starting a seahorse tank?

Add rock. Lots of it. The more the better. I don't think you have enough. Hitchhikers are an easy fix. If it's dwarfs that's another issue but larger seahorses, more rock is good.
 
hitchikers are a ridiculous reason not to get rock. Quarintine the rocks just as you would anything else (forgot to mention that, fishyman you'll need basic equipement for QT tank too. No one said this was cheap!) and any mantis, apistasia, whatever will be much easier to removie. Am I missing something here?

Orb: For the highest quality in both reef and fish, go with New world Aquarium. They are small for store standards (ny) and expensive (ny again). its on 38 and 3rd. There is a thread I started here about stores in the city, mostly everyone says just go to another city! they really dont hold up to most other stores, NW is still pretty nice to found your common stuff, in good quality.
 
thanks lekicINC, i will def. check it out. i'm interested to see how multiple systems are set up in very small spaces.

as for info on this thread... :D

i added all my rock, but no sand. i watched it for a month, and didn't see anything i didn't want on the rock. kinda like a quarantine period, but i got lucky and didn't have to remove anything, or move it. after i felt it was ok, i went ahead and added the sand slowly. i've already got lots of pods on the rock/glass. no livestock in there yet.

i wanted to do a lot of live rock, but also want to do sea grasses, so i ended up going easy on the LR.

make sure you put up pics when it running. good luck
 
my friend has dried coral from her old tank, she said it was bleached and dried and she has it in storage, she wants to give me some of it when i get my tank up and running. is this safe to use and is there anything i should do to it?
 
fine to use. If it was bleached I'd soak in water with a dechlorinator for a couple of days just to ease my mind. I'm paranoid.
 
alright thank you :) i just wanted to make sure itd be alright. since its dried the lighting doesn't really matter correct? will it be more brittle though and break with use from the sea horses? Soak in fresh water or saltwater?
 
Light doesn't matter for dead corals. Shouldn't be brittle, depending on what it is.

Soak in freshwater with the dechlorinator.

Geez you sure do pester a lot. :D :D :D :D :D

Keep it up.

Kevin
 
Which is the resposnible thing to do. Kudos to you for doing so. WOuld be great if all keepers where so dedicated.

I'm just pulling your chain a bit about the "pester" thing. Your word, just struck me as funny. I like being pestered, as long as it's about fish, and not to do the dishes.
 
yea i knew you were joking around. I should get a yes or no tomorrow about the fish tank, if i get a yes i should have the empty tank by the weekend. When i soak the live+dead+dying rock should it be in salt or freshwater?
 
insteadd of a home made DIY nitrate reactor, what if i took a small HOB filter and filled the chamber with seachem denitrate and ran that secondary ? or would this just be a bad idea
 
Really you don't need any special lighting just for LR. I just turned the lights on for the first time in several months on a tank i have and the live rock still looks awsome. not as bright but deep purple. If you end up deciding to keep coral you can build your own lighting very easily for cheap. checkout hellolights.com
if you put compacts or mh on your LR and it will blossom
 
should be able to start the setup this weekend. I will log the experience, pictures and maybe some videos? i hope to be a successful seahorse keeper.
 
alright, got the tank emptied today. and getting the stand tomorrow. How should i go about cleaning it? I've read some things about vinegar?
 
fishy- i dont know if this has been posted yet but New jersey does have a reef club. If thats what you said. this summer they plan a trip down to a few places to go collecting. From what i've read they have found seahorses which where all carryed up by the current.
 
Decided that i think i may want to spend a bit more money and do a sump setup instead of cheaping out and using a HOB.

Here is a basic idea of what i want to do, is a 10G enough though?
(arrows show flow of water)
2" gaps between bottom of tank and where barrier begins.

TANK.jpg


comments, suggestions (of pumps and better layouts)
 
Alright, after some problems and lots and lots and yes lots of planning the sump is starting to come together. The final plumbing layout was finalized and approved (by my dad) tonight.
The sump is a 20Gallon long located under my 55gallon fishtank, the red pipe stands for the waste which will syphin into the sump and the green is the return.
plumbing0013-1.jpg

The plumbing parts will be purchased tomorrow and i possible a pump. The return is a bit of creativeness on my part, i wanted to be able to have some flow in the tank but not to much to disrupt the seahorses. 2 45 degree bends will create angled multi directional flows.
To give you a bit of an idea
return.jpg


I will take pictures as much as i can as i build it and of the final thing. Heres the layout of the sump its self
TANK2-2.jpg

The heater will go in the return on the bottom.
 
Alright, all the plumbing is dry fitted, should be glueing tonight or tomorrow or both. Once again, i'm going to harder way and using a pure syphen to get the waste water into the sump. All pipe is 3/4" PVC. The waste posts are about 3" and will be drilled (tubes farther from the side of the tank) And the return into the display are the two other posts closer to the side. The left one is shorter and the right one is longer both with 45 Degree angles at the end.

We also decided to make it easier to top off and add water for water changes by adding a tee and a ball valve that will allow me to empty water from a holding tank (see below) directly into the syphen line that will then run the water through the sump.

The other tee and valve are to get rid of water. It is attached to the return line into the tank, open the ball valve and the water will exit the side of the house.

We are testing this with a MAG 3 pump, if it doesn't work we'r going to return it and buy one that will but my dads convinced it should work.
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u112/fishyman_mike/Seahorse/PICT0058.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>
SUMP
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u112/fishyman_mike/Seahorse/PICT0055.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>Feed from the holding tank
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u112/fishyman_mike/Seahorse/PICT0067.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>Feed to outside
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u112/fishyman_mike/Seahorse/PICT0066.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>Left side of display tank
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u112/fishyman_mike/Seahorse/PICT0060.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>Right side of display tank
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u112/fishyman_mike/Seahorse/PICT0059.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>
This is where the holding tank is going to be, this is a closet just a few feet from where the sump is. We still have to build the platform.
<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u112/fishyman_mike/Seahorse/PICT0069.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>
 
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