37 gallon tall seahorse tank

[Daniel Sousa]

What's up everyone. I am new on here. I am making the switch from freshwater to saltwater. I am building a seahorse tank for my wife and my little girl. I am cycling the tank now. Its a 37 gallon tall (20x18x24) Marineland tank. I have running a Fluval G3 canister filter and am running some basic lights for now. Caribsea Black Hawaiian substrate and 7 1/2 pounds of live rock. I have and Eflux 660 powerhead kit in the mail and a cool gadget i saw at the show this weekend in Orlando (Zoomed Aquasweep Filter attachment). The tank has only been cycling for about 2 full days now, so there is a lot of research being done and replenishing of the bank. Up next to buy are the lights, any suggestions? I will end up with 2 seahorses as the main reason for the tank, but also wanna add some soft coral and some macro algae.

 

[SloppyWalrus]

Good luck. I have been heavily looking into starting a seahorse and pipefish tank. Will be following

 

[Daniel Sousa]

Good luck. I have been heavily looking into starting a seahorse and pipefish tank. Will be following

Thank you for the comment. Any and all advice is always welcomed.

 

[Daniel Sousa]

So it has been 2 weeks since the tank was filled with water and it has been a busy 2 weeks. The tank is fully set-up with everything I need for livestock. My Eflux 660 powerhead kit got here from saltwateraquarium.com. I love this little powerhead. This thing moves so much water for something a little bigger than a golf ball. I upgraded my lights from the standard Marineland on/off light bar to the Kessil A80 Tuna Blue and this thing is ******. I have also added an Aquamaxx HOB1 protein skimmer that I got from here. Lastly I was not 100% happy with the aquascape so I added about another 8 pounds of live rock. All in all I am happy with the progression. Now it is just a waiting game. I have aRed Sea master test kit and all my parameters have been coming along nicely. I just ran another test tonight and:
Ph- 7.6
Kh- 9
Ammo- 0
Trite- 1
Trate- 20

gonna add a small clean-up crew (15 snails/crabs) in about 2 weeks, if all is well. Any recommendations?

 

[SloppyWalrus]

I like the scape changes. What are your plans for macro aglae?

 

[SloppyWalrus]

I like the scape changes. What are your plans for macro aglae?

 

[Daniel Sousa]

I like the scape changes. What are your plans for macro aglae?

Thanks. I am not really sure yet. That is the next step after the clean up crew. I do know that seahorses can change their colors based on their environment. So that is going to play a part. I havent even looked at what my options are. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[Redleg]

Look up @vlangel aka the seahorse whisperer. I hear she is the expert on here

 

[vlangel]

Look up @vlangel aka the seahorse whisperer. I hear she is the expert on here

Thanks Redleg, although I would not consider myself an expert but I do have experience with seahorses.

@Daniel Sousa, welcome to the charming world of seahorses. You and your family are in for a treat. I see that you have chose a light and I do not know if it is programmable or not, but seahorses will color up in lower light rather than high light. Light colored backrounds can encourage them to sport their colors. LOL, I designed a tank with a light backround and floor but still used my 4 bulb T5 fixture and all my ponies are brown. 2 of them had arrived and were yellow but not in my high light tank, within a week they were brown, ha ha!

In regards to your PH, make sure the ponies can not hitch to the grating and get their tails cut by the impellor. Injuries like that can be deadly since seahorses are susceptible to bacterial infections.

I have 3 different red macro algaes in my tank: dragon's breath, red titan and red grape caulerpa (which is not related to the green caulerpas). They do add a wonderful pop of color, plus they take up nutrients.

 

[vlangel]

Also Daniel, in the pics of your tank and equipment, is that a chiller or canister filter? If its a chiller, it is not advisable to place them in a closed in area as they are much less efficient that way. They give off heat and it gets trapped in closed in areas.

If its a canister filter, be sure to open it up at least once a week and clean it out (twice a week is better) because the detritus and excess food it catches can fuel pathogenic bacteria, which is a big problem for seahorses.

PS I looked it up and see that it is a canister filter. That is nice that it displays the temperature, (which is why I thought it looked like a chiller). Temperature is very important in a seahorse tank. You want it to be 74°F or lower to inhibit the reproduction of pathogenic bacteria.

 

[vlangel]

Do you know where you are getting your seahorses? Seahorse Source is a wonderful seahorse farm and they give the very best customer service.

 

[Daniel Sousa]

Look up @vlangel aka the seahorse whisperer. I hear she is the expert on here

Thanks @Redleg, I will definitely check her out

 

[Daniel Sousa]

Thanks Redleg, although I would not consider myself an expert but I do have experience with seahorses.

@Daniel Sousa, welcome to the charming world of seahorses. You and your family are in for a treat. I see that you have chose a light and I do not know if it is programmable or not, but seahorses will color up in lower light rather than high light. Light colored backrounds can encourage them to sport their colors. LOL, I designed a tank with a light backround and floor but still used my 4 bulb T5 fixture and all my ponies are brown. 2 of them had arrived and were yellow but not in my high light tank, within a week they were brown, ha ha!

In regards to your PH, make sure the ponies can not hitch to the grating and get their tails cut by the impellor. Injuries like that can be deadly since seahorses are susceptible to bacterial infections.

