Guess what, there's more.
Let's talk about setup.
I would go wit a 1.5" to 2" sand bed. Make sure the sandbed is no deeper then that, unless you are going 5"+ which IMO would take away much of the vertical height needed for the seahorses to be comfortable. Seahorses like to take advantage of vertical swimming room, so IME shallow beds work better. Depths between 2" to 4" are detrimental.
I have always like the Carbi Sea livesand product. It is live so it contains bacteria, and it is a large enough particle size that I have nt experienced seahorses accidentally snicking sand, even when snicking food right off the sand.
For liverock, I would recommend Tonga Branch rock, like the kind in the following link.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=401
If it were me I would go with at least one box of this and another 20lbs of a different liverock, or two boxes of the Tonga Branch.
Tonga rock is god IME because it doubles as
biological filtration while creating several places for the seahorses to hitch.
I like to go with aroun 1.5 lbs of LR per gallon of tank to help with biological filtartion.
Normally I fill the tank half way with RODI saltwater, then I would place the rockwork in an aestetically pleasing mannor, then add the sand. I like to put the sand in after the rock so the rock structure will not collapse if the sand is shifted by a sand dwelling creature. After the sand and rock is in order, I fill the tank the rest of the way with water. If you choose to use a sump, I would place rubble rock in the sump for added biological filtration and a place for the pods to breed.
If your using the cannister fluval filter the media I suggest would be the poly pad, phos ban, and chemi pure. I would not use the carbon or biological media that the filter comes with. The carbon can leach phosphates wich lead to algae problems, and is not needed since you will not be housing corals that engage in warfare or any type of toxic animal.
Run the tank setup like this while adding a days feeding (one cube of mysis per seahorse you plan on keeping). When you can add the cubes of mysis, then wait four a=hours, and do an ammonia test and a nitrite test that both read zero you will be able to add your cleanup crew. Do a nitrate test only after the other two test read zero. You will probably have some detectable nitrates, usually in excess of 20ppm but often greater. Do a WC to bring the numbers down. Also do a PH test to make sure your PH is close to 8.3, if the PH is not in the desired range I recommend the Seachem PH buffer which buffers the tank to 8.3. Also check your salinity to ensure that it is still between 1.022 and 1.027. Most tanks have some evaporation and need to be topped off daily wit fresh RO water so the salinity stays constant.
For cleanup crews with seahorses I like a combination of astrea snails, naussarius snail, and
scarlet reef hermits. I stay away from most other snails because they are either harvested from cold waters or they eat the macro algaes. If you do not wish to keep any decorative macro algae in your dispaly system, then you could keep turbo snails as well.
If the clean up crew survives (which it should if you do the iniial test right) then you are ready to add fish. Since the tank should be fairly stable at this point I would recommend adding a pair of peppermint shrimp, that are sizable enough so they will not be eaten by the seahorses.
The order in which you add your tankmates is up to you. I prefer to add the tankmates first and the horses last. I like to have at least one sand sifting goby like a twinspot or a yellow watchman. Since you desire a manderin I would definetly wait for some time before adding that fish. You can speed this process up somewhat by adding pod cultures availbale from etailers like ReedMariculture.com, and LFScultures.com, but even with starter cultures ample time should be given so the colonies can establish themselves. IME manderins also readily accept Reed's Artic Pods as a prepared foods, but all manderins are different so I would only suggest trying that food after the pod population is established. Think of the Artic Pods as a backup.
As for lighting I am not sure what you are saying. Can I get a brand name, a wattage, a length of bulb, type of bulb and a K rating.
At the same time you order your seahorses I would order the appropriate meds. IMO you shuld stock Neo3 (an antibiotic developed for seahorses with a dosage designed for seahorses. It is a combination of sulpha's and neomycin), Daimox (used in humans for fluid retention it is the only drug shwon to be effective against Gas Bubble Disease. It is not OTC here in the U.S. so it takes some time to get it on your shelf. If your horse develops GBD and you do ot already have the drug, your kinda screwed).
As far as nutrition I would stick with feeding of mysis shrimp. The brands Hikari and PE are the brands of choice because of there nutritional profile. IMO you should stay away from most other brands.
When you feed the myss thaw the shrimp first in a cup with salt water, then dump the mysis into a net and rinse the mysis off in tap water. RInsing the mysis helps to eleiminate the extra waste you are introducing into your system, helps to avoid future problems. Mysis is the staple food, other foods that are often suggested for seahorses like brine are hard for seahorses to digest and don't give the seahorses the nutrition like mysis will.
For additional temperature control I use a 6" clip on fan I purchased at Bed bath and Beyond. The fan points directly to the surface of the water in the sump. It is able to drop my 65g display with 40g sumps temperature by 5 degrees F. Cheaper then a chiller.
I'm sure I'm forgetting things and kinda being scatter brained, so if there is more questions that this inpires please feel free to ask.
Hope it helps.
Kevin
). 
Vince aka VINNIE 
