Got my seahorse nano tank up and running finally!

[stratmaster]

Well here it is finally, I have my nano seahorse tank all setup! (of course there are no seahorses in the tank yet as it needs to cycle) tell me though, I have about 45 pounds of LR in the aquarium (between the sump in back and the tank total) I was told you can actually cycle an aquarium with LR and not have any need for fish? Is this true? I've never heard of that before. It is well established LR too that's from my 180 gallon aquarium.

It's been running for about a week so far and I showed no ammonia or nitrites at all yet. The guy at my LFS has said the aquarium may have cycled in that short amount of time with the LR in there. Is that possible? Anyway I didn't believe it so to play it safe I put in a couple of damsels to make sure it is cycled. Gonna let it run a week or so, test for ammonia or trites and see if it really did cycle that quick. Those darn seahorses aren't cheap so I'm not taking any chances. I wish I could've bought them though as my LFS has two black seahorses that look awesome

Anyway so here's the tank with some LR in it and a couple of damsels.

 

[pokmijn]

yes you can cycle a tank with lr thats what i did and it does speed up the process. Should have just waited if you weren't sure and not purchase the damsel cause what if your not cycled those damsel are gonna be hurt. But just keep a eye on your parameters. And make sure those rocks are free from dangerous critters if this is gonna be a seahorse tank.

 

[stratmaster]

As soon as I see ammonia or nitrite spike the damsels will come out and go over to my 180 FOWLR (in the refugium, at least until I can get them back to my LFS) my guess is I won't even see any spike and that the tank is set to go. I just highly doubt it cycled that quick. We'll see, don't worry though I wouldn't do anything to hurt the damsels. I actually am already sort of attached to them haha, almost wish I could keep them with the seahorses.


Thanks,

Steve

 

[iDream]

yeah, the damsels was a bad idea. next tank you start you should try fishless cycling, i did the same and if i could go back (because i didnt know) id do fishless cyling.

anyway like pokmijn said watch that rock especially at night for the creepy crawlies on your LR and mke sure there arent bristleworms or things since they can sting as well.

and also good call atleast you bought damsels instead of seahorses because they wouldnt have survived a cycle and are much more expensive

but most of all with LR from an established tank there should been a mini cycle or really no cycle at all

 

[cmor1701d]

Steve.

See th elinks in my sig for our article on fishless cycling. Any ammonia is bad for fish. It burns their gills. Using fish for cycling is ancient history.

 

[mr_X]

you know that seahorses require colder water than usual, right? also they need things to hold onto. also, i'm told to be careful which seahorse you purchase from the lfs. some of them don't do well in captivity.
you might want to go to seahorse.org and talk to those folks. those folks are seahorse crazy.

 

[stratmaster]

Like I said I just more or less wanted to get something in the aquarium just to make sure the tank is cycled. I have a feeling that it is as it has been setup for a week now with plenty of LR and I'm not getting any readings on ammonia or nitrites (I guess maybe I should test the trates and see is there's any as an indication of a cycled tank?). The only issue I have with the LR is a few of those pest apptasias but I'll take care of them with the apptasia X.

Yep I'll be sure to get branchy type things for the seahorses, my LFS said the same thing that they need things to hang onto. I'm looking forward to this and I think it's gonna be great!

Thanks,

Steve

 

[pat8you]

I would be careful buying seahorses from your LFS. You should watch them for at least a week or two to make sure they are doing well. When you go to see them as the LFS to feed them and make sure they have a healthy appetite. Last, I would find out if they are captive raised or wild caught horses. The wild caught seem to have a lot more problems adjusting to tanks. I strongly suggest making sure any seahorses you get are captive.

What kind are you getting? I really like seahorses. My brother had a couple H. reidi that were great.

 

[AdamHorton]

A quicker and more humane way to test if your tank is cycled is to do this:

Get some pure ammonia (no surfactants. It should not foam or bubble at all when you shake the bottle). From my experience, this is easily found at ACE Hardware.

Take the damsels out of that tank (along with any other critters you care about)

Put enough ammonia in your tank so that it reads at least 2 ppm after it's all been mixed in. I don't know how much total volume your system has, but on my 180G system (150G + 30G sump/refuge) it took 15 mL of the ACE Hardware stuff to get it there. Don't make it more than 4 ppm ammonia.

Wait 24 hours.

Test the water again. If your tank is cycled, you should have a reading of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and an increase in nitrate. If you have any reading of ammonia or nitrites, put ammonia in the tank until it reads at least 2 ppm again, wait 24 hours, and repeat until your bacteria are capable of processing at least that much ammonia into nitrates in 24 hours.

If your tank is cycled, you'll know within 24 hours. If not, the process will more than likely be complete in less than a week.

I don't know anything about seahorses and their care, but from what I understand they're pretty sensitive. It would probably be a good idea to do a large (at least 50%, but as much as you can manage) water change before putting them in, just to be safe.

When I first started SW, I tried using damsels to cycle a tank with cured LR from the fish store. It was a big mistake, and I ended up having to completely start over. I was never able to definitively determine whether or not the tank had cycled. The next iteration I did a fishless cycle using base rock and it was much quicker and definitive. I was able to see that the tank was cycled, and it's been up and running for over a year now with no disease-related deaths.

Just my experience. Let me know if you have questions.

 

[mr_X]

i am not sure that tank is cycled, since you put rock in it from your existing tank. i would think that rock has a bacteria colony on it already, however, it doesn't appear to be enough to sustain any substantial bio load.
where was this rock in the large tank? in the sump? why is it almost completely white, like base rock?