seahorse tank.

[BLEEZY]

so i made up my mind. im gonna buy a tank for ponies, set it up for them and cycle it for a few months untill i know more. i am hoping you guys will tag along with me and help me out.
i will be buying the tank within the week, as soon as i decide what size i need and what type of ponies i will keep.
ive been reading alot on seahorses.org and hope you guys can help me down the line!

i plan on putting a baffle in the tank itself on one side so i can hook up a pump to it without hurting the ponies. i want to have a fuge but i dont know yet if i will have it above the actual ponie tank or below.
i am most likely going to wait at least a couple months for the ponies, but will build the tank within the next week given my card doesnt max out
hope i can learn enough here to keep them very healthy, i cant stand anything less than ABSOLUTELY perfect conditions for any animal so i will need ALOT of ?'s answered but thats what you guys are here for right?
so my ?'s are: what type should i keep?
what size tank should i buy?
when i know this ill buy the tank and get it cycling!!!!!
i have a 15 gallon tank im not doing anything with, its crawling with pods and is almost a year established. may use this for a fuge may use it for the horsies, if my budget allows for all the extra money i have been spending lately.

[VWD]

Hi, I like h riedi, I have been keeping them , Your 25 if it is a 15 tall will be a good side tank for 2 or 3, I have mine in a 37 gallon which is tall and a really nice size. I do think You have all the right ideals going on. I know You have read and know about them already from reading some of your other replys, Seahorse,org is a good site, I go there from time to time, I only keep captive bred and raised ponies , They all feed on pods and frozen foods, I don't have to feed everyday as they have plenty in the tank and are getting a balance diet.
I don't really agree on that they are only for the advance. If you are will to take the time to read and ask questions , they are relly pretty easy to keep if You know what You are buying to start with, Most of the problems people have are feeding problems, If You buy from a good supplier, Good Luck

[BLEEZY]

thanx, i was thinking h.reidi too!
so you dont raise live foods? i dont like the idea of constanly hatching shrimp, i would do it occasionally for a treat but would frozen keep them in good shape?
how do you like your natural system? what do you do extra that you wouldnt do in a conventionally filtered system?
i have had my small tank as a natural system also, using a few diff species of macro for nutrient export. also have been running occasional carbon and filter bag in a hob filter.
i am willing to do all it takes to keep them really happy and fat!
do you think having a natural system with occasional hob filtering would be less than ideal?
i am also considering a fifty gallon that i could section about half of it off with an acrylic baffle in the tank with lots of holes in it for growing macro and pods and for housing airstones and occasional hob filtering, what do you think, could this work?
the other half of the tank would be empty except for macro and airstones.
also what lighting would they need? i would guess just enough to keep the macro alive and a few shady spots for the horsies, right?

[VWD]

The natural works well for me and is not hard to do , It is really the most easy to take care of. I do water change like any other tank and pull out a lot of macroalgae all the time, I take it to the store and sell it there. It is just a favor to them and they pay me back in return for what ever I need . Very simple, When I am working on the babies I have hatched brine, not Ideal for them , They need rotifer's

[pledosophy]

I have kept and bred reidi. Mine were WC so I had to feed live. A good CB will take frozen.

The bigger and taller the tank the better. My favorite seahorse tank I have had was a 44g tall. Same footprint as the 37 just taller, my next will be a 37g.

What's your ID on sh.org?

[Sara7814]

BLEEZY - i am also working on a horse tank... i am very excited. i have a 36 gal bow front. my tank has been up and running for about 6 days now

[BLEEZY]

nice! hope to hear about how that goes!! its nice to see other people setting up ponie tanks at the same time so i can learn from you guys'es mistakes not my own!

[BLEEZY]

Originally Posted by pledosophy

I have kept and bred reidi. Mine were WC so I had to feed live. A good CB will take frozen.

The bigger and taller the tank the better. My favorite seahorse tank I have had was a 44g tall. Same footprint as the 37 just taller, my next will be a 37g.

