LR & LS with Seahorse

[wakeboardgeek]

I'm trying to get as much information as possible before jumping in so please be patient. I'm thinking a solana for the tank.

I read that live rock should not be sharp to damage the SH. If I choose to just do plants (and don't have a refugium), what handles the biological filtration?

Should there be shallow sandbed (~2") or is bare bottem recommended?

 

[rayjay]

Like all aspects of salt water hobby, there are many varied ways to succeed in your quest. You just have to read about the various ones used and pick what you want for yourself.
In my case, I prefer bare bottom as I like to vacuum DAILY to remove uneaten food and detritus.
While I have tanks set up both ways, I prefer to use a sump with each tank, placing my rock, which is MY biological filtration in all my tanks, in the sumps for the most part, with ony a few token pieces in the main tanks.
I don't choose rock to be free of sharp edges, but rather prefer to have pieces that are very lightweight and very porous to provide more surface area for bacteria to grow on.
The heavier the pieces, the more you need to provide a given amount of biological filtration.
Others also use HOB or canister filters in addition.
My favorite tanks are 40T with 20g sump.
I use plastic plants instead of real macro or sea-grasses because of heat problems that cause me to go with low lighting.
Have you checked out seahorse.org for the greatest source of information on seahorse keeping?

 

[Octoshark]

I personally wouldn't worry too much about rock being too "sharp." If it has sharp spots then I would assume your horses would stay away from those parts if it really did hurt them. Just make sure you have stuff for them to hitch on like macro, etc

 

[Jason7504]

Like all aspects of salt water hobby, there are many varied ways to succeed in your quest. You just have to read about the various ones used and pick what you want for yourself.
In my case, I prefer bare bottom as I like to vacuum DAILY to remove uneaten food and detritus.
While I have tanks set up both ways, I prefer to use a sump with each tank, placing my rock, which is MY biological filtration in all my tanks, in the sumps for the most part, with ony a few token pieces in the main tanks.

why don't you put most of the rock in the DT instead of in the sump?

 

[rayjay]

why don't you put most of the rock in the DT instead of in the sump?

Same reason I don't have a sand bed and go with bare bottom. It makes it a hell of a lot easier to clean the excrement and detritus out of the tank each day with a simple vacuuming.
Even the few pieces I do keep there I have to move around to vac out the crap that accumulates under the rock.
If I leave this in, then it's just more nutrient added to the water that I don't want there. Again, just a personal preference and it's the same with my reef tanks, although I don't do daily vacuuming with them.

 

[pledosophy]

In contrast to Rayjay, I have sand, rock, and plants in my tanks. I never vacuum up uneaten food, and I don't do water changes. I go months at a time without putting anything except a turkey baster with mysis into the tank. Oh I use a scrape once every couple of weeks (I should do it once a week really) to clean the front of the glass.

There are lots of ways to setup a system and be successful. Ray and I are good examples of that. Then there are other things that IMO you can not fudge on like temperature.

If you are not using live rock at all I would suggest going with very fast growing plants and plan to pruin them often. Plants will take up some of the ammonia, they feed of ammonia, as well as nitrate and phosphate. Given the tank size I don't think this alone would be adaquete filtration for you, I could be wrong, but you would have to be very careful, and it is not a good way to "start" IMO.

I have never had a seahorse get injured on live rock. There tails are kind of made for hitching on stuff. I have read of people filing down some of the fake acropora hitches, but I have no experience on that.

I would put in some rock IMO. Even if you don't like the look of the rock, the plants can easily cover it in time. Many people comment that I have no rock in my display, There is actually 1.5 lbs per gallon, there is just that many plants.

Whatever method you decide to pursuit, make sure you follow the entire method and not just bits and pieces from different methods. If you combine them wrong, you could leave your system lacking in something important.
HTH

 

[Aquaticpaul]

I have in my tank a sand bed, live rock, purple gorgonia, sea whip,and some caulpera. My SH have not had a problem with the live rock. One thing you might want to kepp in mind if you do not have a sump like my tank ( do to space issues) ive only caught my SH doing it once but they will use the heater in the tank as a hitching post so make sure it is hidden or covered. Because they sometimes dont care if it hurts them they will do it again and eventually they can die do to infection if it does burn them.

 

[rayjay]

Because my home never goes below 68° I don't bother with a heater at all in any of my seahorse tanks. I DO have a problem with heat in summer though so I have to keep the room air conditioned then.

 

[namxas]

i agree with Kevin. SH are pretty "armored" for lack of a better word, and have no trouble w/LR. i use a mix of Tonga branch and Fiji or MI in our setups along with about 1" of #3 grade aragonite sand and LOTS of live macro.

living in S. CA, our SH setups are chilled to a max temp of 74*F.