Biorb Life for seahorses?

[ktakeda]

Hi folks,
Just wondering if the 60l Biorb life aquaarium would be suitable for a pair of small seahorses - biOrb Life P60 - Official biOrb Aquariums - Reef One. Perfect biOrb Fish Tanks for Aquarium Fish | Official biOrb Aquariums - Reef One. Perfect biOrb Fish Tanks for Aquarium Fish. They are marine-capable.

My thinking is that they are very deep, which is a good thing. Also, obviously attractive for the living room. I already have a Red Sea Max 130 (see signature below), but am quite keen on getting a small seahorse tank

Thanks,
Kenji

[fishnut]

I'm not sure how well they would work with Seahorses, I haven't kept seahorses, but from what I understand they can be difficult. The Biorb Life tanks are marine capable, but because the lighting is not very strong you can't keep live rock in them. So if you need strong marine lighting to keep your seahorses healthy then the biorb life won't work.

If you don't need strong lighting or live rock to keep seahorses then the biorb life, or other biorb aquariums (larger sizes) could work. That wasn't very direct, but hopefully it helps a little bit

[ktakeda]

Thanks for that fishnut, I'd not really considered the lighting issue. Reef One say that you can put live rock in one of their tanks, but they would say that

Any one else have experience with these tanks at all with seahorses?

Thanks,
Kenji

[molsen187]

i don't have experience with the tanks but i've been thinking about doing a sh tank and been doing tons or research. sh don't need strong lighting unless the tank is going to have corals in it. the temp of the tank needs to be like 73 or lower i think so you don't want to have lights that are going to raise the temp so you don't need mh or anything like that. the more important thing with sh tanks is the height imo. i was going to set up a 38g tank and someone said i could have 3 or 4 sh in there so i'm not sure how much 60l is but i;m sure you could have at least two in their depending on what kind you get. they have dwarf sh too that you could probably have a lot of but i don't know much about them. also check out seahorse.org great site with lots of info on just sh. hope some of this helped.

[DaveK]

IMHO, the BiOrb's look nice, at least when new, but considering their small size, and that they are made out of acrylic, and use a limited filtration system, I'd consider them as something I'd put in an area where I couldn't use a conventional setup, and restrict it to FW.

While you could use it for a SW system and keep seahorses, between the air operated filter, which will put salt everywhere ill, and acrylic plastic, which will scratch, I can't really see something like this being an ideal.

I think you could do much better with a more conventional system, or another RAM.

[lcstorc]

The lighting wouldn't be a problem but I just don't see it from a water quality standpoint. I've never seen one of them in person but I don't see where/how you will have access to properly clean and do water changes.
It is a cool looking tank but seems more appropriate for FW IMHO.
P.S. You don't need light for LR. You need it for most corals but the rock is just fine without it.

[ktakeda]

Thanks for all of that. I haven't got much room for another tank, so am trying to go for the most compact feasible SH setup. These tanks are very tall, hence why they caught my eye. I already have a coral marine tank (RSM 130), so this would be live rock and SH only setup - lighting might be okay then.

My lfs has these tanks and they do look very nice. ReefOne claim acrylic is superior to galss, and that most all public aquariums use it instead of glass. If it's good enough for them then it's good enough for me -http://www.reef-one.com/technology/benefits-of-acrylic.html

So another question, is 60 litres big enough for a pair of SH's?

Thanks again,
Kenji

[SeahorseBT]

60 liters (15 gallons) is too small. Even for a small species like fuscus. Water quality would be difficult to maintain too on such a small tank. I don't blame you for asking though, they are nice looking tanks.

[DaveK]

Originally Posted by ktakeda

... ReefOne claim acrylic is superior to galss, and that most all public aquariums use it instead of glass. If it's good enough for them then it's good enough for me...

IMHO, the claims by ReefOne as to acrylic being superior to glass are not generally true, in other words, half-truths, for any size tanks used by typical hobbyists. In other words, tanks less than about 250 gal.

While is is true that acrylic is clearer than standard glass, this isn't an issue until you get to tanks needing glass over 1/4" thick. For these tanks, low iron glass, also known as starfire glass is available. This glass doesn't have the slight green tint standard glass does.

Acrylic is also lighter than glass, but this isn't a factor until you get to larger tanks. Once you fill a tank with rocks and water, it's got plenty of weight.

Acrlic is used in large public aquariums because they need to make extremely large viewing panels. Also, they my be interested in making such panels in curves shapes. The weight of glass, and the difficulty in forming curved shapes make acrylic the only choice for such construction.

The big downside to acrylic is that it scratches very easily. This is a major problem in SW tanks because you often need to scrape off some very tough algaes and other growth. This is difficult to do with out damageing acrylic.

Thin acrylic will also warp and can turn yellow over time. Another disadvantage.

Having owned a couple of small acrylic tanks and sumps over the years, I don't recommend acrylic tanks unless you have some very specific reasons for going with acrylic. For example, you need a tank in a very unusual shape. Sumps are not an issue, acrylic is fine for them, because if they get scratched up or warp a little, no one sees that.

[Blurp]

Ohaio!!! Watashiwa Daniel desu (I know no more, sorry)
I got a small 60l tank too, however, agree on the "too small size" issue...I've serious problems after 1 year, even though h.reidi are not too big either.
Also bear in mind (I learned too late) that hippos prefer lower temp (22-23ºC) so if you finally go for them think of a chiller...

[panmanmatt]

Actually H. reidi are one of the larger species, reaching sizes of 8-10 inches in height. I have seen some as large as 13 inches.

[Blurp]

Oh, about acrylic I also heard that it will suffer more expansion/constriction due to heat/cold temp. I wouldn't purchase one either...

[Blurp]

Originally Posted by panmanmatt

Actually H. reidi are one of the larger species, reaching sizes of 8-10 inches in height. I have seen some as large as 13 inches.

Wow I thought they could reach some 4-5 inches!!! (unfortunately I believe mine will not even reach them, unless I get to cure my female from weak snick)

[ktakeda]

Domo arigato everyone Thanks for all of that, especially the detail about acrylic and experience with a 60l tank.

With all of that info it looks like this is a bad idea all around!!!! What would you recommend as a minimum tank size, 100l? As I said, I already have an RSM 130 and would not be able to accomodate another one of that size at the moment - although I can work towards that on the house!

Thanks,
Kenji

[DaveK]

Why not consider the larger RSM and move everything to that and use the RSM 130 for sea horses?

While we are on the subject, avoid the dwarf seahorses, unless you can keep up with their feeding requirements. They usually require live food in small sizes. This means you are usually constantly hatching out brine shrimp. This is a lot of work.