I have 3 different red macro algaes in my tank: dragon's breath, red titan and red grape caulerpa (which is not related to the green caulerpas). They do add a wonderful pop of color, plus they take up nutrients.

Thanks for the comments @vlangel! Sorry I have not gotten back on here sooner, but work has been crazy. I am gonna try to hit all of your points in one thread. My light is a Kessil A80 and is programmable. I have been extremely happy with it. I love the shimmering effect and it has taken some time for me to dial in the right settings for the light. I understand that seahorses do better under lower lights, however, I am trying to make this mainly a seahorse tank, but would like to display some macros and a few corals and fish. The challenge is building an environment that is thriving for all.

I have never used a canister filter before so I thought this tank would be a good time to try one out. The Fluval G3 canister is pretty awesome. The digital display shows me temp and salinity and has a programmable cleaning schedule for reminders. It is super easy to clean as well.so far my tank has been a steady 73 degrees since inception.

My powerhead has a cover over it to protect the ponies. Do you have any pictures of your tank? I would love to see an established tank with some macros in it. My tank just finished cycling this week and I just added my CUC this weekend. I am gonna give it a week or so before adding my Macros. Dragon's Breathe and Pink troll's hair (my kid picked that one out) and a few other species with some awesome colors. I am a little bummed to hear about the substrate and the background. I went for a black substrate and background. My thinking was if everything else in the tank is super colorful the black environment will make it pop even more. oh well lets see what happens with the ponies.

As of right now I am not planing on putting any ponies in for another month or so. I have a LFS here in Saint Augustine Florida that sells them. They do a great job so I am gonna support them.

 

[Daniel Sousa]

Well, its been about a month and the tank has fully cycled. Im super excited about that. Its been a long month waiting for it to finish. The hardest part is not being able to put anything in the tank, but patience pays off in the long run. I am currently in the ugly stage of the tank. I have algae blooming all over my rocks. I used live rock and I know that it can leech phosphorus for awhile. So i bought a ULR from Hannah Instruments and its through the roof. (133ppb/.40689ppm)
I am going to do about a 40% water change once a week for the next 2 weeks or so to try to get that down. Right now I only have my CUC in there and thats it. Any other suggestions? I really don't wanna do anything with chemicals and I don't want to spaz out and start tweeking things like crazy. I have read a lot of threads on here where people have done that and made things worse.

 

[vlangel]

Well, its been about a month and the tank has fully cycled. Im super excited about that. Its been a long month waiting for it to finish. The hardest part is not being able to put anything in the tank, but patience pays off in the long run. I am currently in the ugly stage of the tank. I have algae blooming all over my rocks. I used live rock and I know that it can leech phosphorus for awhile. So i bought a ULR from Hannah Instruments and its through the roof. (133ppb/.40689ppm)
I am going to do about a 40% water change once a week for the next 2 weeks or so to try to get that down. Right now I only have my CUC in there and thats it. Any other suggestions? I really don't wanna do anything with chemicals and I don't want to spaz out and start tweeking things like crazy. I have read a lot of threads on here where people have done that and made things worse.

I agree, I would just wait out the ugly stage and let your cuc go to work for you. I can't remember what all you have for clean up crew but you can diversify. Peppermint shrimp can be nice with seahorses and adding different copepods and amphipods are always good in a seahorse tank. They will have a chance to get established before you add fish or ponies.

 

[Daniel Sousa]

I have 5 scarlet crabs, 5 nassarius snails, 5 ceriths, 5 Nerite and 3 trochus. I have heard mixed reviews about shrimp and ponies so I haven’t got any yet? And I don’t know anything about copepods or amphipods, so I guess I have some homework.

 

[vlangel]

Yes, the biggest problem with peppermint shrimp is they can be overbearing when it comes to eating. Even though they technically should be afraid of seahorses, as they grow large they actually become brazen about stealing all the food from the ponies. I have remedied that by placing the food bowl up high with magnets on the glass sides.

 

[Daniel Sousa]

Yes, the biggest problem with peppermint shrimp is they can be overbearing when it comes to eating. Even though they technically should be afraid of seahorses, as they grow large they actually become brazen about stealing all the food from the ponies. I have remedied that by placing the food bowl up high with magnets on the glass sides.

That’s a great idea. Thanks for the tip. So yesterday I went out and got 2 peppermint shrimp, a sand sifting star, a zebra turbo a Mexican turbo and 2 large tiger nassarius. I woke up and half my rock was cleaned of all the algae and my sand bed looks like I have wild hogs in there. I am a happy camper

 

[najer]

Sounds great, can't wait to see this progress.
I have a tank that has been sitting idle for years, I only think of it when I read sea horse threads, one of the things I have never tried!?

 

[Daniel Sousa]

I will be doing a water change this weekend, about 40%, because my phosphorus is really high. I will post so update pics after that.

My next issue to deal with is my skimmer is acting up and I have to figure out why. It’s an aquamaxx hob. It’s really loud and dumping tons of large and micro bubbles all in my tank. Any ideas?

 

[vlangel]

That’s a great idea. Thanks for the tip. So yesterday I went out and got 2 peppermint shrimp, a sand sifting star, a zebra turbo a Mexican turbo and 2 large tiger nassarius. I woke up and half my rock was cleaned of all the algae and my sand bed looks like I have wild hogs in there. I am a happy camper

Now that your cuc is cleaning so effectively, just make sure that they do not run out of food, ha ha!