Dwarf Seahorses - Refugium?

[NeveSSL]

Hi all!

My wife expressed interest in getting a small tank for her today and I've been thinking about a dwarf seahorse tank, so I think this is my opportunity! smile.gif

I have about 2.5 years of reefing experience and I believe now is the time to try dwarf seahorses. smile.gif

I was wondering if anyone was using a refugium with their dwarfs?

I'm thinking a 5g or 10g display tank with a 10g dedicated refugium could help provide lots of live copepods for the little guys as well as additional water volume. The biggest challenge I can think of is getting the water to the display and back down to the sump without sucking up the seahorses! smile.gif

Has anyone done this before? It seems like a good idea to me. It would also allow for cooling of the water and a place to put some equipment (at least a temp probe and maybe pH probe as I'll most likely have this tank on my ReefKeeper Elite).

Any thoughts?

And for what its worth, I'm not really aiming for self-sustainability, I'm just thinking this could be a great supplement to mysis and artemia.

Thanks!

Brandon

 

[NeveSSL]

Two issues off of the top of my head are getting a good copepod source (maybe from my reef, maybe not) and also getting water to and from the refugium with only a small amount of flow. Any thoughts?

Brandon

 

[namxas]

while zots are indeed lazy little SH that normally wait for their food to swim by, don't be super afraid of flow. if you add the flow creatively, you should be able to return the water from your sump/fuge with no problem.

as for pods, your best bet would be Tisbe sp.. Tigriopus californicus ("tigger" pods) is a cool-water species that does not reproduce well at temps above 68*F (warmer temps = all male offspring).

you're correct in thinking that this won't be a self-sustaining system, but the dietary diversity is a great way to go.

a 10 gal setup will house 20 adult zots most comfortably.

 

[NeveSSL]

Many thanks for the quick reply, Greg! BTW, just saw pics of your 50g pentagon tank and it looks amazing! I am beginning to really like macro algae for color!

I do have to say that I would be a bit concerned about the tigger pods, though, as I would think it would be very difficult to keep a tank at 68 or below without a chiller, which adds significant cost (although it could be a long-term goal).

Could you be a little more specific with what you mean by creative flow?

Thanks again!

Brandon

 

[namxas]

by "creative", i mean using things like spraybars, aiming the returns so they don't result in a large amount of laminar flow across the tank, using current switchers, etc. some folks return water into the rockwork to reduce detritus buildup.

you could use fans to keep the tank cool. to be honest, tropical SH shouldn't be kept above 74*F to reduce the chance of bacterial infections (the bacterial count in a closed system really takes off at 75*F). IMHO, this is probably the most important issue in SH keeping besides making sure the SH eat daily.

 

[NeveSSL]

Ahhh... I see. Thats a cool idea on rock returns.

We keep our apartment fairly cool... almost always at 72. So maybe with a fan and just around 18w of PCs they should be good to go. I will have a controller on these little guys as well most likely, so that it can turn the lights off and shoot me an email should something get out of whack.

Brandon