Seahorse tank

patrick1234

New member
I will be building a seahorse tank and wanted to know if this will work for them it will be a 3x3x3 foot tank
frontofseahorsetank.jpg
 
What do you want to keep? IS it going to be a seahorse tank with some corals or a reef/coral tank with seahorses in it?

That is a great size tank. What equipment are you going to use with it?
 
The horses will love the depth of the tank but you might not. You may want to consider that part. I had a 45 gallon tall which was 36 inches deep and it became such a PITA to clean the bottom that I broke it down and put a different tank in it's place. If you can handle it being that tall, it would be perfect for seahorses.
 
Thanks for the feed back its going to be 100% horse tank it will have a 30 or so gal fuge and a really big branching live rock in the center 2 mp 10 and a small 800gph return pump as far as what kind of horse I dont know yet so I am hopeing this will let me keep any type
 
also what rock can i get that will stay alive in the colder timp as i know sea horses dont like it colder then what rock like tonga comes frome
 
are you going to go for the temperate species like the potbellies?as it is hard getting live rock that likes the temp.also are you going to have seaweeds etc in there.there was a young lad in england who set one up and found it hard to sourse the seaweeds etc .but you should have a better choice over there
 
The rock itself is not "live", it's the bacteria that grow on it, making possible the biological filtration of the rock that makes the rock "live". Bacteria grow at any water temperature that any life forms live in so you don't have to worry about that aspect.
Many people, like myself, boil rock before using it to lessen any affects that might come from passing on pathogens to the seahorses from it's previous source, and then cycle it with ammonia to reproduce the bacteria. That is also the cheapest way to set up as "live" rock is more expensive than "dried out" live rock and boiling it takes care of all nasties. Pick the most porous pieces of rock for best biological function.
The present day recommendation for keeping seahorses is to maintain temperatures in the range of 68° to 74° even though the same seahorses come from warmer waters naturally. This lessens the chances of bacterial infestations very common with seahorses in aquariums where the water isn't ever changing like in their natural habitat.
I haven't kept temperate species to date but suspect their range to be a bit lower than that.
As for type of seahorse, it's best that you keep to one species even though some have had some luck with mixing. Many hobbyists who have mixed species of seahorses though experience problems where one species can't handle the pathogens introduced to it by others.
I have put my experiences on my website and can be seen at THOUGHTS ON SEAHORSE KEEPING
At the bottom of my page I have links to what I believe to be excellent information for starting keepers in their new quest.
 
thanks Ray for clearing up what a live rock is again.

but if you are going to boil it, why pay so much ? you can get excellent dry artificial rocks from BRS caribsea or I know a local provider that supposedly sells rocks to caribsea ! for a fraction of the price.
 
That's why I stated that it was cheapest to boil dried out "live" rock instead of the more expensive wet "live" rock.
I have no personal experience with purchased artificial rock and have heard comments on some being excellent, but other comments on how dense it was, therefore less efficient as far as a biological fliter. Quality then may depend on the manufacturer, or possibly individual pieces vary also, depending on the manufacturing process.
 
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