the moon excited to get an octopus. We have nearly finished cleaning/getting parts for the skimmer, so I think that will be hooked up on Monday. We are also cleaning off all of the equipment that's in the tank, it's covered in algae. That will hopefully be done by Monday as well.
The plan for the octopus is to make the lid first. I'm going to get a few plastic cutting boards and drill some holes in the corner, cut a large rectangular hole in the middle of the two of them, and put some hinges on them. Here's a question - can I use stainless steel parts for this? I am going to use wing nuts on the corners to hold the lid down. The middle section is going to have a piece of glass siliconed to it, I've got a smaller light fixture to hook up to the tank. But now I have a very nice 4 foot light fixture that has to go into storage
Filtration will be the protein skimmer, hopefully a UV sterilizer (hoping to find a 36 watt one for cheap here soon), and I really hope a sump. If I do a sump, I need to figure out how to hook up the returns - I m thinking very simple loc-lines, no drilling in the tank, and making sure that the loc-lines are very tightly secured and that they have some tiny holes in them. I'm hoping to get all of those upgrades for around $100, I think it's doable. The lid will probably cost around $40 to make. I also want to do a DIY inline heater, I already have the heater part. I am hoping to do all of this for under $200, including the cost of the octopus.
I also need to get some sand for the tank, or find a good way to crush the coral gravel that's in there now - I can't stand it anymore. I have a sledgehammer lying around, that will probably crush it right?
Anyways, let me know what you think. I will be sure to post some pictures and keep you updated as to when we get our octopus.
Anyways, the 60 gallon is now going to be an octopus tank! That is my dream animal, so I am over the moon excited to get an octopus. We have nearly finished cleaning/getting parts for the skimmer, so I think that will be hooked up on Monday. We are also cleaning off all of the equipment that's in the tank, it's covered in algae. That will hopefully be done by Monday as well.
The plan for the octopus is to make the lid first. I'm going to get a few plastic cutting boards and drill some holes in the corner, cut a large rectangular hole in the middle of the two of them, and put some hinges on them. Here's a question - can I use stainless steel parts for this? I am going to use wing nuts on the corners to hold the lid down. The middle section is going to have a piece of glass siliconed to it, I've got a smaller light fixture to hook up to the tank. But now I have a very nice 4 foot light fixture that has to go into storage
Filtration will be the protein skimmer, hopefully a UV sterilizer (hoping to find a 36 watt one for cheap here soon), and I really hope a sump. If I do a sump, I need to figure out how to hook up the returns - I m thinking very simple loc-lines, no drilling in the tank, and making sure that the loc-lines are very tightly secured and that they have some tiny holes in them. I'm hoping to get all of those upgrades for around $100, I think it's doable. The lid will probably cost around $40 to make. I also want to do a DIY inline heater, I already have the heater part. I am hoping to do all of this for under $200, including the cost of the octopus.
I also need to get some sand for the tank, or find a good way to crush the coral gravel that's in there now - I can't stand it anymore. I have a sledgehammer lying around, that will probably crush it right?
Anyways, let me know what you think. I will be sure to post some pictures and keep you updated as to when we get our octopus.
