Setting up a 37 gallon cube Sea Horse tank

HauntedFog

HauntedFog

New member
Hello everyone, my name is Rick and I'm very new to saltwater aquariums. I will be setting up a MarineLand 37 gallon cube seahorse aquarium. I have been reading a lot of the post on this site, watching you tube videos and lot of videos by BRS. I think I have a firm direction that I'm going in now. I just need some advice on equipment now. I have the aquarium and I bought a Fluval 206 canister filter.

Here are my plans

RO/DI water from LFS
Instant Ocean Reef Crystals salt mix
30+ pounds of dry rock, seeding with some live rock.
Live sand
Reef Octopus BH-90 HOB protein skimmer
Starting with cleanup crew of snails(once tank has cycled)
Live Seahorse friendly corals
Pair Mandarin Gobies
Peppermint Shrimp
Pair Seahorses

Questions:

1. What light to use for the corals? I'm going between the Current Orbit or the New Marineland Led Strip light or is there a better choice?

2. Copepods for the Mandarins. Will they survive in the tank if I seed the tank and give them time to setup or do I need something like the Aquafuge2 External hang-on Refugium that has it's own light from BRS. I have limited space and cannot really put anything under my stand.

Late for work will have to ask more questions later.
 
There are many others on here with more experience than me but I will try to answer some questions. I seeded my tank with pods from late May until October. It was literally crawling with them when my pair of CB seahorses and 2 CB pipefish arrived. Now you would be hard pressed to find one although there are some in there. I did put rubble rock around the live rock and I have cheato and caulerpa for them to hide in. By and large most get eaten quickly though and I doubt a mandarin could survive without other food. I see the ponies hunting at times but most likely it is for peppermint larvae as I have 4-5 adults in the tank.
Seahorses are very prone to bacterial infections and canister filters can trap detritus and cause bacteria to grow so be advised that you must diligently maintenance your filter. In fact any where in the tank that traps food or detritus will increase the chances of your ponies getting a bacterial infection. The water quality is very important and test kits for reef tanks will not reveal increased bacteria. Due diligence is the key. Hey, I know I have given some serious sounding advise here but seahorses are indeed very charming pets and a joy to own. I wish you the very best with your tank.
 
Welcome

Your canister filter will need alot of cleaning. Detrus will get trapped inside & cause issues between normal maintenance.

A pair of mandrines will be a issue...mandrines eat non-stop. So your pods will be depleted in no time with 2 . To be honest a 30 is too small for even 1 mandrine,unless you are lucky to get one that will eat brine or mises like mine does ( he is in a 180 reef ).
 
I would love to do a sump, but I have limited space under my stand. If not a canister what type of filter would you guys use?
 
I do run a canister on my system..i run my carbon and gfo in it..but i clean it weekly.
My sump size is limited..so i was forced to run one. You can do it..its just alot of work. I do biweekly 15 gallon wc to help keep things clean as well.
 
I'm hoping the Fluval will do I good job. I really like the design of the filter with the two sided pre filter, then the 3 trays to put whatever filter media you want.

I'm also kind of stuck between the Reef Octopus Classic 90 HOB & Reef Octopus Classic 1000 HOB protein skimmers.
 
For lighting the corals, it really depends on what kind of corals you want. Most soft corals will do fine with medium lighting, but some prefer lower lighting, and some prefer higher lighting. While I can't say I know anything about the lights you are considering, I would suggest taking a look at BuildMyLED, too. They are reasonably priced and have several options for customization, such as choosing the beam angle for the LEDs (a smaller angle will penetrate deeper tanks, whereas a larger angle will cover more surface area).

Anyways, with skimmers, I would say the bigger, the better.
 
HauntedFog said:
I'm hoping the Fluval will do I good job. I really like the design of the filter with the two sided pre filter, then the 3 trays to put whatever filter media you want.

I'm also kind of stuck between the Reef Octopus Classic 90 HOB & Reef Octopus Classic 1000 HOB protein skimmers.
Click to expand...

Yes, I totally agree with JLYNN about the skimmer being the bigger the better. I just upgraded my skimmer because it was not doing the job. I bought a SCA-302 rated for 180 gallons but my system is only 86 gallons. This skimmer seems well made and was by far the cheapest for the size. Ha ha, it barely fit in my 10 gallon sump though!
 
I'm thinking of using the Fiji Pink Arag-Alive reef sand from BRS in my tank. Setting up about a 1" bed. Anyone else using this sand if not what are you using?
 
I used a red sea aragonite sugar size in my tank. It was not live but I added a little live rock and nitrifying bacteria to kick start the cycle. My tank was up and running last May but I did not get seahorses until October so everything was well cycled and established.
 
How is that sugar size sand working out with the ponies? I saw somewhere that the sugar size was not good to use with seahorses.
 
It's been fine. I did mix rubble rock in with it. I guess some folks say they can snick some of it. I have a feeding dish so they are not often snicking off the substrate.
 
The wife and I are going out this weekend to look at some LFS and check out the different sands. I will look into the oolite, it sound good from the description on Petco website. I'm also going to try and run over to the Frag Swap in Tampa. It looks like it will be fun to go see a bunch of different corals that we might add to the tank down the road.
 
I had the BH90 on my 46g bowfront tank I loved it. I have since switched tanks and have a 65g RR so I no longer use a HOB skimmer...But if I ever need one again I would still choose the BH90. Worked better then any other HOB skimmer I have ever used.

Now I have a SWC160 in sump skimmer and love this one as well.
 
I have read a lot of good thing about the BH90. The guys over at BRS also recommened the BH90. Thanks for the reply, it's good to hear from people who are using or have used equipment that your thinking about getting.
 
My wife has to work, so I will be wandering around by myself. Have you been to the coral shop up by me called Elite corals? They are on 54 about 1 mile east of US 19. I stopped in and talked to the owner, they have some nice corals. He just added saltwater fish. I need to stop by and checkout his new setup.
 
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