New seahorse tank

The place you purchased the seahorses from should be able to tell you what species they are.
As for UV, that depends on who you ask because there are proponents and opponents for with or without.
I don't use them and never have in my 18+ yrs of reefing.
Uv is only going to get the pelagic stages of pathogens and algae and not even all of them at that, so you will always have pathogens present.
The key is to keep the tank very clean so they pathogens don't get out of hand.
Keeping clean and keeping the seahorses stress free should be sufficient.
It is hard to identify a seahorse that you don't know where it comes from and until it is adult but very clear side profile shots UP CLOSE can help.
Just to show you how hard it can be, check out this Guide to Identification of Seahorses.
It will probably take some time to fully load because of the size of the file.
For me, it takes 3 to 5 minutes to fully load, depending on time of day.
 
I have a 6 stage ro/di unit hooked up to float valve on sump for ato.

Was that a response to my post? Because,while that's perfectly fine to have, that's not a substitute for a water change...

Also you're not answering the question people have been asking a number of times which is whether your seahorses are eating mysis or not. And whether they're raised from captivity or caught wild.
 
No not eating frozen mysis yet, I dnt know if wild or tank raised either. How do I get them to eat frozen mysis, the lfs that sold it to me was feeding them live brine and ghost shrimp to the bigger one.
 
I gues I jumped into this too quick, I was told they jusr need high water quility and I have an sps dominated 120 so im pretty familiar with keeping high quility tank water. Thats another thing ive always used natural sea water from right off the coast of south florida here and never had a problem does anyone else use sea water with their horses?
 
start mixing frozen mysis in with the live brine or any other live food you can get then slowly ween them off live food. good luck it may be tricky some take to frozen better then other from what i have read. i know of people here in CT that used sea water without trouble but not on seahorse tanks . just saying they didnt have seahorses not saying it cant be done.
 
15-20% water change is fine if your tank is established but your seahorse tank is most likely still cycling. The point right now is to keep the ammonia below .5 even if that takes a 100% water change every day.

Getting the seahorses to eat can be tricky too but you have to get them eating frozen mysis for their longterm survival unless you want to raise live mysis yourself. I'm still recommending going with live foods like ghost shrimp or mysis shrimp at this time until your cycle is over. It'll help with controlling the ammonia. Besides, you're in south Florida, I'm sure you can find places where you can go collect live food yourself.

Of course, good luck btw, the road ahead is not going to be easy and will take a lot of hard work on your part, but you can make it through.
 
If they are only live food for you right now, you might want to try the turkey baster trick? Place the live food in the baster and feed them. They will soon realize where the food is coming from. Slowly add some frozen mysis in with the live. Once you see them eat the frozen, increase the ratio of frozen to live.

Also you might want to consider deworming them.

Kind Regards,

Tim
 
After looking on seahorse.org im pretty sure my 2 yellow horsed are either reidis or kudas, only one eats frozen mysis the others only live brine and ghost shrimp, ive been doing daily water changes to combat the heavy feedings, anything else I should do to get them eating frozen mysis? I am mixing the live and frozen hopefuly they catch on.
 
After looking on seahorse.org im pretty sure my 2 yellow horsed are either reidis or kudas, only one eats frozen mysis the others only live brine and ghost shrimp, ive been doing daily water changes to combat the heavy feedings, anything else I should do to get them eating frozen mysis? I am mixing the live and frozen hopefuly they catch on.
If one is already on to eating frozen, the others will be helped by seeing it and eventually catch on.
Don't forget to siphon out the uneaten food.
 
Now both yellow horses are eating frozen mysis, the bigger orang one hasnt yet tryed it but hopefully he will soon, I have been doing my daily waterchanges soon after the night time feeding to suck up all uneatin food
 
Well, I use an old style Koralia-1 and a Koralia evolution 450 in my tank. I have them near the bottom back corners, angled towards the front middle glass. Some people feel that the horses maybe able to get their tails in between the grate of the K-1's but in my years of keeping these horses with these powerheads that has never happened. Also, those new Koralia Evolution pumps have an even smaller grate so I don't think it would ever be a problem.

Were I you, I would get either two Koralia Evolution 450gph pumps or two Koralia Evolution 550gph pumps. Nothing bigger.

I also once tried experimenting by putting two Koralia 750gph pumps on a wavemaker. You'd think that since the total GPH at any given time is actually less than the two pumps I have on now, the horses would be fine. Unfortunately, not so. Mine wound up hitched to the same spots all day long, would only swim around if I turned the pumps off.
 
I gotta first say I'm really amazed by your effort. At first I thought you had pretty much sentenced your horses to death, but it seems like it's very likely they'll survive and do fine.

That said, changing too much water every day isn't that necessary, the key is to make sure SOME ammonia exists to get the cycle started. Otherwise, you may just drag the cycle out longer than it has to, although definitely continue siphoning out uneaten food.

I used to just use my return for flow but after adding a stylophora I added a Koralia 1 in my tank, it's off to the side in what I call the open waters (I set up my tank so that the live rock creates a diagonal triangle cutting the tank in half). My seahorses don't mind the extra current and sometimes even seem to enjoy it. I doubt they'll have problems with the intake, I mean, I even saw a snail crawling around the grating and it was fine.
 
After looking on seahorse.org im pretty sure my 2 yellow horsed are either reidis or kudas, only one eats frozen mysis the others only live brine and ghost shrimp, ive been doing daily water changes to combat the heavy feedings, anything else I should do to get them eating frozen mysis? I am mixing the live and frozen hopefuly they catch on.



How much did you pay for them? Kuda's will be on the lower end & the reidi's should be at the higher end. What were they sold to you as?

Kind Regards,

Tim
 
Hey nova, what temp do you keep yours at, do u use a chiller?


Yes, I use a AquaEuro 1/13th HP chiller, but remember I have a 150w Metal Halide light in partially enclosed hood. If I didn't have the chiller my tank would be 82 degrees, easy.

Right now I run the chiller between 72 and 73 degrees.

When I was using PC lights and no hood, I could simply maintain the water temp at around 73-74 with the addition of an Ice Probe unit (much cheaper than a chiller) and a fan across the surface of the water.
 
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