Benzzz's daughters 11g Seahorse Tank

benzzz · 12-07-2008, 10:23 AM

Here we go again...

After much research on the forum. My daughters picked out a tank yesterday I think may be ok for a seahorse home.
It is a Miracle tank dimensions of 16"L x 8"W x 20"T = 11 gallons.

We drilled the overflow hole this morning whish will be a 3/4 inch dump into a 25g sump. the return will be a pump (not decided on yet.) hooked up to a DIY spraybar. Nano Koralia's not sure yet if we need them. As I read too much flow is not good.

A neat little light we got was a coralife 9w10k and 9w Actinic.
It looks good over the empty tank. As too much light is not good?

We are cleaning out the sump (25g) now as it was my fist SW tank.
Do we need a skimmer? Not sure on this one.

LS and LR will be added from other tanks . Some new LS will also be needed as I would like to see a 4-5 inch SB.

Pics to come!

Cheers, Benzzz

aquawolf · 12-07-2008, 11:04 AM

Sounds like a good plan so far.

I have heard of a few people who have trained the seahorses to eat out of a very shallow dish. This would make things much easier and may possibly negate the need for a skimmer. If you just dump the amount of food they need directly into the tank there is going to be quite a bit of waste, as they won't get to it all very quickly, and in that case I would recommend a skimmer.

Of course you should do your best to locate tank raised seahorses so your chances of diseases are lessened and they should already be eating frozen foods. Also be sure to research the type of seahorses you are getting as many may require a chiller on the tank; however, with you being in Canada that may not be that big of an issue.

I wish all of you the best of luck with this new setup and give your daughters my well wishes.

I will also be tagging along waiting for build pictures.

jenglish · 12-07-2008, 11:20 AM

Sounds cool

. I have never kept them but as I understand it flow is the enemy as they are pretty poor swimmers and tire quite easily. Good luck. I will be following along.

jenglish · 12-07-2008, 08:43 PM

Perhaps now that a certain Mod w/ seahorse experience is back from Vacation she can give you some hints

Loverotties · 12-07-2008, 09:39 PM

That's kind of small for seahorses!

benzzz · 12-07-2008, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loverotties

That's kind of small for seahorses!

It is?

benzzz · 12-07-2008, 10:54 PM

[quote=aquawolf;1437851]however, with you being in Canada that may not be that big of an issue.

quote]

Hey! Its not that cold here....LOL

-22 C today

aquawolf · 12-08-2008, 08:40 PM

It was 58 degrees Farenheit here today.

I think the tank will be fine as you have 20" worth of depth to play with. The seahorses seem to like like more swimming up and down room then necessarily side to side room.

pledosophy · 12-09-2008, 03:34 PM

IMO the tank is really small. Your really going to be limiting the amount of room the seahorse can swim and explore. Seahorses do move about. I'm not sure where the myth that they do not swim side to side originated, but people with experience will tell you it is false. They do like vertical room as it is used in there mating rituals.

If your set on the tank, that's cool, try to get a smaller sized horse. Maybe you can locate some CB fuscus that would be your best bet IMO. If you wanted to go cold water you could try for breviceps but those might be difficult to locate in Canada.

I would run the spraybar verticaly behind the rocks then put the rocks over it. Make sure there is a syphon hole close to the top of the tank. Maybe a MJ 1200 for a return pump. Will give you a good 200 gph or so depending on the distance from the sump. That should be a good amount of flow for the seahorses. You might try the koralia nano but watch it for a bit while it is on. I don't think it will blow the seahorse around by any means but it might limit how much or where they swim. I run that powerhead on my 34g tank. It's cool.

I'd ditch the DSB idea, if your attached put it in the sump. I might evn go barebottom to help cleanliness since the tank is so small.

Feeding dishes will help you out a lot, mines basically a shell glued to a mag float

I don't use a skimmer on my horse tank. I was using a basketball+ size piece of cheato, but since the macro in the display has taken off I pulled that and now just let the maco in the tank take care of it all.

JME

HTH

pledosophy · 12-09-2008, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenglish

understand it flow is the enemy as they are pretty poor swimmers and tire quite easily.

IME no. They don't do well with jet stream style currents like ones made from Maxijet pumps (shame because they are a very good pump), but they do like a good amount of flow. For a long time the rule of thumb was 3-5x the tank volume being turned over per hour. So 30g tank you would want between 90-150 total gph in the system. That just was not working for so many people. A lot of keepers have moved up to the 10-20x range, just breaking the flow up and leaving a calm area (harder to do in an 11g).

I'm a bit on the other end of the spectrum for flow in a horse tank, mine turns over at 47x an hour depending on the time of day, so . . . maybe I'm a nut, but they can do well with flow.

IMO it is lack of flow that causes many of the problems with seahorse tanks. You need to keep the stuff from settling and becoming stagnate to have a healthy tank, just like most other marine tanks.

JMO

YLChik · 12-09-2008, 03:42 PM

who huh what... sorry Island time and all that...

Seems that Pledosophy has beaten me to what I would have said, but he said it better

I would highly encourage you to really read up and research these amazing animals before trying to keep them. It can be done quiet successfully, but as with all exotic pets, it takes some planning and forethought.

Side note I can't seem to turn my underlining off, sorry.

aquawolf · 12-09-2008, 06:43 PM

Thanks for clearing things up pledosophy, I was hoping you would show up in here and offer some guidance.

specter · 12-10-2008, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loverotties

That's kind of small for seahorses!

What type of seahorses are you looking at getting?
Pixies?
Zulu Lulus?
Mustangs?

Check out this site look under the FAQ's for info on the different seahorses.
http://www.seahorse.com/

Good luck!

benzzz · 12-10-2008, 11:19 PM

I have no idea which ones they want. I was told captive bred and feed frozen mysis..... But thanks for all the input.

I put together a sump and built a DIY acrylic spraybar.

Drilled flow holes down, angled up and angeled down.

went with a 1-2 inch SB . Couple pieces of LR . Seaweed, Red Seaweed

Eheim return pump.

Will try to post a couple pics.

Thanks all !