Plumbing together seahorse and reef tanks

[55kfog]

Anyone have their seahorse tank plumbed to their reef (or other saltwater tank)?

I have been planning an upgrade on my reef and unfortunately lost the fish that I was really upgrading for. So I'm thinking about getting a new tank (about the same size, but with different dimensions) for my current tank and then wanted to put my 35G hex tank next to it for some seahorse friends.

I have been planning a SH tank but planned to run it separately and not plumbed to the reef. Now that I don't need a bigger reef (right now, at least), I thought that plumbing them together might be cool.

Who has done this? Any pics of the set up?

Do you use a separate fuge/sump and plumb that in too? Many thanks...

 

[Fredfish]

You could plumb them together, just keep in mind that most seahorses like temperatures lower than we typically keep our reefs.

Fred

 

[rutledgek]

I think that there is also a question of disease. Buy purchasing tank raised horses and keeping them in an isolated system you reduce the chance of your seahorses getting a deadly disease. Connected to your reef, the chances may go up. Less so if you quarantine everything but still there are some pathogens that get into and live in all systems, and seahorses tend to be a bit more suseptible.

 

[55kfog]

Thanks for those considerations...so glad I asked.

Both are very reasonable reasons to perhaps not try and do this. I was initially thinking that this might be a simple way to increase water volume and stability, but you guys bring up some good concerns.

The disease bit is more alarming to me now because out of nowhere my flame angel recently died and a couple days later, my other angel was behaving unusually. Water parms and everything else in the tank looked good. Nothing has been added to the tank in about a year (with the exception of a cleaner shrimp)...so, I certainly will be mindful of controlling the potential spread of any diseases...

Anyways, thanks for the thoughts...anyone else have any experience trying to do this (successfully or not)? Thanks

 

[Fredfish]

The disease issue is more from mixing seahorses from different sources or mixing wild caught and CB horses.

I personally like the idea of larger water volume for water chemistry stability. If you keep the water flow from the main system slow enough you may be able to keep a temperature difference between the two tanks.

Fred

 

[hmott]

I like the idea also, and I remember a few years back someone had a HUGE system, 1000's of gallons with something like a 200 gallon display refuge for seahorses. It was amazing and seemed to work well for them but I don't remember seeing any updates.

But to be honest I wouldn't do it. Besides what has been said about keeping the seahorses away from the reef tank, I'd also like to keep my reef away from the seahorses. They are messy!

 

[Drewcipher]

I am setting up a 225 reef now and will eventually plumb a 50 gallon tank to this. It is in a split level room and the SH tank will be on the upper level. The overflow will drain into the mail display. The return will be a small pump from the main sump on a SCWD. We will have a very small number of CB seahorses to try this. We are hoping that between the 50 gallon tank and a 15-20 gallon refugium in the sump, we can feed both tanks with a constant supply of pods, and have nice things to look at.

 

[55kfog]

Fredfish, thanks for the added note about the disease issue with seahorses (WC vs CB). I guess anytime two tanks are plumbed they 'share' the benefits and the drawbacks (in addition to the WC vs. CB issue). I think you're right about keeping the temps different enough (with slow enough H20 exchange), but I'm not sure I like the idea of fans on one tank constantly fighting heaters in the other. Do you think this would be an issue? I have enough controllers to make it work, but I'm thinking it might be a longer term strain on the gear (more on/off)...and nobody likes it when you heater/fans malfunction. maybe it won't be a strain...but I also wish I knew how much more difficult it would be to keep the tank temps stable (at different levels).

I have a feeling the temp issue could be further mitigated by a separate sump/fuge that the tanks could share (with a temp somewhere in the middle)...so that the water is 'tempered' before going to one of the other extremes....not sure though.

hmott, thanks for the heads up...coincidentally, a display fuge is actually how I started getting more interested in SHs. By 'messy', are you referring to the possibility of algae moving over to the reef? That's a good point too, but one thing I'd do is get a new skimmer for the added water volume. Separately, do you have a skimmer on your current SH tank? Also, it sounds like you probably do water changes (for your SH tank) with freshly made salt water and not reef tank water like I have read about some other people doing. Is that right?

Thanks again- any other thoughts or recollections of previous set ups that were plumbed together would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[55kfog]

Nice Drew. That sounds sweet. A multi-level room will with couple tanks sounds like a nice place to lounge. Any concerns about keeping the temps different (enough)?

The set up I was considering would have a similar water circulation path as the one you described. GL with the 225 + 50.

 

[Drewcipher]

You know, not really a problem with temp. I have read that some seahorses tolerate warmer water and the reef can go a little cooler than most of us keep, so I was thinking I set my chiller to 78 or 79, which will range my tank + or - 1 degree. Also, then choose warmer temp seahorses.
This is an experiment, so we will probably only have 2 or 4 horses in the 50 gallon, at least to start.

 

[Fredfish]

I hadn't considered using controllers to control water flow. I was thinking more of a low volume pump. Something that only pushed say 50gph into your seahorse tank from the sump.

The other thing that occurs to me is what your house temperature might get to in the summer. I could not do the interconnected thing in my house because we get hot humid summers. We had 45 days last summer in the mid 90s.

