Starting my SH tank

[LPDK91]

Hello all, I just picked up a 75 gallon octogon fish tank . My plan is to turn it into a SH tank. I have a 150 gallon reef tank thats been up and running for almost 5 years. Everything is going great with it. My question is I would like to try a differant theme with the SH tank. I was thinking of not using live rock to fill the tank. I want to go with a DSB and Gorgonians. I have some huge octo fans growing in my reef now. Do you guys think this could be done without the live rock? Thanks Steve

 

[wildponi]

What I do know about gorgonians is that they need a good flow to keep them free from debris and nuisance algae. Seahorses need a lower flow than a reef tank, are very slow eaters and generate alot of waste (ok they poop alot!). Good water quality must be maintained as well as keeping bacteria and parasites at bay. To do this a lower temperature should be maintained-usually around 70-72 degrees and a UV with a skimmer.

HTH

Deb

 

[rayjay]

AS wildponi said, seahorses generate a lot of waste that needs both mechanical removal, and, a great biological filter.
The configuration of the tank means that the amount of sand bed will be smaller than in a convention tank same size, so I feel the sand bed will have to be an old established sand bed to do the job, depending on what bio-load you are going to put on it.
For sure it needs to be fully cycled first, but with due diligence and maybe only one pair of seahorses for now, it can probably be done.
You could augment with an external source like an established HOB filter.
I vacuum all prior food each time I feed new food, and still I have excess nutrients in a fully established system.

 

[ann83]

Just checking that you're planning on mounting the gorgs on something, like rock or plugs, and not planning on burying their bases in the sandbed...

 

[LPDK91]

I was going to stay non photo gorgs with normal lights. No mh or t5's. I thought by doing that it would keep the algea under control better. The sandbed is new. I used a little sand from my reef tank to seed it.

Rayjay. Are you saying you clean the sand before every feeding?

 

[hartsafire]

Hi, I used cured tonga branch in the H Erectus tank along with plastic hitching posts behind the branch rock, looks pretty good..

 

[rayjay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14022952#post14022952 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LPDK91

Rayjay. Are you saying you clean the sand before every feeding?

No sandbed in seahorse tank or most reef tanks. I prefer barebottom berlin systems.

 

[nycustomsumps]

do you need a skimmer ?

 

[rayjay]

IMO, a skimmer is preferred but not an absolute necessity.
One can do more "husbandry", including more frequent water changes, and use carbon and other media to clean the water.
In terms of bang for the buck, the skimmer is probably the most efficient item to spend your dollars on.

 

[rayjay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14027661#post14027661 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rayjay
No sandbed in seahorse tank or most reef tanks. I prefer barebottom berlin systems.

I just realized that I didn't really finish my answer in the previous post.
While I have bare bottom seahorse tanks, I use a feeding dish, which was originally from a floral arrangement having sides that curl outward and then back inward helping somewhat to mitigate the tendency of food to flow out of the dish and when I vacuum each feeding, it's the dish I vacuum.
However, I DO vacuum the whole bottom probably once a week, which is one advantage to not having a sand bed.
I do have a coral prop tank that has a deep sand bed and I use a home made "gravel" cleaner to vac about 1/5th of the sand every other week. This allows the sandbed to recover easily from being disturbed, but also allows for removal of nutrient that never seems to be fully resolved by inhabitants of the sand bed, and possibly leads to some people saying the sandbed needs to be replaced after a time. This sand bed is somewhat over ten years old.
Cleaning by portion, would IMO, also be acceptable in a seahorse tank with sandbed.