Sump, Fuge, Protein Skimmer...Can't decide!

[swimfan8]

As of right now, I have a 29g seahorse tank with live sand. I just got 2 erectus yesterday. As previously posted, I have a HOB filter as my filtration. I want to give my seahorses the best tank I can, within my budget. In the next month, I'll have about $200 or so more to spend on these guys, so I'm trying to figure out which route to go.

Do I;

A. Build a sump/fuge myself and add the protein skimmer. Since my tank is full I'll either have to set this up on a new tank (I already have a 10g for the sump), or do the overflow box option.

B. Just build/buy a HOB fuge and add the protein skimmer to that.

C. Just get the protein skimmer and stick with my HOB filter.

Also, my HOB filter produces 200gph. Is that satisfactory, or should I add something for a better flow rate? I should've set up the sump before all of this, but I've never done one before and I'm used to using HOB filters.

If you have any product recommendations, please let me know them! Right now I'm looking at the nano skimmers, but most of them are in tank and it seems like that will take up a lot of room.

 

[vlangel]

I am no expert by any means but I would put the bulk of your money in the best protein skimmer you can get. The more I read about seahorses the more I get a sense that their ailments are due to bacteria growing in the tank and also dissolved organics in the water column. A oversized protein skimmer goes a long way, (along with water changes) to reduce dissolved organics. I use HOB overflow boxes, (eshopps) and actually like them. I also have a 10g sump that I partitioned off myself and it works great. Match the output flow of the return pump (remembering to consider head loss) with the capacity of your overflow box's max capacity. That way you wont get bubbles in the U tube. I kind of doubt that $200 will quite cover a skimmer, overflow box and return pump but you won't be too far off hopefully. Check craig's list and that might help or your local reef club. I bought my mag 9.5 pump used in 2007 and it's still going strong.

 

[swimfan8]

I am no expert by any means but I would put the bulk of your money in the best protein skimmer you can get. The more I read about seahorses the more I get a sense that their ailments are due to bacteria growing in the tank and also dissolved organics in the water column. A oversized protein skimmer goes a long way, (along with water changes) to reduce dissolved organics. I use HOB overflow boxes, (eshopps) and actually like them. I also have a 10g sump that I partitioned off myself and it works great. Match the output flow of the return pump (remembering to consider head loss) with the capacity of your overflow box's max capacity. That way you wont get bubbles in the U tube. I kind of doubt that $200 will quite cover a skimmer, overflow box and return pump but you won't be too far off hopefully. Check craig's list and that might help or your local reef club. I bought my mag 9.5 pump used in 2007 and it's still going strong.

Thank you, that is very helpful. I figure I can't do it all for $200, but I'd like to get started. I think, financially, the best solution is to find a tank/sump set up on craigslist. I've already found one for $100. While I set that up, I figure I can purchase a decent protein skimmer and get it working in my current set up.

I thought I'd done a ton of research before buying these guys, but there is so much more to learn!

 

[rayjay]

I've been keeping seahorses now for over a decade and I still learn something new all the time.
A lot of what was considered to be "good" when I started has been found to be insufficient for, or outright detrimental to, best chances of sucess in seahorse keeping long term.