Tamra Skahan

New Member
I am an o o o l d saltwater aquarium hobbyist who just got back into the hobby in early 2015. My husband and I got started in the hobby in the '70's, when the marine aquarium hobby was still in it's infancy. My husband's college job was working at a pet store and that's what got us started. We always had a tank or two from the '70's through 2005. Then we went almost 8 years without. That was a sad period in our life and we just sold everything and left the hobby.

We now have a well established 90 Gallon reef tank (SPS & Fish) and I have a 50 Gallon Reef tank with SPS, LPS, and, eventually, captive bred seahorses. I kept mated pairs of seahorses very successfully in a 30 GallonT tank with a Fluval canister filter and multiple powerheads back in 2003 to 2005. They were wild caught and were fed on ONLY live, gut loaded ghost shrimp, copepods and enhanced live brine shrimp. I had culture tanks EVERYWHERE. My Erectus ponies thrived in a caulerpa covered tank and bred every 4-6 weeks. I never managed to get the babies beyond the 3 week stage in my CPR HOB refugium.

Today the technology makes everything SO MUCH easier. Even so, 5 months ago, when I originally set up a 30G tall Seahorse tank with a Hydor canister, 75lbs of live rock, a larger CPR HOB refugium w/protein skimmer, loaded with MUD and Caulerpa, a Puffer, two Chrome's and 2 clownfish, I was unable to get my Nitrates under control after 5 months and numerous seedings from our reef tank.

Last month I bought a 50G rimless cube with a sump and a better protein skimmer, added a Radion Xr15, and we transferred the live rock, added a deeper live sand bed, some SPS coral frags from the reef, macro algae (in the tank and in the sump), and mangrove plants. We took 20Gals. of water from the 30Gal. tank, 20Gals. of water from the reef tank, and the remainder was freshly made RO saltwater.

I still have an elevated Nitrate level (10-20ppm) but certainly better than the 40+ppm I consistently had in my 30Gal (even after 10Gal waterchanges EVERY week). I attribute the Nitrate elevation in this 50Gal. tank to the usual initial die off in the new sand bed and in some new pcs. of live rock we added?? I have a Yasha Goby w/Pistol Shrimp, a Bi-color Blenny, two Firefish and a Fire Shrimp, Chaetomorpha (sump), Hypnea Panosa (tank), Botreacladia (tank), H opuntia (tank), and just added a Purple Ribbon Gorgonian (tank). I live in Georgia where our average daily temperture is still around 85deg.F, so I cannot order my seahorses until the temperatures drop. I won't order them until I am certain this tank is well established and stable with a thriving copepod population.

That's my story and I'm stick'n to it. I am eager to read posts and share information from other "Reefers", especially those of you who have or are keeping captive bred seahorses today.
 

mr_tap_water

Well-Known Member
Welcome to RS.[emoji846]
Nice to see some old school reefers still going, I myself started in the 70s, As you say technology has made things a lot more simpler or more complicated if we choose LOL, looking forward to hearing more about your Systems and seeing lots of pictures in the near future,[emoji846]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
welcomefish.gif


to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members


Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics :nessie:

Great 1st post !
 
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