Hello! New to the forums, and I have an interesting project

[SeaHorseTim]

First, thanks for all the great information i've found here. I've been working with sea horses for a couple of years, but not with the depth of experience you folks have. I started with some dwarfs in a 24g nano, then moved them to a 55. But now I have a plan...

I recently acquired a 240 gallon tank, and I plan to build it into the wall. I'm going to turn it into a reef tank (it's a standard 96x24x24, great for a reef). Obviously, I'm going to plumb in a huge sump and refugium (is that what you guys mean by 'fuge'?). Conveniently, I have a large room to put all of this in, on the other side of the 'fishtank wall'.

Here's where it gets interesting. I would also like to build a pair of 29 gallon tanks into the same wall, and plumb those into the same sump, so that they 'share' water with the 250. And into those 29's, I would like to raise sea horses.

So, here's the question. Assuming I properly fill the 29's with the various sea horse needs, do you fine folks think this is a good idea? I like the massive filtration/consistency offered by such a large body of water, but i'm a touch nervous about the reef temp being too warm for the sea horses. I'm also wondering if any critters could transfer in and cause a problem.

If it works well, though, it would be one very cool wall to sit in front of and watch. Who needs cable when you have that much to look at?

What do you think?

 

[mrme]

Well if you have been keeping dwarfs for a while, Then you should know by now that they are sensitive to a type of small jellyfish type creature, called a Hydroid.
These are common on all live rock. This is a feasible idea if all the live rock was treated with panacur (horse de-wormer) and even the corals that went into the tank.

Most soft corals can handle small panacur treatments. But copepods and other inverts are very sensitive.

 

[parkpark]

I think its a bad idea based on temperature alone

 

[SeaHorseTim]

Yeah, I was sort of hoping somebody would talk me into it. heh

 

[SeaHorseTim]

OK, so i've given it some thought, and as much as I'd like to get back into the classic reef world, it might be time to switch over and really do the sea horse thing.

So. Anybody ever do a 240 gallon sea horse tank? I saw a 180, i'm going to study that for a while.

But what would you folks recommend for a 240? I'd like to maybe lean a bit in the reef direction, as I know a number of zoanthids and such will be happy at 73 degrees, but the emphasis - i'm thinking - should be on sea horses.

So if you had a great big, fancy, 240 gallon tank backed with a 60 gallon sump and a 75 gallon refugium, what would you do?

 

[jadeguppy]

With all that space, why not plumb the two 29's together and keep the 240 on a different line? That way you can meet both sytle tanks needs. It shouldn't take much extra space.

 

[parkpark]

I would put some big ol tangs in there and tell those seahorses to take a hike!

 

[cmsargent]

I keep a variety of softies, gorgs, and a few LPS in my seahorse tank which is around 74 and everything does fine at that temp.

I think a seagrass bed on one side with a mixed softie reef on the other would be really awsome in a large tank like this. You'd also have the space to look into some of the larger horses like potbellies if you wanted.

 

[RichardS]

I have a 210 (7' x 2' x 2') and 14 H. comes in it along with various softies, macros, and seahorse compatible fish. So you can make a nice seahorse "reef" with your 240. I keep the tank at 76F, the tigertails don't seem to like the lower temps that I keep other horses at.

You will find that seahorses are much more active when you give them that much space. They will make full use of the 240.

If you are willing to go temperate, the Pot Belly tank could be an awesome display. If you can find some.

Or you can do something really original and put some big ol tangs in there .