Seahorse Tank???

[PhilOlsen]

I have a 38 gallon tank I would like to set up as a horse tank, I have had fowlers and reefs for many years and would like to set this up, but have 0 experience on what is best. I have the tank that has been cycling for 2 months using water from a display for weekly water changes, about 15-20 lbs live rock, 40 lbs live sand/crushed coral substrate, 2 maxi jet 1200's, a 184 watt pc fixture with 1 10,000k and 1 actinic bulbs and a coralife skimmer.
I would like to know as much as possible as far as recommended species, how many, temp, flow, what kinds of corals I should and should'nt use can I have stars, inverts, etc. etc. etc.

[meandean45]

Originally Posted by PhilOlsen

I have a 38 gallon tank I would like to set up as a horse tank, I have had fowlers and reefs for many years and would like to set this up, but have 0 experience on what is best. I have the tank that has been cycling for 2 months using water from a display for weekly water changes, about 15-20 lbs live rock, 40 lbs live sand/crushed coral substrate, 2 maxi jet 1200's, a 184 watt pc fixture with 1 10,000k and 1 actinic bulbs and a coralife skimmer.
I would like to know as much as possible as far as recommended species, how many, temp, flow, what kinds of corals I should and should'nt use can I have stars, inverts, etc. etc. etc.

Hi Phil!

Seahorses like tall (deep) tanks with very little or little water movement. Their tanks also need to be fully cycled, as they aren't tolerant of ammonia or nitrite like many fish, actually being more delicate than some mobile inverts.
Cleaner Shrimp (Skunk, white booted, or Scarlet) should be ok, but nothing with "Claws" should be kept in a seahorse tank.
Brittle (especially "Green ones") and serpent stars can make a meal out of seahorses and I've read about chocolate chip stars even everting their stomachs to digest small seaponies right through a net breeder, consequently I'd stay away from Stars as well.
I never had trouble with Snails or Lettuce Nudibranchs, but that is jme.
No corals with long, stinging ,sweepers are reccomended, but other than that, seahorses are tolerant of Soft, LPS, and SPS corals that are themselves tolerant of the low current conditions. Obviously they shouldn't be kept with Anemones.
Small, peaceful, fish like Gobies and Dartfish make good tankmates for seahorses, but should be kept in small numbers (like"1"or"2") to prevent them from eating all the Mysis Shrimp and starving the Seahorses.
I expect that Robert will chime in shortly to go into more detail about the things that I've missed.
Good luck with your' new tank!
Regards,
Dean

[lcstorc]

One of the most important things not mentioned it to be sure to get captive bred seahorses that are already eating frozen mysis. They also like slightly lower temps than we normally keep our reefs. 74-78 is what I usually read. Give them lots of "hitching posts" and little or no competition for food. Low flow and high water quality are musts as well. They also need several feedings a day. Most people say 3 or 4 but mine has been doing great on 2 feedings a day. I put a few mysis in at a time, let him eat them and then a few more etc till he slows down and seems full.
Right now I have a yellow clown goby, cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, fighting conchs and assorted snails in my pony tank. Several gorgonians for hitching posts and some mushrooms for color and millions of micro stars that seem to love the overfeeding the tank gets.
BTW I keep kudas but find all of them fascinating. I was just able to find the kudas here locally so that is what I went with.
HTH

[PhilOlsen]

Thanks, What kind of filtration do you suggest? Should I just go with live rock and a skimmer? If I have a external filter or sump it would create substantial flow.

[lcstorc]

Well I cheat on that one. I exchange water between the seahorse tank and the reef so it goes through all of my normal skimmer etc. If the 2 tanks are near each other, it is actually pretty easy and cheap to accomplish. Just let me know and I will get details from my husband.
If the tank was a stand alone I would go with a really good skimmer, a good amount of lr (maybe in a sump or overflow if you can get away with it.) and plan on lots of waterchanges.
Since the seahorses feed so slowly you always end up with higher organics and therefore skimming and water changes are extremely important.
You can apparently train them to eat at a "feeding station" which helps but I was never able to accomplish this with mine.

[Charlie97L]

just because you have a sump doesn't mean it has to flow a lot.

actually flow through the sump is recommended to be 3-4x the total volume. if it goes through too fast, the water doesn't have time to be filtered.

i would also research carefully the coral that you will put in. some coral do NOT like being hitching posts, ie. some gorgonians.

i'm dreaming up a custom seahorse tank at the moment, to be set up when i move.

[lcstorc]

HMM. My Gorgonians have never seemed to mind but I do only have 3 kinds in there. Perhaps it is some of the others. The only flow in my pony tank is the stock aquapod pump and a really slow exchange from the reef to the pony tank.
I too am dreaming up a 55g or 75g tank for my ponies.
We should have a seahorse forum so we can exchange ideas of what works and what doesn't.
Seahorses are still my favorite of all my marine life and I am hoping I can get them to breed once I get the bigger tank.

[PhilOlsen]

How should I slow the flow thru an overflow? I have never seen one with a 120-160 gph rating

[Raf]

Hi Phil,

We have a 46 gallon Bowfront SeaHorse tank housing a pair of reidis. They are captive bred and are eating PE Mysis eagerly.

Our tank set-up is simple. We have fine coral sand with a few medium size pieces of liverock, a few sea fans for the ponies to latch onto and various types of macroalgae. For filtration, we run an Eheim canister with mostly mech media. The filter is running at lower flow rate as to provide a gentle current for the ponies.

For feeding, the ponies have an empty clam shell from which they eat their mysis. This feeding station serves a dual purpose, firstly, it keep the mysis in place so it does not pollute the tank and secondly, it prevents the ponies from accidentaly snicking sand while trying to eat.

If you are interested, I can take some pics of it to give you a better idea of the layout.

Cheers

Raf and Diana

[PhilOlsen]

Originally Posted by Raf

Hi Phil,

We have a 46 gallon Bowfront SeaHorse tank housing a pair of reidis. They are captive bred and are eating PE Mysis eagerly.

Our tank set-up is simple. We have fine coral sand with a few medium size pieces of liverock, a few sea fans for the ponies to latch onto and various types of macroalgae. For filtration, we run an Eheim canister with mostly mech media. The filter is running at lower flow rate as to provide a gentle current for the ponies.

For feeding, the ponies have an empty clam shell from which they eat their mysis. This feeding station serves a dual purpose, firstly, it keep the mysis in place so it does not pollute the tank and secondly, it prevents the ponies from accidentaly snicking sand while trying to eat.

If you are interested, I can take some pics of it to give you a better idea of the layout.

Cheers

Raf and Diana

I would def. like to see some pics. Either post here or PM me and I will give you my email to send direct. I am almost ready to get some horses, I have had the tank cycling for 14 weeks now, it has about 20 lbs LR and I just added 3 gorgians today for hitching posts.

[Raf]

Sure, no sweat, I will take some pics tommorow when I go over to the house.

Cheers

Raf

[Raf]

Hey Phil,

I took some pics of our seahorse tank. I will post a few here and the rest I will start another thread for as not to hijack yours.

Tank is 46 gallon Bowfront with a few pieces of LR and lot's of diffrent types of macro. Two seafans are also in this tank.





The feeding station as mentioned previously


more pics here:
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...tml#post209856

HTH

[lcstorc]

Yippie!! More pony tanks on RS!