this is crazy (20 gallon high)

[Noah_Reefing]

before we get started, shout out to jeremy from aqueon for working in an aquarium sweatshop to build me my 20 high

ok long story short

*walks into uncle bills

mom: sees yellow banded pipefish, "noah, that looks cool, how much are they. they're probably the closest thing i will ever have to seahorses"

me: "yeah, probably" (looking at a big healthy Gramma melacara)

mom: "that guy looks cool" (looking at a pencil wrasse)

me: goes looking at one of the tanks on the bottom "speak of the devil, theresya horses"

mom: literally goes crazy cause shes been wanting seahorses for the last 10 years

so basically we bought all the stuff, got a pair of Hippocampus erectus got the industry food for em (hikari biopure) got sf bay, we go home. i set the tank up, exhausted, i go watch tv & read my english book. I went to sleep not expecting for it to become a commodity...

10:50 mom comes up talks about seahorses which were in 10g for like 20 min, i go back to sleep

12:48 i wake up mom going ballistic crying having buyer's remorse cause she spent like $350 (i pitched in all my money) scared they would die when we go on vacation even though my best friend lives like 10 min walk from my house & he can feed them every day with mysid and i can build a complex venturi pump brine shrimp feeder thing on a 72h cycle that would feed brine every 6 hours derived from a fish fry catcher invented by the great Paul B (read his book)

1:52 i add the seahorses cause waters clear and i want to not mess with it

ok equipment

aquaclear 50

50w heater

hithcing posts

brine shrimp hatchery i built

lightbulb light to see them

 

[Noah_Reefing]

problems: feeding the horses for 2 weeks while im away even without a good neighbor, managing salinity, feeding them idk really how

seahroses behavior

seahorse A: the big one

seahorse B: the little one

ok so seahorse a is staying hitched onto a sea fan for a really long time just sitting there not doing too much (mabye sleeping?) he did eat though & is alert. seahorse b swimming around and hitches onto the halimeda and other things, while in the breeder net in my 10g, they were latching their tail tips together and twisting onto a peice of codium i chucked in there. i plopped and dropped but salinity and temp were equal. seahorse b is like bobbing his head on the surface much more open swimmer. almost certain they are paired. they are wild morph but captive bred. any care tips?

 

[Noah_Reefing]

any light reccomendations for cheap

 

[Noah_Reefing]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P5XSNQL/ref=twister_B093V1P31V?_encoding=UTF8&th=1 im thinking these and doing something to make a canopy to cut evap then getting a digiten ato

 

[Noah_Reefing]

 

[kharmaguru]

I know zero about sea horses. Is the light meant to just see them or is it going provide some sort of photosynthetic objective down the road ( like a reef light)? The one you linked looks like it will be an uncontrollable torch. I would recommend something more like this with some dimming ability and photosynthetic spectrum:

https://www.amazon.com/NICREW-Aquar...pY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

Definitely get an ATO. I haven't used the Digiten one but the reviews look good and I'm always a fan of float switches over optical sensors.

 

[kharmaguru]

BTW, find a new fish store. Any store that would sell you a brand new setup and delicate creatures like seahorses at the same time is not a store you should continue to deal with IMO.

 

[Noah_Reefing]

BTW, find a new fish store. Any store that would sell you a brand new setup and delicate creatures like seahorses at the same time is not a store you should continue to deal with IMO.

the store's good, i skip cycled and held them in a breeder net while the tank was cycling

 

[Noah_Reefing]

I know zero about sea horses. Is the light meant to just see them or is it going provide some sort of photosynthetic objective down the road ( like a reef light)? The one you linked looks like it will be an uncontrollable torch. I would recommend something more like this with some dimming ability and photosynthetic spectrum:

https://www.amazon.com/NICREW-Aquarium-Dimmable-Spectrum-Saltwater/dp/B08D7D4DN8/ref=sr_1_25_sspa?crid=2QJEQMYOKSK84&keywords=nicrew+30w&qid=1651073514&sprefix=nicrew+30w,aps,89&sr=8-25-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyREVISlI2WVdUNk8xJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjAxMTkyM0dGUFNHSUFER1QySCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTU0MzY2Mzg5MkRNMkZPWU1XWiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX210ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU&th=1

Definitely get an ATO. I haven't used the Digiten one but the reviews look good and I'm always a fan of float switches over optical sensors.

all light is able to be used by photosynthesis, especially white light which has all colors alligned or something so they become white. i have that light but it is not very bright for a 20 gallon i would not use it. those lights are only 5000 lm about equivalent to like a ai prime or kessil

 

[Reefing102]

Well as has already been mentioned, I’d say an ATO is a must.

Regarding the light, it will probably work for a baseline but it definitely won’t have any of the capability of your reef lights as far dimming for coral acclimation or any blue for the pop of flourescent colors. Without knowing the par levels, it’d be impossible to know what it’d be able to sustain

 

[Noah_Reefing]

the male is on the top he is seahorse A and the female is all streched out and shes seahorse B. im unsure about the lighting but i think it will work

 

[Noah_Reefing]

i redid the whole scape kinda, got rid of the sea fans cause they are weird (too heavy to be moved by the seahorses) (but too light for the seahorse to slither out if it falls over with them attached) i added a rock with algae on it, some red algae, & tons of shells and peices of bleached Oculina robusta my big problem now is the seahorses still wont eat. i tried broadcast, target, & cube feeding with hikari biopure mysis shrimp & dumped a liter culture of brine shrimp eggs in there that hatched already and they wont eat the bbs

 

[Noah_Reefing]

any sugestons

 

[Reefing102]

Hmm I have no idea. I’ve never done seahorses so yea I’m not much help there

 

[Noah_Reefing]

i got the seahorses to eat live brine and the larger one ate some spirulina enriched brine (ik not the most nutritious but it is better than nothing)

 

[Reefing102]

At least they’re eating!

 

[Dr. Jeffles]

any light reccomendations for cheap

If it's just seahorses a shop light is fine.

 

[Noah_Reefing]

 

[Noah_Reefing]

why did one of them in the beginning

 

[Noah_Reefing]

my seahorses eat frozen food now