2.5 dwarf seahorse pico

[twiggyb]

So, I've been wanting to keep seahorses for a while and had bought a 30g hex to do so, but have since scraped it due to the other tanks I have taking up space. I've been reading up on dwarf seahorses however and can do a little tank of them without the space issues, now I just gotta practice my brine shrimp hatching/de-capping skills and I should be good to go. I've started this project already, but won't put in any seahorses until I'm confident I can maintain their food source for a while, but in the mean time I'll setup their home and let the pod population grow and get the minor tweaks I will need to make to make it work.

I bought a little 2.5g tank from petsmart,

Also bought a Marineland LED light that goes over the 2.5 perectly along with a Marineland maxi jet 400

Then bought some paper holding trays from office max that were made out of black acrylic and broke off the false walls for the tank

The small piece of acrylic is for keeping the pump from twisting around in the back too much

The other two walls will contain the macro, one wall to separate it, the other to hopefully stop any microbubbles from getting back to the main display if my thinkings right? I'm using Loctite to hold the walls in place first

Then I'll use silicone to seal up any gaps between the walls.

Worlds worst silicone job

I meant to get clear, but it doesn't really matter since I'm going to black out the outside of the tank where everything behind the false wall is. So far that's all I've done. Giving the walls time to heal before I shove my clumsy hands back in there to do the other two. Then I'll test for any leaks and test out the pump to figure out my flow situation. Thanks for looking updates soon to come!

 

[twiggyb]

Some pics of the lights

 

[Gitsoe]

cool! do you know what type of seahorses your planning on keeping?

 

[gar732]

Can't wait to see this progress, I thought about keeping dwarves but I didn't want to deal with having to hatch brine. How do you plan on controlling heat?

 

[twiggyb]

Gitsoe, it'll be H. zosterae. Adult size is 1.5. Gar, I hope the temp will stay below 78. If not, then I'll just point my fan this direction to cool it off. If not that, then I'll try and figure out how to drill the glass and put the pump on the outside of the tank, although this tank is very small so that might not be possible. We'll see once the walls are in place what will happen.

 

[bige]

Have you tested the flow on that ph. I have one and its pretty strong. Just wondering how much it will be on that little tank. Looks good. Cool 2.5 all-in-one build.

 

[twiggyb]

Haven't tested it yet. I still have to install the other two walls before I can do that. If it's too much then I'll chop a couple of propellers off to try and slow it down.

 

[lps1212]

Nice lookin nano will tag along

 

[twiggyb]

Thanks everyone! Hopefully it'll turn out the way I want it to.

 

[twiggyb]

Added the other wall tonight, didn't silicone it though as I'm too tired to try and mess with that.

 

[Reef UP]

That's an awesome idea thanks for sharing!

 

[twiggyb]

Thanks, I'm pretty excited about it. First time doing a pico. I'm a little nervous to see how much water evaporates and how high the temps will get.

 

[twiggyb]

Here's a pic of my setup for making brine shrimp for the SHs. I plan on getting one or two more hatcheries.

Finished putting all the walls in the tank and siliconed it all up, then painted the outside of it today. It took a whole can so the light wouldn't shine through anymore. I'll test it for leaks tomorrow.

I had to re-tape it to put more coats on and I guess I missed a few spots this time :beat_shot:

I'll also trim some of the ugly off as well :beat_brick:

 

[Gitsoe]

Looks great! Cant wait till theres some seahorses in there!

 

[twiggyb]

Thanks, me either. I'm going to start to attempt to decapsulating brine shrimp eggs here sometime this week. Once I get the hang of that and I figure out how to scape the tank I hope to get some ponies in there!

 

[twiggyb]

I'm thinking a small rock pile for some shrooms or zoos, some macro and a gorg or dead sea fan in the rest of the room for hitching posts.

 

[twiggyb]

Just put water in it this morning. I'm going to see what the temp reaches when I get home tonight then decide what to do if it's too high. It's already digging a hole in the sand at the far end so I know I'll have to slow down the flow. Tomorrow I'll try decapsulating brine shrimp eggs.

 

[twiggyb]

I just got back home with a new pump, mini jet 404, and snapped a few pics of the different flow coming out of them. The baffles combined with the new pump, which has a built in flow control, is perfect with a little bit of surface agitation and no more sand dunes. I'd like to hear from someone if 80 is too hot for dwarves.

without baffles

with baffles

 

[gar732]

Optimal temp would be 68-74. If you keep them in higher temps they become more prone to infections. I would suggest trying to figure out a way to keep the temp down. Try and run it without the cover and see if that brings the temp down any.

 

[twiggyb]

I'm finally getting some diatoms I believe. I threw in some macro about a week ago when there was still some ammonia in the tank. I'm seeing if the lights are strong enough for them. I don't think some of them are going to make it, but we'll see. Here's some pics. I don't know if I like the placement, but I don't know if I will have a choice once everything starts growing :lol: