dwarf horse questions.

[gary greguire]

I am hoping to set up a 7 gal allglass mini bow for dwarf seahorses.

Here is a shot of the tank.

I am wondering what I should run for a filter, (the power head is temporary I know that it is to much flow), with dwarfs I have read just to use air driven sponge filters

Also is the live rock a problem?

What corals will work there are mushrooms Some macro algae and I was thinking maybe a Kenya tree (Capnella) & some gargonians.


Having several reef tanks I am having a little trouble bringing myself to use artificial stuff But if that is what it will take to be successful I will do it

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Gary

 

[Beckmola24]

Sponge filters are fine, but make sure you put a sponge or something over the intake to make sure any fry or smaller dwarves don't get sucked in.

If you're sure the live rock doesn't have hydroids then it shouldn't be a problem. A lot of people recommend going with a sterile tank (fake plants, no rock) but I'm not one of them I have live rock in with my dwarfs, but I know for a fact that it is hydroid free.

The gorgonians might be a problem though, if it is non-photosynthetic then it needs a lot of flow (which dwarves can't have) and if it IS photosynthetic, then you need more light than a 7g nano can produce unless you use supplemental, but then you might have temperature issues... I was thinking about a gorgonian in my 3g nano, but it's a "no win" situation with either type

I am also like you with the thought of using artificial stuff.... What I did is go to my LFS and ask for their dead gorgonian skeletons. I also got a little bit of macro and quarantined it for awhile and carefully chose the strands that I placed in my tank. I Freshwater dipped all of the stuff going into the tank.

I hope some of this helped you! Hope I didn't ramble too much... Good luck with your dwarves! They're really neat!

 

[Beckmola24]

Oh BTW... With the setup you have pictured, I would suggest more hitching posts. Try the dead gorgonians or maybe some hydroid free feather caulerpa or something like that. They need more stuff to hitch on than you have in the tank... Hope this helps!

 

[gary greguire]

thanks for the input

What exactly are hydroids?

 

[DrBDC]

I use an eclipse 3 gallon. On my intake I put a sponge cover that came with a mag 3 and I zip tied it tight. I used live rock and watched it for a while. A couple aips I kalked and it looked good for about a month before I added my dwarves. I also used live sand from my sump. I added some anthelia which they love to hitch to. A kenya, some mushrooms (no hairy or frilly's). When I ordered mine I ordered a pair with a preg. male and they sent me 3 females and a preg. male so I got a bonus. A few days ago I now have about a dozen babies too! But with the order I ordered blackjack which is like a branching tree for 5 bucks. They mostly like to hang on that or the anthelia. Get a daily shrimp hatching routine going. I feed cyclopeeze and the babies love it and the adults are iffy but do eat it. I guess that's the diff. between the adult wc's and the baby cb's. Here's a link so you can see that blackjack.

http://www.floridacollector.com/blackjack.htm