Anyone Have a SH Solana Tank?

[wastememphis]

I'm looking into setting my tank up to keep SH's, has anyone else done this? Any pictures?

(My hypothetical list of equipment are: vortech mp20, nova extrme pro t5 lighting, keep the solana skimmer for now and add a chiller if I cannot keep my room temperature down)

 

[eisaiasjr]

Careful!

Careful!

WasteMemphis:

You definitely need to think about having a chiller, in order to keep SH you need to keep water temps of 72-74 degrees. Plan for it now and you will be much more successful at keeping them.

Also, DO NOT put any power heads inside the tank, SH need very calm waters and just the Solana pump is too much for them... forget the mp20!

The solana skimmer is actually really good, the only thing I would suggest is adding an ATO system so that the skimate becomes reliable and you dont have problems configuring the skimmer every 12 hours.

UV sterilizers are recommended but not necessary. personally I don't run one and I have never had any problems.

The light you run doesnt matter as long as you dont overdo it, dont put a dual 250w HQI pendant on top or you will fry your SHs. Personally I really like the bell pendant that the solana comes with.

Also, you might want to add spray bars in order to even out the flow of the tank, or you can reduce the flow of the return pump by turning the nob on it.

The recommended flow on a SH tank is 4-7 turnover, the solana pump is 10-11x turnover by default.

I hope this answer some questions, with a few minor modifications the Solana is actually a very good SH tank.

Regards,

Estefano

 

[abell]

Curious about how I can get the water movement in the solana from 10-11 to the suggested 4-7 turnover rate. Sorry to Hijack this btw.

 

[mollymonticello]

I don't have anything to add on the Solana tank, I'm not familiar with it. Most plug and plays are too small and get too hot for seahorses. As long as it's at least 30 gallons and you get a chiller, it's fine.

Seahorses don't mind gentle current. It's the blast from a jet of a powerhead that they can't handle. Seahorse tanks tend to have high nutrient levels and need a lot of flow to prevent dead spots.

I have 2 Koralia-one PH in my 37 gallon seahorse tank (which are safe as long as you have the cover on the front so they don't get their tails stuck in the propeller). Koralias have a more gentle flow than jet-type powerheads.

A lot of people create spray bars that wind under their rockwork to kind of break up the flow of a stronger powerhead. You need a lot of turnover in a SH tank, I have about 20 x turnover in my aquarium with just my powerheads. Then add the pump for my chiller and my refugium pump...

Even my small seahorses can swim and navigate all around the tank just fine, even right in front of the powerheads.

 

[Kanicky]

There are a lot of conflicting opinions on flow in a seahorse tank.

We just moved to Texas from Houston and are currently setting up a new seahorse tank. The former seahorse tank we had back in Florida - the seahorses absolutely loved to play in the flow of the powerhead. They'd swim right into the flow, let it swirl them around, and repeat.

Obviously, the flow shouldn't be crazy heavy, but a moderate flow won't hurt them, especially if you have a ton of "hitching posts" for them to go to, and the whole tank isn't turbulent with flow.