Seahorse Refugium

[NoxAeternus]

Hello all,

I am considering designing a new tank, and would like to have seahorses. My ideal goal would be to have a 125 gallon tank, with a refugium that would have seahorses.

Couple of questions:

1) Since this tank is in-line with the 125 gallon, what sort of size / gallons would I need. Is there a 'must have' dimension for a seahorse tank to make them happy?

2) I've read that 75 is the magic number for seahorses, would macroalgaes and other life that is normally in a refugium thrive at this temperature?

3) With this water being in-line, is it feasible that I could run two different temperatures (ie main tank around 78ish, refiguim 75)? Or should I run the whole tank at 75?

4) In general, is this a good idea; or are there too many things that could go wrong?

 

[DheereCrossing]

OK, I don't have seahorses but I'll throw out what I've learned from intense study of these forums... here goes.

The idea of the refugium is to grow the pods to feed the main tank. If you put the horses in the fuge, they will eat the food source to quickly, I think.

For the two temperatures, I'd say have a long drain hose from the main tank with that hose coiled in a bucket of fresh water with a chiller attached to bring that water to the cooler temp. Then have the fuge return into another hose coiled in a similar bucket with a heater in it before returning to the display tank.

Anyone refute my ideas?... please?

 

[pledosophy]

I do not think it is possible to run the two tanks at different temperatures.

Think of the flow of your return pump, a few hundred gallons per hour or more usually, that's a lot of cooling to do, chillers just don't work like that.

If you want seahorses I think you would be better off setting up a different tank for them.

HTH

 

[NoxAeternus]

So after reading a few articles (seahorses.org, seahorses of beatrice) they say that temperatures of around 75-78 are okay. Are the 75 degree seahorses the more popular or 'pretty' ones? If I can keep a constant tank temperature like this, i think a bunch of my other problems are solved.

 

[ann83]

Temperatures above 74 degrees are not okay for most of the commonly available species. You want to keep tropical species at 70-74, and subtropical and temperates cooler than that. The articles on seahorse.org are outdated and being updated; if you take a peek in the forums, the same people who wrote the articles 5 years ago are the people saying that the temps need to be kept under 74 degrees for disease prevention.

 

[krazeekiddie]

Yup, 74. Listen to Ann!! =)

If you were planning on it & could make it work, your sump should be at least 30-40 gallons & have a good height. IME, most sumps are long & short, not tall. You would need a taller sump for that to work IMO.

 

[NoxAeternus]

Okay, thanks for the advice.

I wanted to run it in-line to conserve equipment, space, and have the benefit for both tanks of a larger water volume.

However, if the temperature is the biggest issue for these guys, then i suppose making a separate tank one day would have the least amount of consequences. Cooling the water just to heat it up again doesn't sound very efficient (or practical).

 

[2pairs]

If you keep southern erectus you are safe keeping temps of 78 degrees as a high temp, but 72 to 74 is better. I have kept H. Reidi at 78 to 80 degrees in a reef tank for a little over two years with no problems. But again this is not ideal. I now keep all of my seahorses in their own tanks 8 of them and this is the way they should be kept. The best advice is to keep each type separate and that way you can meet their individual needs.

 

[mollymonticello]

It is physically possible to keep seahorses at 78*. Their temperatures very widely in the wild. However, things are different in captivity. Vibrio is your main concern, not temperature. It has been shown that Vibrio is more aggressive at temperatures above 74*. I personally feel that people who are able to keep Seahorses above this temp are just plain lucky. Or keep their tanks supernaturally clean.

 

[Tylt33]

Like the others have said, it isn't feasible to have two different temperatures. You'll need to go 74 degrees all around. And for the long term cost of chilling a tank that size to 74 degrees, you're better off just buying another setup for horses. Plus you'll need it to be low flow, and pretty darn tall. I went through the same process you did (setting up a 120g with a 75g refugium) and decided in the long run that it would be best to set up another tank completely.