New 110g Seahorse Tank

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SkinnyPete

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Feb 4, 2005
Messages
494
Location
MA
After 2 years of not knowing what to do with this tank - is it a reef tank? is it a predatory tank? is it FOWLR? FINALLY, I found something that I'm excited about. I decided to turn my 110g tall tank into a seahorse tank. I know, it's a huge tank for that purpose, but it could be cool. I have the room to separate a lagoon-type tank and a reef-like tank. I've stacked rocks in the corner like a reef tank and plan to get some easy softies on there, then the rest of the tank is low flow with gorgonians and some halimeda algae. Not a lot of algae at the moment I'm afraid. I plan on adding more soon.

So, here are some pics - a before and a few afters. I plan on training them to eat at a feeding station. I happened to have a really cool rock with an oyster shell in it, which I'll be using as a natural looking feeding dish - I placed a gorgonian and some halimeda next to the dish as hitching posts. Everything is real in the tank except the fake acro coral in the back. Just using it as more hitching posts.

My horsies are coming from dracomarine.org tomorrow. I settled on H. Erectus, 3 females (Blaire, Natalie, and Tootie) and 1 male (Jo) - yeah, named by my wife before they even arrive :)

I'm concerned with the flow. This is a 30" tall tank and flow near the bottom is a problem. I plumbed a spraybar into my return line and it seems to be working fairly well but with a tank this tall it's going to be tough to get NOT have some dead spots.

Just added more clean-up crew today as you can notice from the pictures. The turbo snails are still huddling together. I've got 2 pistol shrimp (unfortunately) that I just can't get out and 4 peppermint shrimp.

The only other fish in this tank is my female mandarin who is accepting frozen foods. If I can plump her up, get my pod population back where it should be, and find a male accepting frozen - I'd like to get her a mate. Other than that, I'm going to make sure I'm doing okay with the seahorses and in a few months I'll add a few seahorse safe fish.

So, here are some pics of the new setup. Sand is still settling. I'm including 1 before picture for giggles.
 

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Thanks, melosu, I've been reading your thread actually.

I'm trying to grab some tomorrow or Saturday from a local reefer. Hopefully they have enough to hitch to in the meantime.
 
They will be fine with just the gorgs that you have ... I say this so that you dont get a macro that goes sexual on you . They certianly would hang on to them as well but will fair fine with the gorgs just make sure the gorgs are in a medium current so they dont get algea growth ,but not to strong the horses can not hang on
 
I`m really not talking about alot of it. I`m talking about a few strands. I have plenty of tonga rock that has hitching spots but they totally ignore that for the grape calerpa but your point is well taken Sadielynn.
 
Congrats SkinnyPete!!!!
The tank looks BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I can't wait to see the ponies in it! I would suggest reading up on breeding and having a breeding tank ready to go. I had my Seahorses 4 days and one of them got knocked up. He had his 2nd batch of babies this morning. There's great breeding info on the seahorse specific websites.
As far as the macro algae.....I had caulerpa growing in my tank and it started going asexual. It turns white and excretes a milky substance in the water, which can be potentially harmful to the ponies and other inhabitants. I ripped as much of it out as I could when it started going asexual. I'd rather be safe than sorry.
When do you plan on recieving the ponies? Don't hesitate to ask any questions. I'll help you as much as I can.
Good Luck!!!
 
Horses came on Friday. Jorge from dracomarine.org came to speak at my local reefers club meeting on Saturday, and offered a group buy to my club, so I picked them up Friday afternoon.

I can't say enough about Jorge. He was great. I had a one on one discussion with him for a while, just talking about some of the myths concerning raising seahorses. He mentioned that he can't even post on message boards because he goes against a few things that most people would flame a poster about. I don't want to go into detail and "out" him but it was very interesting to hear someone with such seahorse experience changing some of my opinions after several weeks of research.

They spend most of their time hitched to the gorgs. Not sure if that is normal or if I have too much flow. Natalie, the bigger female does swim around a lot at night. I'm getting algae buildup on my sand due to LACK of flow so I hope it is just normal for them to stay hitched for the majority of the time - I can't have less flow, it would kill my tank.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the H. Erectus...
 

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They are BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!Congrats! How hard is it to care for the gorgonians? I was thinking of getting some, but was warned against it. What type of water flow and lighting do they need? Do they need food supplements added to the water like phytoplex?
And do tell what Jorge had to say. I am a firm believer that there are always exceptions to the rule. If you don't feel comfortable posting all the details, PM me.
 
I'll PM you. I don't want to speak for him in a public forum. I'm weird like that.

