Need Some Advice ASAP on 75gal Seahorse/Pipefish fuge

[GriffinMarsh]

So in the next coming month I will be acquiring a friends 200gal reef tank. His setup is a mixed reef that I am going to be converting into an SPS dominate(thats another story/thread). My 75 gallon (48"x24"x14") tank I have now will become a display refugium off to the side of the system. This will house many calcareous algaes, mangroves, sea grasses, and leafy algaes staying away from caulerpa with the exception of C. bracypus. I have kept seahorses before, however, they were in a tank taller that 24". My main question is whether or not seahorses would thrive in a tank hovering just above a foot. The other considerations of course would be temperature and flow. As for temperature I believe there are a few true warmer water seahorses, but I could be mistaken. Also the only flow will come from blueline that already seems to put out less than its prescribed 1500gal flow. I was hoping that horizontal swimming space would be enough, but if most disagree I will just stay with pipefish. Any input would be fantastic as Im in the planning stages for fish in both systems.

 

[rayjay]

IMO, volume is more important than height of a tank for seahorses. Too low may just may it harder for them to produce fry, but often they find a way to do it anyway.
Seahorses tolerate a lot of different flow rates and as long as you have hitching in low, medium and high flow areas so they can choose for themselves where they wish to be at any time, and, as long as they can't be blasted against something and getting damaged, you will be OK.
Many seahorses do originate in the wilds in temperatures above what we keep them, but in the wild they have an ever changing water factor, not present in our contained aquariums. This means bacteria can build up quite fast, especially because seahorses due to their peculiar eating habits, create such dirty water which tends to increase the odds of failure because of nasty bacteria.
We keep the tanks in the 68° to 74°F range because most of those nasties multiply exponentially, especially above that 74°F.
We also have to do larger, more frequent water changes, and be more particular with husbandry so that over time the bacteria beds don't develop to cause problems even though we are using lower temperatures.
If this tank is plumbed into the larger tank, then you are also exposing the seahorses to pathogens of the occupants of that larger tank, and seahorses often have problems with pathogens they haven't been raised with.
Also, the dirty water they produce can lead to losses of some corals, mainly some species of sps that require extremely clean water for best results.