Yes you can put a seahorse in a reef type environment, but...
There are three issues:
1. Temperature. Horses do not seem to do well for many people at reef tank temperatures. You neet to run your tank cooler than a normal reef tank.
2. Horses can handle more water flow than some people think, but not the really high velocities found in some reef tanks. If you want to keep reef type corals, you need to make sure they get sufficient flow while providing some more quiet areas for your horses. If you do this, you will find that the horses will move in and out of different flow areas.
3. Some corals pack quite a sting and can be a risk to horses. Also some corals such as elegance and Tracophyla (sp??) may eat your horses. Most soft corals, discosoma shrooms, ricordia floridia, zenia, zoanthids, gorgonians and a number of other corals are just fine with horses.
FYI the seahorses we keep come from seagrass/algae bed habitats and there are corals such as gorgonians, ricurdia floridia and some stony corals that come from these areas. I think that horses prefer seagrass or algae as a hitching point and will be more comfortable if you provide them some.
Hope this helps.
Fred
