New Seahorse Tank

[ricefootball]

After several months, well really several years of research and "wishing", I've finallhy gotten this project up and running. I didn't post alot of the history of how I got to this point. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I had so many people help me get to this point I'm happy to share anything I've learned.

The seahorses arrive on next Tuesday. All the stuff in the tank was cooking in my garage in a tub for months while I set this up. I had the live rock in a tub with a skimmer and lights, crabs and snails. It was also attached to the fuge which was fed every day. All the readings in the tank are zero. I feed the tank with phyto, couple of differnt kinds, and fish food that the bristle worms and crabs eat. So, it's time to put in a couple of seahorses. I'm getting the H. Fuscus from Seahorse Source.

The tank itself is 26 inches tall, 24 inches long and 22 inches wide. I had it made especially for seahorses by ocea aquariums in alabama.

full tank shot

the left side, with the calurpa in the back and red bubble in the front

here's the stand that I made out of a nightstand, I haven't finished the door. the lights are aquaillumination

here's all the stuff in the garage.

here's the sump in the garage close up.

Here's the fuge that's hooked into the sump.

 

[SaylorsReef]

Wow! Very impressive! Its good to see all the planning that you did before you got the seahorses.

 

[ctenophors rule]

caa't wait to see it w/ seahorses.

skimmer is pulling a lot out or gunk out for a fishless system!

 

[leslie hempel]

very nice, now we need pics of the ponies..

 

[namxas]

nice job! until the macro grows in, you might want to add a few more temporary hitches for the SH.

 

[JM68]

the vortech is probably a bad idea. definitely a hazard for the little guys if they try to hitch to it.

 

[pledosophy]

Tank is looking pretty good. Your filtration system is definitely up for the job.

I agree with Greg on adding some more hitches.

All of this planning will pay off. Having the tank setup right fro the start is going to save you down the line. So many of us are build as we go.

Nice work.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15209224#post15209224 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JM68
the vortech is probably a bad idea. definitely a hazard for the little guys if they try to hitch to it.

Is that based on experience, or an educated opinion?

Doesn't the vortech come with a sponge you could put over the intake grill? I would think that could make it safe.

In my best guess I think if the sponge guard was on then the only risk by the pump would be if the seahorse swam into the impeller or put there tail in it. That might be hard to do since the pump is pushing water out of the same place.

Just a guess. I do plan on trying it myself soon with the new "nano" vortech. I'm preordered.

I have used the koralia nano pumps with no bad results for god length of time, under I year I suppose, but there grill is similiar and so far so good. I have read reports of problems with koralia 1's and 2's, with the grill openings on the intakes being to large and smaller seahorses getting tail amputations.

I guess in any case the size of the seahorse would be dependent on how safe the pump was.

Respectfully
Kevin

 

[Fishfreak218]

order the sponge for the vortech and you should be better. Still, not 100% safe but I doubt it would cause too serious damage.

 

[augustasalty]

Very nice setup. I'm thinking of doing seahorses myself within the next few months, and this is inspiring.

 

[ricefootball]

Thanks all, I didn't know I had these responses. I got my horses in a couple of weeks ago from seahorse source. After a few days break in they are both eating great. Searching for food all the time, taking the frozen hikari mysis well. I've also set up a little system to feed them live adult brine shrimp, that I gut load with various things I got from brineshrimpdirect.com. They love chasing the little dudes around, and it hasn't effected them taking the frozen mysis at all.

As far as hitching goes, there's really a ton of stuff in there. I have some hard green macro algae they love, red macro algae, a caulerpa they love, they hang on the rocks etc.

For the vortec, I tried the sponge for about an hour, man does that thing collect crap quickly! The first day one of the little guys got close and I pushed it away, they haven't gotten close since. I built this tank 26 inches high, so the vortec is fairly high up and they tend to hang on the bottom. I guess with the collection of crap on that sponge I'm hoping I can get way without it. I have it on gentle flow, lagoon, at about 1/2 power. My other flow from the main pump is pretty gentle as well.

I created a feeding station where I also glued a couple of pieces of coral to so they could hitch on. I used a clam holder from deepwater rocks, the same people and the same look as the rock hanging on the back of the tank. I really prefer to feed them away from this station though as it seems a lot more live when it's moving around a bit and flowing around the macro. I bought a yellow watchman gobie and it's little shrimp companion (that is such a trip) and the gobie darts out to get the floating mysis as well. I also added two peppermint shrimp as recommended on searhorse.com

With feeding (a lot) three times a day, also dropping some sinking pellets for the hermits etc, also feeding the mushroom leather various micro algae like DT and other stuff, my measurements have been zero zilch nada after a week with no water change. I am doing a water change of 5 gallons a week. The total system is about 70 gallons so that seems reasonable.

I've set up a station to grow copapods, and also have those brine. I'll take some photo's of that as well.

This has been a blast so far. I think your right about the planning, it took forever but it was well worth it!!!!!

 

[ricefootball]

pics

pics

Here's some pics:

We named them Bob and Marley, kids thought that was cool. This is Bob, on her favorite hitching station in the back left corner of the tank.

And Marley

Marley at the feeding station. I built this from a clam holder that you can buy from deepwaterrock.com I love their stuff. It is also the mag rocks on the back wall.

Another hanging around the feeding station

At the front if it, you can see the other stem in the background.

This odd couple moved in shortly after the horses arrived. A yellow watchman goby and his buddy the house cleaning shrimp. That shrimp proceed to dig up under every rock in the place, they must have some serious caves built under there. Good thing I put the rocks pretty close to the bottom of the tank.

Here is the station where I'm keeping the brine shrimp I can buy locally for $1.50 per billion, or it seems like it. That's on the left. On the right is a copapod station that I'm doing like I read about on brineshrimpdirect.com. It's got trigger pods in there now. There's way more to the story, so let me know if your interested. You can actually read about it on that web site including all the algae paste I bought etc.

 

[Laverna]

Great thread! Tagging along.

 

[Laverna]

What type lights are on your tank?

 

[ricefootball]

lights

lights

The lights are aquaillumination. They are really cool for the things they can do connected to the profilux. I'm not a huge fan of the spot light effect they give however.