What's your ID on sh.org?

i didnt realize you could join! i guess i am a guest there although i cant figure out how to join

[Kelly68]

Hi guys. I live in Wisconsin and had a pair of reidi for a good year. I could not keep up with them having babies every 13 days. The oldest baby was about 3 months and that was the longest I could keep them alive. Raising fry is very expensive and time consuming....so I could say, cb reidi are great to have and maybe stick with the same sex. Female seem to be more active than males. My female always danced in front and was always out. The male hid a lot. Mine ate frozen mysis shrimp (the hikari kind). I bought mine from Drs. FosterSmith here in Wis. Just make sure to ask if they are eating frozen. Good luck. Kelly

[Sara7814]

ty kelly. all info in good info

bleezy.. hopefully i have been doing good research.. and i wont make any bad mistakes.. although you live and learn..... but i have plenty of time to read up on them. what else are you looking to have in the tank.. soon and future?

[pledosophy]

You can join the org. It is a site similiar to this. Click on forums, there is a Welcome Guest type next to which says register. Click on register and follow the prompt.

They have over 6,000 members who keep seahorses.

[Sara7814]

ok have a question. what should i get or am i pretty good for the most part for a SH tank?

36gal bow front
fluval ( I was told to take the stuff out of the filter and use it only for PH's)
super skimmer
lunar light set
LR
LS

in the future i want to set up a sump. (smaller one) good idea or bad?
qt tank???? if so what is needed for a qt tank?

[Twitterbait]

Originally Posted by pledosophy

You can join the org. It is a site similiar to this. Click on forums, there is a Welcome Guest type next to which says register. Click on register and follow the prompt.

They have over 6,000 members who keep seahorses.

please only link to other forums if you link to a thread that will help the current question. We really want to build our own info base here instead of sending everyone elsewhere.

[pledosophy]

I didn't post a link. Bleezy mentioned he was reading on that site, I just asked his user name for that site. I participate on several sites. Just wondering if I knew him from somewhere else. No harm intended.

If you look through my posts I think you'll find I have added to the "info base" of this site, and haven't made a habit out of sending people other places.

Speaking of adding to the info base.

I like fluvals, think they are great. You can use various media including Seachem's denitrate, Chemi-pure, and phosban to help your system run better. I also like to use the floss pad. I'm not a fan of the biomedia due to the amount of LR I have. I am also not a fan of carbon as some brands leach phosphates, and there is not much in my horse tanks that will leach any toxins for the need of carbon. I do keep some various species of caulphera, however I keep them in a mannor where they have never gone sexual. If they do I'll toss in the carbon for a bit. Some slugs can also leach toxins if they die. If you plan on keeping certain corals you may want to consider it. What are your plans?

I noticed you listed a lunar light set, but not a light.

On the future sump plan, I think they are great IME.

Personally Im not a skimmer fan, but they are handy in some cases.

How much rock are you looking at? LS?

QT tanks are a great thing to have. They can save your display in some cases. I keep a 20g. When QTing seahorses I use a HOB filter and a few plastic hitches. In the HOB filter I use filter media that has been cycled in another tank. I do WC's to keep up with the additional bioload if it is needed. I do not use LR or LS in my QT tanks because if some disease did break out, then you would have to bleach the rock (depending on what it was) and if I have to use meds in the QT tank it's an easy switch just to take off the filter.

JME.

[BLEEZY]

i have a qt tank. the tank will most likely be a 46g tall.i may run a bakpak skimmer with a modification to skim off of the top. i also want to have a baffle in the tank so the water flows gently over so as not to hurt the ponies. the area will be small, just big enough for me to drill a hole for the outflow. then into a small fuge or settling trap. the sump will mainy be for easier acces to sw ghost shrimp which i will breed in containers in the sump. also the sump will allow me to run carbon and do wc's and top off easier. i just couldnt bring myself to go sumpless. i will write out a diagram later tonight to show what i will do with the sump.
i am breeding fw and sw chost shrimp as of now and i have hatched some brine shrimp i am going to try and grow them out, do i need to raise the salinity? i am going to enrich them and feed em to my mandarin. i just want to make sure i can make live foods.
i cant wait to get the tank!