Fred

 

[55kfog]

Drew, I was thinking the same thing...dialing my reef down to 78 or so...maybe I'll check out the species lists as well. Thanks

Fred, I didn't mean to sound like I would use the controllers for the pumps (although that's a pretty interesting idea too), but rather for the heaters and fans.

I have 2 dual stage ranco controllers...so I figured that I could keep the temp in each tank somewhat independant of each another (as long as the water exchange was slow enough between the two, as you had suggested). One issue there is that I'd have to make sure the temp probes were calibrated the same (or very close to it).

Ambient temp during the summer months can be bad some years (not really humid though in CA)...I've been thinking about how to address this on the SH tank irrespective of plumbing it to the reef because I'd like to avoid using a chiller if possible. Thanks for giving me other things to consider.

 

[ReefNutPA]

FWIW... 78-79 is too hot to keep any specie of seahorse in long-term.

Tom

 

[55kfog]

Thanks Tom. My idea was to just keep my reef at 78 and try and make the SH tank cooler by using fans and possibly a chiller (preferably not a chiller though). Just not sure if this can be efficiently and effectively done when they are plumbed together (directly or through a separate sump)...

I think I've read that the very top of the temp range for SHs is about 78 and that the optimal temp was closer to 74 or 75. What I'm wondering here is if I could actually keep two tanks that are this size (35 and 60), plumbed together (with slow h2o exchange) at temperatures that are about 3-4 degrees apart. Any thoughts?

I would guess it could be done reasonably effectively, but I feel like there would be excessive use of electricity with the fan/heater in the SH tank 'battling' the fan/heater in the reef...not very efficient, I think...eventually wearing down that gear in the long term.

Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated.

 

[zanemoseley]

Ocean Riders aka seahorse.com in Hawaii raises seahorses and this is what they say about the care requirements:

Please check that your basic water quality parameters are within acceptable range which are: Temperature range: 68F ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“82F, optimum temperature 75- 78F, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 1-10ppm, PH 8.2 ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ 8.4, Specific gravity 1.022-1.025

So 78 would be fine and 77 even better. I'm thinking of plumbing a 37 into my 75 that has a 15 sump. I have Euroreef CS8-2 so much more capacity to add before maxing out the skimmer.

 

[55kfog]

nice- thanks for the additional info, zanemoseley. That's another helpful data point. I think the optimum range from OR is the total range that seahorse.org has on their site. Good to know that OR supports that.

Thinking about it some more, I think the stability of the temp is just as important as being in a optimal temp range.

Have you considered if you are going to plumb it into the sump or the 75 directly? Thanks

 

[zanemoseley]

Definately, it would save space, time and money from having to get a heater, skimmer and dose the water. I think I'm going to start a zoanthid/seahorse tank in the next year.

 

[hmott]

yes I run a skimmer on my seahorse tank, its a 20xh and a 10g refuge. No I don't use my reef change water in my seahorse tank. I also drip calc in my seahorse tank and everything else I do in my reef tank including auto top off. I keep the tank at 78-79* and have had erectus for almost 2 years without problem. I did kill two adult breading erectus by keeping them in 82* temps for an entire summer.

I sent the bodies to labdoc on seahorse.org for autopsy and he found worms in them. He said they probably always had them but my high salinity 1.024 and high temp 82* probably caused them to overwhelm the horses. I know keep salinity between 1.018 to 1.020 and temp at 78-79*.

I like the seahorses but they are really my wifes, anyway I mean messy as in how they eat. In order to get them the food they need you have to feed a lot more than I ever would in my reef. Heck I bet in a single day the seahorse tank gets as much food as my reef gets in a week. Now remember I have 11 seahorses in the tank and they are young and still growing. As a matter of fact most are only sexable in the last week. We keep macro in the display and in the refuge. I keep cerilata and prolifera in the display and both plus caeto in the refuge and it all grows like crazy because of all the feed. The skimmer pulls out like crazy and we still have to vacume up the feces daily and do 2-4 day water changes to keep things running clean. I certainly wouldn't want all this going on connected to my reef!

The question is would the reef help with some of this, and I don't know but I wasn't willing to risk it for the sake of either of my tanks. If you can prove it works, servival of 1-2 years, then I may be willing to give it a try

 

[sdiaz1670]

I presently have a 180 gal reef/fish tank connected to a 54 gal seahorse tank. I have had it set up for about 1 year now. I started with 2 seahorses and now I am up to six. They have all grown very big. I have some that are CB and some that are WC (I know this is a No No but they came from the same fish tank from the same fish store) I will admit I had 2 others die at the beginning (1-IGBD, 1- Tail rot) more so because I didn't know what was wrong with them. As a result I have some that prefer live, some that prefer frozen, and some who just enjoy eating. I enjoy feeding the tank so therefore, I have a huge refugium with a TON of chetomorph(or however you spell it). I keep the tank at 76-77 deg with the use of a chiller. I live in FL so I don't use a heater. My salinity is 1.023. I do have mostly softies because both the fish and the seahorses do make quite a bit of a mess. My tank can only go about 3 weeks before I notice that the corals are not happy. I will read how to post an image on the web so I can show you my tank.

 

[sdiaz1670]

Does anyone know how to make the size of a picture file smaller? I try to download it and it tells me it is too big.