Algae on Kuda

[ade]

I wanted to ask you all if anyone has had a problem with algae growing on a sea horse. I have a 25 gal with 130 watt PC's a small rio 400 power head and a seaclone 100 with needle wheel mod and about 50# of LR. Oh and it is full of mushrooms and zoes and some other corals, it has been up and running as a coral tank for around 16 months. I started out with one female TR Kuda and she done so well that I bought another 3. A total of 2 males and 2 females.
Also is it a bad idea to have 2 m/2 f. I wanted to add a pair of pipe fish down the line. I was thinking of taking out the rio and replacing it with a UV.
Any info you can give me will be greatly appreciated. New to seahorses but kept corals and fish for a while now.
Thanks Ade

 

[Swanwillow]

in my opinion, I'm in the group of people that say: algae is natural, its great camoflauge in the wild, and leave it there. it won't hurt them.

its not a bad idea for 2m/2f, but thats a big bioload in a 25: no pipefish, maybe one small other fish, such as a clown goby, or blenny, or something like that.

one seahorses daily output=3 damsel fish. they get fed mysis shrimp daily, 2x a day. that IS EQUAL to 12 damsels in your tank already... I'd keep it at that. Pipes are equally demanding...

I'd also be worried: what OTHER corals do you have in there: anything that stings is bad... LPS, some softies are bad. many softies are good, though.

 

[ade]

Thanks for the info. The only lps that I have in there is candy cane and a small frag of blasto. What about flow, the skimmer blows them around when they swim in the flow and I have a flow rotatinf deflector on the rio 400 and that pushes them to the other side of the tank when they swim through that flow. They are around 2" in size and eat like pigs. I have been doing a 5gal w/c every week on that tank. In general I would like to have my cake and eat it. I love the mushrooms(rics) and zoes, but also have found a new love for seahorses.

 

[Swanwillow]

if they get blown around: its NOT good... are there any hitches for them other than the rock?

I have a 35 gallon, with my skimmer and a maxi-600, but the maxi is deflected off of the rocks, and the skimmer only moves water at the top of the tank... mine sometimes hitch rides in the maxi, but they prefer to stay out of it...

with the use of aquascaping and spraybars the flow can be minimized, but if they are being pushed around, its WAY too much...

 

[ade]

There is a some macro algae in there and there is also some, I know, look away, dead sps colonies that I collected from lps. I was thinking of changing the powerhead to a maxi jet 400 with a deflector moving the top of the water.

 

[Swanwillow]

why look away: they make good hitching posts... may want to look into plastic plants also.

and making the switch would be good... fix the high flow problems, at least

 

[ade]

I placed a maxi jet 400 with the deflector so that the flow goes up and that seems to be better.