Felicia's 30 Gallon Cube - DIY AIO Seahorse Build

[flsvedlund]

Hi everyone! :wavehand: I'm new to RC, but wanted to join since there was a forum devoted to seahorses. I'm very active on Nano-Reef for anyone who is a member there and may have seen my threads.

I'm in the process of starting up a 30 gallon seahorse tank. My plan is to house 3 H. Erectus seahorses with a few very docile fish such as clown gobies, neon gobies, and jawfish. All fish will be quarantined for 6 weeks before going into the seahorse tank to prevent any disease introduction. Additionally, the tank will contain macro algaes, soft corals, gorgonians, and sponges. My set-up is all complete and is currently cycling, so in a couple weeks I can begin adding things.

The tank I have is a 30 gallon Oceanic glass cube (20"W x 18"D x 20"H) that I converted into an AIO system. I partitioned off the back 4" of the tank with black acrylic and used baffles to create 4 different chambers. Here is a schematic of my AIO design.


Here is the tank before I converted it to an AIO.


Here is a video showing the completed AIO design and how the water flows through the different chambers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXcD6e31mMg&feature=c4-overview&list=UU6dbjih2ueTOpWWiXEL0f5Q

Here is the rock scape before I added sand to the tank. Most of the rock is dry rock from BRS, but the tonga branch pieces are live rock that I am using to seed the dry rock. I also used live sand and a bottle of Dr. Tims bacteria to help seed the dry rock. The abalone shell in the scape will serve as the feeding station. I have a long hollow acrylic tube that I will use to deliver frozen mysis into the shell.


System Specs
Tank
30 Gallon Oceanic Glass Cube - 20"W x 18"D x 20"H

Lighting
- Coralife Aqualight 20" 96W Quad Power Compact
(This came with the tank and is probably just temporary until I get an LED fixture.)
- 18" Blue LED Moonlight Strip
- JBJ Nano Glo LED refugium light

Filtration
AIO modification with back chambers
- Media basket with filter floss, Chemipure Elite, and Purigen
- Tunze Nano DOC Protein Skimmer 9002
- Refugium with rubble rock, chaeto, and blue ochtodes (will be seeded with Tisbe copepods)

Heater
Finnex HMO-100 - 100 watt titanium heater with digital controller
- Set at 73 F
- Chiller is not needed because of the mild weather

Flow
- Koralia 750 with foam guards
- Maxi-Jet NJ1100 return pump (~200 gph) with 2.5" flare return nozzle

Auto Top-Off
- JBJ ATO Water Level Controller
- Tom Aqua Lifter Vacuum Pump
- 5 gallon RO/DI reservoir

Rock and Sand
- 15 lbs of BRS Reef Saver dry rock
- 3.5 lbs of live rock
- 30 lbs of live sand

Miscellaneous
- Titanium grounding probe

Please let me know what you think and if you have any advice or suggestions!

 

[convictblennie]

Looks really nice, I love the "pillar" type rocks

 

[nanomarine]

Very cool design. Interested in the ATO idea and have a few questions since I'm thinking about converting my jbj nano into a seahorse tank.

Is the reservoir below in the cabinet? Is the float switch in one of the chambers? How do you prevent the back siphon into the reservoir? I can't find the setup in the video.

 

[nanomarine]

Do seahorses like to eat out of a shell?
Do you plan to turn off the flow when you feed them?

 

[rayjay]

I'm thinking about converting my jbj nano into a seahorse tank.

Hopefully the nano will be large enough.
Recommended tank size is 29/30g for ONE PAIR of standard sized seahorses, and and EXTRA 15g for each ADDITIONAL pair.
The OP's plans to add 3 seahorses to this tank will be overloading it and in time, will most likely cause problems/deaths to the seahorses.
While it is possible to do, especially in the short term, it will require a lot more husbandry and larger, more frequent water changes that for seahorses are already more demanding than a reef tank. Even experienced seahorses keepers can have problems with succeeding using smaller tanks.
There are some excellent articles written by experienced seahorse keepers, AND, probably the best known seahorse breeder, linked at the BOTTOM of "My Thoughts on Seahorse Keeping".