Seahorse tank in planning stage.

[Xpilot]

I am playing with the idea of starting a Seahorse tank. I currently have a 150g with a 40g refugium, established for 3 years (stock: tangs, angle, rabbit fish, goby, clown, snowflake, crabs, shrimp, and corals) The plan was to plumb the seahorse tank into the current refugium. I was thinking of a 20-40 gallon tank with 2-4 captive bread seahorses and maybe a Mandarin or small Goby. I have read a lot of threads and seahorse.org so I have a few specific questions:

Is sharing the refugium a good idea, specifically with concern to disease? Anyone successfully do this?

Would a 20XH make a good seahorse tank or is flow going to be too difficult? The space has length not depth available for placement.

Thank you for the help with this.

 

[rayjay]

Having a system connected in any way to other fish is definitely something that can reduce the chances of success due to pathogen transfer as seahorses are often prone to succumbing to pathogens they haven't grown up with and get exposed to from other inhabitants.
By having the display tank and the seahorse tank hooked to the refugium you risk this occurrence.
Also, the temperature of the reef and refugium is most likely warmer than the recommended 68° to 74° for keeping seahorses due to the propensity for bacterial diseases like the vibrios species that multiply exponentially with each rising degree, especially above the 74°F.
Tank volume recommendation is 29g for one pair of seahorses with an additional 15g required for each additional pair.
Adding a mandarin will require a little more on top of that. Also, you will need a mandarin that will feed and survive on frozen foods as any live foods would quickly be decimated by the seahorses, leaving insufficient for the mandarin.
Yes, people have successfully set up seahorse systems as you describe, but there are only a few successes for all the attempts tried.

 

[Xpilot]

What about use of a UV sterilizer on the pump going to the horse tank, I don't like this idea but just to talk it out? Is your 29 gallon recommendation based on space the animals need or total volume of water needed for waste? 29 gal minimum for the display?

 

[rayjay]

The problem with UV sterilization is first of all, it has to be properly sized with correct flow to work to any great degree.
Second, it will NOT help with the benthic bacteria like the vibrio species as they remain on surfaces and don't pass through the UV. These nasty bacteria types are naturally in all of our tanks but most fish are more resistant to them than seahorses are.
The 29g recommendation is mostly for water volume, but the seahorses will love to take advantage of all of it.
I personally prefer to also have a sump with an extremely oversized protein skimmer which is probably the best item you can add to the seahorse system along with extreme filtration.
When hooked to your existing system, your dirty water from them will become dirtier in the seahorse tank due to their feeding habits, and any of this dirtier water finding it's way back to the main tank MAY affect some sps species if you have any.
There are no hobby test kits that can show that the water is bad enough to cause bacterial problems for seahorses.
In my case, my problems have been when I slack off on husbandry after a period of time with no problems (called getting lazy) and when the problems become visible it is often too late to save the seahorses.

 

[Xpilot]

Thank you for your help. I have a protein skimmer rated for 400g. One of the reasons I was interested in doing the add on was I had gone a little overboard with the sump and thought I should take advantage and add a bit. I have a unique situation where I travel frequently, there is always someone to feed and do general things but everything I have is set to timers and automatically does everything. Having a second independent tank would get a little out of hand on the budget and take the space under the new cabinet where I wanted to put a battery to keep a pump running when the power is out. If the second tank is part of the system I already had it wouldn't be much hassle, I guess I should move to a different idea. My wife really loves fish with a personality, I had her sold on sea horses, any one have any idea for a type of fish with as much character but can go in a smaller tank?

 

[DanU]

Is that a Citation X for the avatar?

I think the plan can work maybe with some minor adjustments. I have several customers who have done this successfully.
Despite being tied into a larger systems, you should really go ahead with a 30 gallon tank. If space is an issue, a 30 XTall has the same foot print as a 20 gallon tank.
The real key is the temperature you keep the larger tank. If it is keep up around 80, it probably won't work out so well long term. If it is kept cooler or if you have the ability to drop it down in the 76 degree temperature range, it can work. I know many who keep their reef tanks in this temperature range and even a couple of degrees cooler.
I don't normally recommend UV's with single tanks as I think the skimmer is more important. Not against them, just not that advantageous. However, they do make sense in isolating multiple tanks. The key is that is appropriately rated for the flow, the bulb and quartz kept in proper shape and that the water is prefiltered before passing through.

Dan

 

[Menace2Sobriety]

Aren't sea horses supposed to be much cooler temp than reef fish? You gonna run a chiller between fuge and seahorse tank?

 

[rayjay]

It's not that all seahorses come from cool waters, it's more because of their susceptibility to bacteria infections that some of us keep them in cooler temperatures.
The nasty bacteria that affects them multiply exponentially with each rising degree and especially as you get above 74°.
However, as Dan mentioned, some have success at 76° and I've come across even some at 78°.
I think the warmer the water the more that due diligence to keeping the tank free of any decaying matter and doing larger more frequent water changes is needed.
Many of our seahorse species that we keep come from stock that originated in waters of 80° or more, but in the wild, the bacteria are not captive like in our tanks where they can easily get to plague proportions.

 

[Xpilot]

Yea it's a X.

I guess I need to get a thermometer, I keep the house between 73-76 year round and the tank is very near the thermostat, I kind of assumed it stayed at those temps, but honestly I don't know. Bad tank owner.

I'm not a huge fan of the noise a chiller would bring to the house. But my LFS has some cool red snails that are best in a cooler tank that would be great in the seahorse tank. In the end I would have to chill the whole system because if I had a bloom of bacteria in the main tank it wouldn't kill them going through a chiller, just limit their ability to grow is the colder tank, correct?

The UV question was more just to see if that would target the bacteria that is the problem, also I hadn't seen anything mentioned in regards to seahorses in my reading, others may find it useful.

The tank width is the problem for me, the 20XH is 10.5 inches, just wanted to see if that could work, if I go bigger it goes to 12.5in and since length isn't an issue I can do a 37g.

Another odd question, since seahorses aren't great about eating would you not filter the return water and send it right to the main tank pumps? This way unused food could be eaten by neighbors, or is this unhealthy? I was also considering keeping a number of Peppermint shrimp in the horse tank with the propose of their fry becoming snacks, but moving then between tanks would be difficult with a filter. The strange things that go through my head.

Thanks again for the replies.

 

[Bob B]

I have checked and most sites say 74 degrees is best.

 

[kudagirl]

Both of my tanks which have kudas and erectus in are kept at 70 and when I had abdominals they were kept at 66 but then i needed a cooler.

 

[clownfish18]

any progress yet?

 

[joeang]

What is the best size tank and did you say to run a sump or a overflow hob sump work ok.