Look over my seahorse Setup please

[eisaiasjr]

Hi:

It has been a while since I had my tank cycling and I am feeling confident with the tank and how it has fully cycled so now I am ready to start adding the CUC to the tank and eventually the seahorses

Here is the breakdown of my tank:

35 gal hexagon Clear-for-Life from myfishtank.com (with the modifications to make it a seahorse tank)
1/10 prime chiller (current USA)
150w heater
inline UV steralizer
Clear for life Protein skimmer
lots of bioballs
20 pounds of black sand
35 pounds of branch LR


Here is the CUC that I want to add to my tank:

1 Sandsifting starfish
1 horseshoe crab (small)
1 Tiger Tail Cucumber
15 Nassarius Snails
1 lettuce Sea Slug
15 Scarlet Hermits
20 Astrea Snails
2 Peppermint Shrimp
2 Fireshrimp (Lysmata debelius)
1 Decorator Arrow Crab (Stenorhynchus sp.)
2 Bumble Bee Shrimp (Gnathophyllum americanum)


1 week after the CUC crew gets added I want to add the following:

2 mated PAIRS of Erectus tank bred
1 mated PAIR of tank bred false perculas (A. Ocellaris)
1 mated PAIR of Helfrichi Firefish (Nemateleotris helfrichi)

I was also planning on adding a few mushrooms to the top part of the tank to try to give them as much light as possible since it only has an 18 watt power compact.

Let me know what you think of this setup and if you see anything that could be potentially wrong or aggressive towards the seahorses or any other tankmate.

Regards,

Estefano

 

[pledosophy]

Here's my take.

The heater is much to large for a tank that size. You'd be better off with a 50w. If it is going in tank make sure there is a heater guard covering it.

I'd ditch the bioballs too. Honeslty if you are good about cleaning them they are not so bad a thing, but you do have to clean them very often to stop the accumulation of detritus. I found I was better off without them. What kind of filter are you running?

On the CUC:
You won't have enough sand for a sand sifting starfish. It will die. Soon.

Horseshoe crabs have no place in seahorse tanks. Ya they start small, but a crab the size of a quarter can be a crab the size of a softball pretty quick. ( I think mine took about a year and a half or so) The larger they get the more often they knock over all of your rockwork. Avalanches aren't to great for fishes like seahorses. Also a horseshoe crab when swimming in the water does not care if it bumps into things. Seahorses can not get out of the way fast enough, they end up tangling, again not good for the seahorse.

Arrow crabs are also a no go.

Fire shrimp are on the riskier side, but doable.

Read up on slugs and cukes before going there, they present there own genre of problems IME.

Beyond that your way over stocked on the CUC for a 35g. That's more then I'd put in a well stocked 90g.

I'd keep it simple. For what your talking about i'd go with

5 Astrea
5 cerith
5 naussarius (maybe 8 if they are super small, but they grow)
2 peppermint shrimp
JME

On the stocking, that's pretty high on the bioload. Clowns tend to become aggresive as tehy get larger IME. I have tried percs a couple of times, it never worked out.

If I was going to be going with seahorses and helfrichi's I'd stick to a pair of each.

Also as far as your timeline, it sounds like your not planning QT periods right? If you were planning a QT for all of the clean up crew then after a 6 week QT, and a week of waiting with the CUC in the dispaly ya add the horses, but if you weren't planning on QTing the clean up crew then I would wait a min of 6 weeks inbetween adding the clean up crew and adding any fish. Inverts are notorious for bringing in parasites and it's best to start off a new taqnk with no problems. The waiting is hard, but will make your life easier long term. You plan to invest a lot of money into your fish, take the time so that the investment is not a waste of your money.

I looked up the site your getting your system from, seems kinda expensive for what you get to be honest. If you haven't already purchased it I think you could find something less expensive that might be better. I paid less then that for my 65g tank, stand, canopy, sump, and return pump. I paid half that for a 30g custom tank with built in filtration, stand, canopy, sump and return pump. Just sayin, better deals are around.

 

[eisaiasjr]

CUC parasites

CUC parasites

I was not aware that CUC came with parasites, I much rather wait the 6 weeks than to rush it.

In regards to the QT for the CUC, is there something I should do? or just put them in a "holding tank" with LR and sand for 6 weeks will do?

I have generally run hypo on all my QT which obviously doesnt work for invertebrates.

Is there anything I can treat them with while in QT? if not I might as well just put them in the DT and wait the 6 weeks, right?

Please advice,

Estefano

 

[pledosophy]

When I'm starting a new tank I just put them in and wait the 6 weeks. Gives my tank more of a settling period as well.

There is nothing really to treat them with. You can scrub the snail shells with a soft bristled toothbrush to dislodge any before they go in the display but if your going to wait the 6 weeks, I'd pass on it.

Just feed the tank while the CUC is in there so they have food, will keep your bacteria populations up too.