Setting up a Seahorse tank- need advice

[big400g]

Ok, So I have been researching, planning and working on setting up my seahorse tank.

I will have a 92 Gallon corner bow front tank for the seahorse and pipefish. This will share the sump of my 300 Gal reef tank .

I am looking for advice on species that will be easy to take care of and look great, I would like to have other occupants to the tank like a clean up crew. Is there a recommendation on that? Are there fish that I can have in there safely, I love the copperband, but can not keep him in my sps tank.

I am planning on directing the return lines to the front glass and hope that with the shape of the tank that I will have enough flow but not too much. What are the thoughts here, should I run a spray bar as well? Should I create random flow like in my reef or not? I could run one of the pipes off the OM 8-Way to give added periodic flow.

Essentially I want to set this up and be able to enjoy the fish, not constantly battle to keep then alive.

 

[ann83]

The two biggest problems with plumbing a seahorse tank to a reef tank are that they need different temperatures and that seahorses will add quite a bit of waste to the reef.
Seahorses are very large waste producers for their size because they don't have a stomach, so there is a possibility they will ruin the pristine water that you now have in your reef; although with that much water volume, you are well ahead of the game on that and the dilution may be enough.
Also, there are no species of seahorse that should be kept above 74 degrees in the home aquarium. Most people don't keep their reef at 74 degrees. If you have a way to keep the seahorse tank under 74 degrees, then this could be a possibility.
Also, do a search on mixing seahorses with pipefish. It usually doesn't end well, as the they are so closely related, and yet from far different areas, they are highly likely to pass bacteria to one another and kill some or all in the tank.
If you can keep the tank under 74 degrees, I would look into captive bred erectus from someplace like www.seahorsesource.com
You can find a list of suitable tankmates in the library on www.seahorse.org (under "Lists" I think) to start you off with your tankmate research.

 

[ann83]

Just noticed where you are from. Seen a beaver yet? Track down pledosophy if he isn't the one that talked you into this seahorse thing in the first place.

 

[hydroid]

Ditto on everything Ann said ... especially the mixing of species. Mixing any CB seahorse with any wild caught synganthid (most pipes are wild caught) is taking an extremely high risk, imo.

 

[big400g]

That is great information. I was noticing that the temperature range of the sea horses is in a lower general range than the reef. I am hoping that everything will work in the low 70's range like you were saying 74 degrees. I am running an Aquacontroller so I hope I will be able to keep the temperature stable.

I had not thought about the seahorses as such dirty animals, I guess I will make sure to run more flow through and run the output through a filter soc.

I was reading some of the posts talking about keeping captive and wild together. I will look at the list of species that can be kept together, I thought I had seen the Pipefish as one on the safe list. They will all be sharing 92 Gal of water in their display tank so there should be room for everyone, right ?

 

[ann83]

pipefish are safe as far as being non-aggressive tankmates, its the bacteria they carry that makes them dangerous to seahorses, and the bacteria that seahorses carry that makes them dangerous to pipefish. They will make each other sick.

 

[hydroid]

Its nice to see you are doing your research.

As far as cleanup crew, I like Nass. Vibex snails in a seahorse tank. I don't trust anything with hands (crabs) but that might just be me. If you do get crabs, get the ones that stay small.

BTW, a 92G Bow will make an great sh tank. I had mine in a 110G for a couple years and they used all of it. They can hide a bit in a large tank though, especially when sick or pregnant. Its possible to not see a sickness or injury until its too late. Just something to consider while aquascaping.

 

[seahorsedreams]

Kevin? Where are you? There's a fellow Beaverton inhabitant.... I'll hook ya up.