20L "Planted" Seahorse Tank

[rutledgek]

I was thinking of turning a 20H or 20L into a "Planted" I only say planted because I wanted to set it up for optimal macro growth.

I was going to use yellower lights, real liverock, lower flow, etc. I wanted to give a pace for the macro and any micro fauna a place to thrive.

My question is...

Would this provide a good habitat for dwarf seahorses. I said the 20H because i read seahorses prefer more verticle hight to swim.

what is optimal flow for this type of setup. My plan is to use my weekly 5g water changes out of my reef for these, as the water is still in fairly good quality and has enough nutrients to feed the macro but not enough to harm the seahorses. My nitrates in my reef are barely detectable. Any feedback would be great.

Thanks!

 

[Samala]

You may really want to check out my website.. hit the red house. I setup the exact tank you are describing for dwarfs.. it was a lovely experiment while it lasted. I had to give the horses over to someone with more time for health reasons.

Anywho.. this is not the traditional tank setup for H. zosterae, but it can work if a varied diet is provided. I think its about the same amount of work, perhaps a bit less, than the traditional sterile setups. The biggest drawback of these tanks is that they should be allowed to mature upwards of three months to ensure an established pod population. You will still be culturing pods and possibly shrimp outside of the tank as well.

Still, a really fun tank while I had it going.

For lighting.. shoot for 6700K or 10000K bulbs, 2 - 4wpg. While the tank water changes from the reef is a great idea you are going to want some nutrients to feed the macro. Towards this end of controlling nutrients you may want to read a bit in the macro/plants forum here on RC.

My zosterae loved Caulerpa prolifera, Halimeda, Gracilaria, Chaetomorpha and the seagrasses for natural hitches.

Anywho.. definitely keep the ideas coming and if I can help out further let me know, post more questions. Do check out my logs, particularly month six on the 20gallon.

>Sarah

 

[Swanwillow]

I'm not blog friendly-can't find your pages on your dwarf setup, and it sounds interesting... so, how do i go through your webpage to find the info?

 

[Swanwillow]

never mind, figured it out.... ya just HAD to bury it, didn't ya?

 

[Samala]

I guess I did bury them. Maybe I'll add descriptive tag lines to the links instead of listing by time line.

>Sarah

 

[rutledgek]

Hey Sarah, Let me know if you have any of those plants available. I changed my ideas a bit but am still interested in setting up this tank.