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Rudiger
05/01/2002, 08:40 PM
I now have 20 lbs of live rock in the 40 gallon tank. And I just added an inch deep sand bed. Can I remove my fluval canister filter? Im asking this here because: my filter has carbon in it. If an octo ever inks, could I just hook up the filter again with the carbon or does the carbon need to be "aged" to properly remove ink? Also my filter has mechanical filtration, does a tank need this?
schmunkel98
05/02/2002, 02:53 PM
I'd say the more filtration the better. I would leave both the canister and the mechanical filtration operational. As long as neither will harm the octopus they should be fine. My guy hasn't inked yet, but I think that the filtration is used more to deal with what's left of the octo's meals. There can be quite a mess in the tank after a few ghost shrimp get chomped. I would also add a sea cucumber, starfish, large snails, and maybe even some urchins to make sure the algae and debris doesn't get out of hand. I'm currently fighting my algae off now that it's had a chance to build up too much.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
cephalopoder
05/12/2002, 09:00 AM
Hi Pat, sorry for the slow respone I must have over looked your post.
Carbon dose not need to age. It is spent rather quickly. I replace mine about one a month. Even then carbon looses most of its use in about the first week or so. I have even read it is no good after a two days but I am not sure if thst is true for all aplications. I would leave it on with fresh carbon in it and maye turn it one every now and then for a couple of hours to polish the water or if you know your octo inked. Your skimmer will help out big time with the ink. You can keep it running all the time, you will just have to replace the carbon more.
I you remove your mechanical filtration in the fluvel you will need to make sure your tank can handle the bio load with out it. Maybe let it cycle again with out it. I use a product called cell-pore in my mechanical filters and really like it. Do a search o n it and check it out. The company will send you some free samples if you ask.
chris