Hello,
Do you think it would be possible to build a refugium to sustain the live food needs of dwarf seahorses?
What size refugium would be enough to keep a lightly populated dwarf seahorse tank of ~20g without seahorse specific feeding?
I dont have experience in sustaining live food for seahorses and I just want to know if this can even make sense.
Please let me know what you think.
I kept seahorses for a year and gave them to the LFS before I moved. The most laborious part of keeping the seahorses for me was the daily routine of thawing the frozen mysis shrimp twice a day and making sure that the mysis shrimp does not get eaten by the overzealous cleaning crew before the horsies. Then clean up the remaining mysis shrimp. Also going to vacation was stressful.
The idea is to have a big refugium that would flow in to the display tank. Keep and sustain a big enough population of live copepods, amphipods and similar critters in the refugium to feed the seahorses. And feed the copepods and amphipods dry food in the refugium.
Detailed description of the tank planned:
Please note that I have some experience building baffles in a tank. I built my current tank out of an aquamaxx 33g cube and acrylic false walls myself, similar to a biocube. It took me a while but it was not that bad
I will begin with a 75g fish tank (48 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 21 3/8). Separate an area of 11" x 22-1/2" in the middle section of the tank to make the display area using acrylic false walls. This will make a display area off ~22.5 gallons and ~52.5 gallons of sump.
Sump will be:
2 refugiums (20 gallon + 20 gallon = ~40gallons), protein skimmer chamber chamber(4.4gallon), mechanical filtration section with filter floss and active carbon(4.4 gallon), ~5.5gallon evaporation/pump section)]
I am planning to use an undergravel filter matching the size of the display area. At this point, most saltwater folk that has dealt with seahorses should be going "This is blasphemy!!..." But please bear with me.
The idea is to minimize strong current by pulling high volume of water through a large surface. We need to screen the water intake for circulation one way or another. I am planning to use larger 1/2" marble from homedepot with 1.5" thickness total substrate and vacuum during water changes.
I am planning to connect the lift tubes of the undergravel filter to a middle chamber (right behind the display section) where the water is going to overflow and pass through a mechanical filtration with floss and carbon. After the filtration the water is going to be pumped to two refugiums at the sides of the tank where the majority of liverock and sand will reside for biological filtration. These refugiums will overflow into the tank without going through another pump. Having two refugiums can technically allow variety in fauna for different types of critters.
In addition, there will be a 25 Vecton uv sterilizer with 200gph powerhead and a chiller. All in all the total flow rate aimed is close to actual 600gph-800gph through the display tank. I am not planning to have a protein skimmer but the chamber at the back of the display section will have enough area for one if necessary.
All the non display areas are going to be covered by black vinyl sheet. At the end it will look like a 20g tank built in to a wall. : )
Advantages of having the display and sump in the same tank:
1-Having the sump in the same tank eliminates the possibility of over flows if the separations(baffles) are 1" lower than the tank height.
2-More of the sump volume becomes available to use because there is no overflow concern
3-Refugium will flow in to tank without going through another pump.
Thanks for reading
Do you think it would be possible to build a refugium to sustain the live food needs of dwarf seahorses?
What size refugium would be enough to keep a lightly populated dwarf seahorse tank of ~20g without seahorse specific feeding?
I dont have experience in sustaining live food for seahorses and I just want to know if this can even make sense.
Please let me know what you think.
I kept seahorses for a year and gave them to the LFS before I moved. The most laborious part of keeping the seahorses for me was the daily routine of thawing the frozen mysis shrimp twice a day and making sure that the mysis shrimp does not get eaten by the overzealous cleaning crew before the horsies. Then clean up the remaining mysis shrimp. Also going to vacation was stressful.
The idea is to have a big refugium that would flow in to the display tank. Keep and sustain a big enough population of live copepods, amphipods and similar critters in the refugium to feed the seahorses. And feed the copepods and amphipods dry food in the refugium.
Detailed description of the tank planned:
Please note that I have some experience building baffles in a tank. I built my current tank out of an aquamaxx 33g cube and acrylic false walls myself, similar to a biocube. It took me a while but it was not that bad
I will begin with a 75g fish tank (48 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 21 3/8). Separate an area of 11" x 22-1/2" in the middle section of the tank to make the display area using acrylic false walls. This will make a display area off ~22.5 gallons and ~52.5 gallons of sump.
Sump will be:
2 refugiums (20 gallon + 20 gallon = ~40gallons), protein skimmer chamber chamber(4.4gallon), mechanical filtration section with filter floss and active carbon(4.4 gallon), ~5.5gallon evaporation/pump section)]
I am planning to use an undergravel filter matching the size of the display area. At this point, most saltwater folk that has dealt with seahorses should be going "This is blasphemy!!..." But please bear with me.
The idea is to minimize strong current by pulling high volume of water through a large surface. We need to screen the water intake for circulation one way or another. I am planning to use larger 1/2" marble from homedepot with 1.5" thickness total substrate and vacuum during water changes.
I am planning to connect the lift tubes of the undergravel filter to a middle chamber (right behind the display section) where the water is going to overflow and pass through a mechanical filtration with floss and carbon. After the filtration the water is going to be pumped to two refugiums at the sides of the tank where the majority of liverock and sand will reside for biological filtration. These refugiums will overflow into the tank without going through another pump. Having two refugiums can technically allow variety in fauna for different types of critters.
In addition, there will be a 25 Vecton uv sterilizer with 200gph powerhead and a chiller. All in all the total flow rate aimed is close to actual 600gph-800gph through the display tank. I am not planning to have a protein skimmer but the chamber at the back of the display section will have enough area for one if necessary.
All the non display areas are going to be covered by black vinyl sheet. At the end it will look like a 20g tank built in to a wall. : )
Advantages of having the display and sump in the same tank:
1-Having the sump in the same tank eliminates the possibility of over flows if the separations(baffles) are 1" lower than the tank height.
2-More of the sump volume becomes available to use because there is no overflow concern
3-Refugium will flow in to tank without going through another pump.
Thanks for reading