Anyone try this?

[TundraGuy]

Ok let's make a long story short by saying my friend got a JBJ 12 and wants to go with sea horses. So My question is: if we run the return to an under gravel plate then use some medium Fiji pink aragonite sand to cover the UGF plate would this be a good set up? I figure this would dissipate any and all currents but still allow for the use of a maxi 1200 for better water turn over through the filtration. Has anyone done this on a nano let alone with horses? I think it would be the way to go. Back in the late 80s and early 90s I use to set up reverse flow under gravel tanks all the time. Fast forward to present day and the use of UGFs is a Taboo. But sometimes bringing back the things from our past is the best way to move forward into the future.

Also what type of horses should she start with in this size tank? I am a Reefer and Mantis guy not so much the horse guy. Thank you for any and all help boys and girls.

 

[rayjay]

The reverse flow method would be much better than the standard UGF because seahorse tanks are very dirty due to their feeding habits.
However, the tank in not large enough for a pair of standard seahorses and is too large for dwarf seahorses.
You can get more information on getting into the hobby by reading the links at the bottom of the page, My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping

 

[TundraGuy]

thank you for the input will read up more then pick your brain if your willing.

 

[TundraGuy]

Ok so we need captive bread. We need temp stability below 74 (chiller check). A small pump for the water movement while the main pump is off during feedings (mini 404 check). Both this and the main pump on a daylight/moonlight timer for alteration check. In chamber 1 we need to use fine filter foss to collect the finer left over foods (this will need constant replacement check). Place one bag of carbon and one bag of GFO in chamber 2.

The live food thing seems to be 50/50 on who likes the idea and who hates it. I see the point of frozen being sterile were as live carries different things that could bring problems.

If we are to make our own fake live rock using expandable foam and use clear fishing line to tie it at various heights in the tank (think Avatar floating mountains) we would not have anything touching the sand bed for easier gravel vacuuming and higher visibility of the horses. Does this sound feasible? Remember the expandable foam makes good looking fake rock that flouts so tying it at different points makes for the illusion of perfect bouncy. Fishing line is designed to be invisible underwater. So plastic hooks glued to the bottom of the tank run through the under gravel plate will hold the lines perfectly.

Am I on the right track so far? The tank may need to be changed to a different size but that determination (of correct size) has yet to be made.

 

[rayjay]

As far as carbon and GFO I can't help on that because all I use in my tanks are live rock in the sumps, fake hitching, and powerheads for water movement.
I routinely siphon leftover food and detritus from the bare bottom.
The minimum recommended size for a pair of standard sized seahorses like kuda, erectus or reidi is 29g and an additional 15g for each additional pair of seahorses.
Main reason for this is the "dirty" eating habits of seahorses. They only eat what they perceive to be perfect specimens, leaving the remainder to settle somewhere, and when they do snick a piece of food, they masticate it, passing residue through the gills into the water column.
Even under ideal conditions you need to be doing more water changes and be more diligent with housekeeping than you would for a reef tank.
Because of all this, I would never use undergravel filtration unless it was prefiltered reverse flow. Normal UGF just pulls the detritus down into the substrate where it can exacerbate nasty bacterial growth.
Enriched live food is only recommended for once or twice a week with frozen mysis being the preferred food for normal feeding.
I enrich live food with Dan's Feed from seahorsesource.com.
I just use regular tanks for all my seahorses as it is cheaper and I don't need the lighting/filtration systems of the plug n play units.

 

[TundraGuy]

Ok I know of a guy in phoenix Az that breeds and sells Hippocampus Erectus. Would these guys be a good horse to start into this side of the hobby? Side note the tank that will be used is still under discussion. We may use one of my old sumps 30x30x20 (remove the baffles I glued in of cores). The dude in phoenix said he keeps his at 72 degrees and only feeds them frozen mysis shrimp (once they are big enough to eat it) and whatever they get from his fuge. Now with this tank the under gravel is out. He also recommended to add a shallow sand bed and load it up with nassarius snails to keep the bed clean. This makes a lot of sense to me due to them further braking down left mysis. Does this sound good? He also recommended that we keep macros in with the horses and in a tank that big we’d be crazy to keep any less than 4 males and 4 females more being ideal. Does this sound like a sales pitch or is this accurate? I told him about the floating rock structure I spoke about above. He said that would be amazing but the horses need vertical post to grab onto so they will most likely grab onto the fishing line teathers…..lol

 

[ann83]

30 x 30 x 20 is 75ish gallons? 20 inches is a little shallow, but not terrible. You would definitely want to go with a shallow sandbed, though, and make sure you didn't drill the overflow too low in the tank, because every inch of vertical swimming room is going to be important. For 75 gallons, yes, you could get away with 8 seahorses, but I would start with 4, and work your way up so you get a handle on care and their bioload. Filtration is also going to play a part in your stocking density, for example, a good skimmer will go a long way toward allowing higher stocking density.

 

[TundraGuy]

Thank you for the response. Ok so this tanks not offering the right height. Hmmm. Well we are going to be ordering a 24x24x28 is that better? And filtration for me is a overkill or go home kind of thing.

 

[ann83]

Yes, 28" is much better.

 

[timinnl]

The other think you need too consider is when they start producing frys every two weeks or so. Handling the frys from two pair is hard enough, add two more pairs and you wish you had more hair to pull out.:headwalls:

Tim