The gorgs are actually HARD. I'm going to sell them. I got incorrect information when i purchased them. They don't need strong light because you have to supplement feed them. I bought KENT phytoplex to try and supplement them, but the flow isn't even strong enough for the polyps to open, so I don't think I have the right environment for them. I might sell them for a good price for some blade caulerpa so I can get some macro algae in the tank that doesn't easily go sexual.

But, check this out. After only 2 days, I got them all eating out of the feeding station. I just coaxed them over with a turkey baster and BAM!
 

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That is awesome. Congrats on your achievement.
I was told that in order for the caulerpa to NOT go asexual, it needs a constant light source. I kept a lunar light on at night and did not have any problems, other than it growing like crazy. I did start getting cyano, so I stopped using my lunar light to starve the light source for several hours each day. THEN they started to go asexual on me, so I ripped out as much as I could. An alternate suggestion is throwing in some pieces of tonga branch. I picked out some pieces with plenty of little hitching posts on it and the ponies use it alot.
I'll try to get some pics poted for you. I like it because there's no potential hassles involved.
 
hc8719 said:
horses breed easily too, and with a huge tank...

Um, I'll say. I've had them for less than 4 days and I woke up to about a hundred baby horses this morning. I'm not prepared to raise them at this point, so I'm going to give them to someone in my local club to try and raise. I feel stupid, not even realizing he was pregnant. Fun. :)
 
Aren't they the cutest little things!!?? I was not prepared either. I was planning on doing it eventually when I have more time and more room. I had an empty 15 gal laying around, so I figured I give it my best shot. The first batch lasted 7 days. The second batch lasted 2 days (I tried a different method). I think the one male is pregnant again. I've only had them a month!
I asked my LFS to order me the stuff to culture rotifers. Hopefully I'll have more success when I get the proper food.
 
I watched Jorge speaking at MACNA 05 in Washington DC. Very informative, and if you go to his place in Baltimore he'll give you a full tour of his facility. I have, however, heard of people who have extrememly bad luck with his info and seahorses, and the food he sells. Others though, it seems, have had great luck, so I guess it's hit or miss.

He gave a very informative speech at MACNA though on breeding and rearing seahorses and his efforts in captive breeding are pretty cool, to say the least.

Anyways, awesome tank, Pete. :)
 
STARFYRE said:
How's the tank doin, SkinnyPete???

The horses are doing great. I'm feeding frozen mysis twice a day, thinking my nitrates (which were testing at about 5 when I got them) would go through the roof. I added some feather caulerpa (yes, I'm aware to keep it trimmed :) ) around the same time, and despite the 2-a-day feedings, my nitrates are 0.

I have noticed something very strange as far as my horses' behavior. I had about 6x overturn in the tank as recommended by...well, everyone....but, because my tank is 30" tall - I'm really having flow problems. I added two maxijet 1200s and a SEIO 600 to the tank...the maxijets on a wavemaker so most of the time they're not on at the same time. I estimate an average of probably 12-13x overflow in the tank and they LOVE it. They have really perked up since the increase in flow. I should say that it probably IS because all the flow is at the top and the tank is so tall, by the time it reaches them it's pretty broken up. With that said, I've noticed my larger female actually swim into one of the maxijets and get pushed across the tank....then swim right back to it to do it again...like 3 times in a row. And my little one loves this corner with tons of flow. She plays in the heavy flow all the time. Check out the video... http://www.legacywebdesign.com/files/surfinhorse.mov

The only problems are flatworms which have gone away a little with the heavier flow. And I'm having a real problem with rust color algae on my sand. It's covering the sand from corner to corner. You can see it in the video and the pic below. Ammo, trites, trates are all at 0. Phosphates are at .03. I could stand to change my DI resin. I just tested TDS and they are at 003 so I'm changing DI resin and hopefully that will clear it up. It's really ugly in an otherwise very entertaining tank.

If you have the patience and do a LOT of research, I've found caring for seahorses very fun and rewarding. I'd recommend it. So far, it hasn't been as hard as I first thought it would be. As long as they have the right environment, I don't see how they are any different than caring for a clown fish.
 

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I'm glad everything's goin good for you! What are flatworms? Are they harmful? I saw some things in my tank that looked like a itty bitty sea slug that got ran over by a steamroller. They were a light greenish color. Is that flatworms? Should I be concerned?
 
Sounds like flatworms. They are not a concern as far as being destructive. But, they multiply like crazy and can reach plague proportions (mine are on their way). If they aren't bad right now, siphon them out with airline tubing every water change to try to keep them under control. They might die off on their own. As long as they don't get out of hand - they're fine. I actually see one or two ON my seahorses every now and then. Not a threat - - but, pretty ugly.
 
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