ylchick's 29 Gallon seahorse tank

[YLChik]

AHHHH I am going to try....
OH my gosh why am I sweating as I type this!!!!

ok so here is what I know so far..
it's going to be a 29 gallon tank with a 10 gallon sump
for a total for 39ish gallons

I will be doing a lagoonal type tank with rics, zoos, 2 pr of h. reidi - unless I find out that is too much and then it will be 1 pr, a purple firefish and a clown or citron goby, maybe both... some snails and pep shrimp....
rics, zoos, leathers

I will be building the canopy and stand as well as doing a cls I think....

[Wiskey]

Welcome to the Party Amy!

Whiskey

[Loverotties]

Sounds cool!

[dobejazz]

Welcome aboard Amy!! Sounds like a great project

[YLChik]

Thanks guys I am excited!!!

[YLChik]

I will be getting the tank at the end of January and researching until then...
that's when the pictures will start

[YLChik]

ok the plans are really taking shape:
29 gallon display tank with split return at the top and feeding a spray bar from a mag 3, 5 or 7 - ball valve to be able to direct flow just to spray bar.

DIY stand ( much help from hubby)
2*4'S with bead board and trim plus a door on the side with shelves to hold needed accessories.

1 250 W MH 10K plus actinic
DIY canopy


10 gallon sump
refigium with cheto and light to run reverse photo period - from melve's reef ( HD special !)
coralife super skimmer 65
mag 3, 5 or mag 7 pump as mentioned - need to calculate head loss and see if it's too little / too much flow

"fly guy" rock stand - acrylic (sticky in DIY section)
15 lbs of rock- that will be really cured/ cooked ( haven't commited to cooking yet )
shallow sand bed with fine grain sand

clean up crew :
3-4 peppermint shrimp
6 astrea
6 cerith
15 tonga nassarius vibex
2 scarlet reef crabs

corals:
a bunch o florida ricordia
bunch o zoos
yellow figi leather
devils hand or ligher leather
pompom xenia

feather calpera or C. mexicana
maindens hair if I can find it

yellow Gorg

sea horse
4 H. Reidi

FIsh
PURPLE Firefish
citron goby
banggai cardinal

other inverts
2-3 sexy shrimp
1 porcalin crab

some light timers and a power strip or 2 a bunch of PVC adn I think we have a party here!

It should take about 8 months to get everything into the tank - with the budget ...
do we post budgets adn time lines here?

[YLChik]

really rough plans are attached

[tims]

amy the CLS pump would be my concern for the horses..

[YLChik]

Tims, I have concerns as well, I have asked over at seahorse.org and they suggested diverting the flow from a mag 3 or 5 through the 2 different loc-lines at the top as well as the spray bar. The bar won't be as effective as a regular reef, but with the ball valve I can "dust" under the rocks on cleaning days. I have very little hands on experience so I am going to give it a try once I have all the componants and really SEE what the MAG 3 does in that set up. OVer at seahorse.org they were certain that the mag 3 wouldn't be too much, and said to play with the 5. As I got looking at head loss, I am not sure of final heights and elbow joins so I listed the 7 as a just in case....

is this sound thinking or do I need to re think here?

[tims]

Amy,
i am running the mag 7 in my nano, that is a ton of movement. so the mag 5 going to a spray bar and two other outlets should calm things down a bit for the sea horses..
Buzz Vince ( VWD) i know he has a bunch of horses
the pump that is in the tank, the inlet worries me. i am afraid it will suck the buggers right in

[YLChik]

Tim the spray bar is part of the return from the sump so that there is nothing in the tank that sucks water other than the over flow for the drain to the sump. I too am worried about putting anything in the tank that could suck the horses in. Mock 1 spray bar had a mj900 running ti but I was afraid of suckig the horses in...

Since the pump is in the sump and the spray bar and return are all connected I figured the head and 90 angles would lower the gph of the mag 5 and it eliminates pumps IN the tank....

more thoughts?

[tims]

ah sorry Amy.
sounds pretty good to me. i would consider havinga shut off valve on it that way you can lower the amount going to the tank if need be

[YLChik]

Tims,
good reason for you to be confused.... my updated plans did not "update on my mom-in-laws comuputer so you were looking at mock up 1 NOT the system I described... let's try that again... give me a minute...

[YLChik]

plumbing MOCK 2

with the above plan the head loss would bring the pumps to the following:
MAG 3 289 gph 9.9 turn over
MAG 5- 341 10.8
MAG 7- 486 too much "