starting a seahorse tank?

[fishymann]

oh, and for an idea of how small that snail is, the green stuff next to him is the cheato and you can see the detail even in that

 

[fishymann]

my mom loves the scooter so much she now wants me to get a black one (scooter blenny) i told her not right now and possibly never that the tank cant support both of them. Its hard to explain the hole pod thing to her hehe.

 

[PokeHero93]

can someone please tell me how to make a reef tank....i haven't figured it out yet..there is a 50 gallon tank at my house, and i want to turn it into a reef tank and put seahorses in it..i need help........i have the tank ,sump,correct pipes and stuff, and everything else i need....i just want to turn it into a reef tank before i get seahorses. can someone tell me which corals are harmless to seahorses and post pictures of them PLEASE. THANX

ps: fishymann.......did you ever get those seahorses

 

[fishymann]

poke; what do you want a reef tank or a seahorse? Reef tanks are far from perfect setups for seahorses. They need cooler temps (70-74) any higher and chances of them becoming sick is much higher. I have no problem helping you but try starting another thead once you've decided if you want a reef or a seahorse tank. There are many corals too that cant go with seahorses because either seahorses will hurt the coral or the coral will hurt the seahorse. Also seahorses need very little water movement as apposed to most corals which need a lot.

Seahorses are coming some time in may.

 

[PokeHero93]

I did some research and these can be with seahorses.

Corals:

clove polyps
finger leather
kenya tree coral
leather coral
photosynthetic gorgonians
pulse coral

Fish:

curious wormfish
neon goby
sharknose goby
yellow clown goby

Invertibrate:

astraea snail
linckia starfish
cerith snail
dotted/marbled fromia starfish
fanworms(such as feather dusters)
fighting conch
lettuce sea slug
nassarius snail
nerite snail
trochus snail
turbo snail

 

[pledosophy]

that is a very very narrow list. Expand your horizons homie.

 

[fishymann]

So far all your corals look okay. But like i said take into the fact that your temperature is going to be need to be kept lower (70-74) so watch out with heat from lighting and flow MUST be low to moderate or else you'll torture the horses. head over to seahorse.org and you'll find a sworm of information. Then look around here at peoples reef setups you'll see they'r very different.

I'm getting another algae bloom but not as bad as the first time. Water parameters are fine though (ammonia-0, nitrite-o nitrate- <20)

 

[fishymann]

while feeding today i noticed two circular boddied dots on the glass. Looking closer i saw they had many many little legs coming from their body and they were no bigger than 1/2cm. I'm thinking hydriods? I cleaned the glass but i'm sure they'll be back. What brough them? Nothings been added to the tank since the fish and i dont see how they could of introduced it since i netted them and did not introduce any of their water into the tank. Should i be worried and start taking action and if so how?

 

[ann83]

Hydroids don't pose a threat to large species of seahorses, just dwarf seahorses and seahorse fry. Don't worry about them, they will go away after a while and won't cause harm.

 

[fishymann]

ANN haven't seen you post in this thread lately nice to hear from ya. Thanks for the relief, i wasn't sure if they posed a threat or not. I sure am getting eager to get those horses good thing i have two other fish in there to keep me occupied

 

[ann83]

Well, for one thing, you seem to be doing fine on your own, and for another, you had a big discussion on plumbing, and I can't help much with that

 

[fishymann]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9744436#post9744436 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ann83
Well, for one thing, you seem to be doing fine on your own, and for another, you had a big discussion on plumbing, and I can't help much with that

Well the plumbing although much question is working flawlessly. But i do owe much of my success to you and all the help you provided me. Infact, a huge thanks to Ann, pledo, kevin, whatnot, and all those that helped me and encouraged me through out this experience (and oh yes, it is not over yet ).

 

[fishymann]

Picked up 4 astrea snails today to help out with the algae. Im like 98% sure im going to be getting erectus with apendages from draco marine. After talking to my guy at the LFS doesn't really sound worth saving 15$ (160 in store 175 online) to not get the cream of the crop and to only be able to gaurantee tank raised reidi. I'll letcha know when i order but probably will not be until end of april\ into may

EDIT
also just got off the phone with SAM over from Marine Flora and my shipment of macro algaes were sent out today. Is there anything i should do about acclimating them into the tank? Just rinse them off? Put them in as is?

 

[fishymann]

just got the macro algaes. ill take pictures tomorrow

 

[ann83]

Oh, and as for treating macroalgae. I FW dip them (pH matched) for an hour, keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't bleach, and then I quarantine for a few weeks to look for any nasty hitchhikers. Next time, I plan to quarantine with peppermint shrimp so the peps can eat off any aiptasia as it shows up.

 

[fishymann]

wish that had been said about 2 hours before it was posted haha. Oh well i'll keep an eye on the macros. Here are some shots

Right now i just got them placed where i think i want them, they may move
Red Grape Kelp

Red Branch

Red Feather Kelp (its hard to get a good picture becuase of where i put it )

Maidens Hair

There is also another one in there that looks just like hte red grape kelp but it is green.

And i am defintly going to be getting my erectus from Draco marine just trying to figure out shipping details and then i wil lthink aobut when i want to order them.

 

[panmanmatt]

Mike,

Tank looks great so far. Keep a close eye on that maidens hair. It can be very invasive and take over quickly if you don't keep on top of it.

 

[fishymann]

alright thanks for the warning i appreciate it. How can i trim it? By just cutting it down (height wise?) I'm hoping everything brightens up a bit after beeing in the tank for a few days the red branch looks very dark, but i guess 2 days in a box will do that.

 

[KUDA]

Lookin good.

 

[panmanmatt]

Yup, you can just trim it with a sharp scissor or manually pull some out.