Bobmans Sea horse Tank

vlangel · Jan 19, 2017

bobman said:
That going to be my biggest issue. Its sitting in my living room in a corner with my couch next to it. I can always slide the couch over a little to make room but we will see. The tank will be cycling for a while anyway so I will have plenty of time to see if I need a chiller during the cycle. Or there is always the option of going to leds might be cheaper to go chiller though.

I don't know, chillers are not cheap either. Mine was $350. You don't need the highest quality led fixture because most seahorse safe coral are low light coral: leathers, palys, zoas, mushrooms and polyps. The exception is photosynthetic gorgs.

bobman · Jan 19, 2017

You do have a very valid point on that I know the boss is going to want some gorgs so light is going to be a big deal. After figuring in the price of a chiller I am in the range of a pretty decent led setup. I know I dont want to go the mar aqua route. I went that way on my 150 and they work but trying to dragons breath in that tank was impossible. I know it was not a nutrient issue as macro grew well in the sump. Thats why I was going to go mh I understand them and they work for growing everything even unwanted stuff. Plus I already had it on hand so thats always a plus.

Then I also have to think about just ambient temps of the house. I usually keep the house at 75 year round but in the summer I may need an extra kick for the ponies regardless of what lights I run. Actually now that I think about it I think it may be a smarter idea to go with a chiller anyway only because my ac on the house is old so it might be smart in case of a failure to have the chiller.

vlangel · Jan 20, 2017

From everything you are telling me I think you are probably wise to get a chiller. They are nice knowing the temperature can't go above a certain point. The coralife chiller is nice that it has a built in digital controller. Not all chillers do and so that is more $ on top of the unit itself.

bobman · Feb 14, 2017

Well getting closer to being complete. Got a lot done over the weekend. I made an over flow out of 1.5" pvc. Stole an idea I found online plumbed my return line and made a spray bar for the bottom behind my rocks. All in all its coming along. Still need to get a chiller but the tank will not be ready for ponies for a while yet.

Here is the return on the back of the tank. 1 ball valve for the return nozzle and the other for the spray bar. Hoping this spray bar works better than the first one I made. I drilled the hole to big so there was no real flow coming out of it. This time I made the hole smaller. Had to notch the back of the canopy so I could run the plumbing under it. This will allow me to be able to remove the canopy with out messing with the plumbing.

Here is the pvc overflow box I made. Dont look very pretty but you cant even see it when you are running the tank and its quite. You can also see the spray bar at the bottom. I installed that white rodi tubing in there because I first drilled holes just above the water level to prevent a back siphon when I shut down the pump but it was sucking air causing air bubbles to get into the tank. So I ran rodi tubing into the holes of the plumbing and ran them through some small holes that were already in the top of the tank. This way I can adjust them to be just under the water level when the pump is running but when I turn off the pump it exposes them end of the tubing allowing air in and breaking a siphon.

And here it is half full of water. Waiting on the rodi to make more water. So Hopefully I will get it all cleaned up and running after work tonight or tomorrow depending on how much water it has made when I get home. Crossing my fingers not to much further to go. Just sit back and wait for the fun to begin.

vlangel · Feb 15, 2017

If your spray bar works the way you are hoping it will that is a great idea. With seahorses it is so important not to allow detritus to build up anywhere, including the floor of the tank around rockwork.

When you get the tank filled and running make sure you have lots of surface agitation. Seahorses need more oxygen in their tanks than other fish because of their primitive gill structure. In a tall tank with a small footprint that is especially important.

bobman · Feb 15, 2017

Thanks for the heads up. I did get the tank filled just before the sun came up today. Spray bar seems to be working great. My return nozzles are a little deep so I might be to look into a powerhead for the surface. Might be tricky to get one that the ponies cant latch onto or get sucked in.

bobman · Feb 21, 2017

Got some cool stuff for the pony tank. Still no ponies yet. Waiting to get some things in line before pulling the trigger. I finally got a temp probe for the tank and WOWZA. Sunday was a hot and sunny day so I figured it would be a good time to give the tank a stress test. I left the AC off just had a few fans running in the house and the tank got to a max of 79.7. Thats a little steamy for some ponies. So I didnt have any fans cooling the MH light. I added big ole fan to blow across the bulb and the water. It helped as the tank only got to 75.4 with the fan and 70.2 before the MH kicked on. I can live with that but monday was cloudy and not as hot. So I am thinking when summer hits full swing I still may have heat issues. No big deal though I have already planned on getting a chiller with my tax return when my lazy behind files them lol.

A local reefer was pruning some macros in his refugium over the weekend so I was able to score some caulerpa and what I think is dragons breath but it looks different some the dragons breath I have seen before. The dragons breath will do little for hitching posts but it looks cool so......... Also while out getting a temp probe I had to get me a feather duster as who dont like a feather duster lol.

bobman · Mar 25, 2017

Not to much of an update. Thanks still running well. Water tests came back better than I expected for reusing some of my old sand. Macros are growing well under the halide and temp is not going over 75. However I have decided the halide might be overkill and is growing the macros a little to fast for my liking. At this rate I will have to mow the lawn every couple weeks lol. So I placed an order with SB reef. Just waiting for it to come in. Then if my water is still looking good I will pull the trigger on some ponies.

I do have to do some work to it though as I have noticed lately I am getting micro bubbles. I have eliminated the skimmer as a possible cause. The only other thing I can think of is maybe air is getting into my return plumbing somewhere. My thought is to silicone all the joints on the return plumbing and make a ATO even though the water level has not gotten low enough to cause micro bubbles I am gone a lot so to prevent an issue in the future I think that will be my best option. I know ponnies and micro bubbles are not a good mix so. Hopefully this weekend I can get that sorted out while I wait on my lights.

I will get some pics over the weekend (I have sundays and mondays off so my weekend started tomorrow lol)

vlangel · Mar 25, 2017

Actually it used to be thought that micro bubbles caused gas bubble disease but it does not. Gas bubble disease is caused by not enough surface agitation of the water or bacterial infections of the gut.

bobman · Mar 25, 2017

Is that your way of secretly calling me old?

vlangel · Mar 26, 2017

bobman said:
Is that your way of secretly calling me old?

Ha ha, no way! I would wager than I am way older than you.

bobman · Mar 28, 2017

Hahaha probably.

Well ran into a little setback this weekend. While searching for the source of my microbubbles I went to reposition my skimmer and broke the baffle in the sump

. I also had what I thought was GHA but as it has grown a little I think it might be bryopsis

. This tank has been challenging to say the least for almost no livestock in it. On the brightside I was not overly impressed with the way the sump was so maybe it is a blessing that I broke it because now I can rebuild it this coming weekend. Still waiting on my sbreef lights to come in it still sayd processing my order. Didnt know they had to manufacture it from scratch lol.

vlangel · Mar 28, 2017

I am sorry Bobmans, but your last post made me laugh! I hate it when that stuff happens.

bobman · Mar 28, 2017

Sometimes you have to find the humor through the pain

bobman · Apr 4, 2017

Yay my LED lights came in. I went with SB reef which should be more than capable of running my seahorse reef. I also finally repaired my baffles in my sump and i a make over. I went with walmart cutting boards instead of glass this time since I can be a little hard in the sump area due to lack of room. This way I dont break the baffles. Even if I knock them lose thats not a big deal as thats just a 10 gallon (25%) water change to empty the sump and re silicone them back in. I just didnt want to take the risk of cutting myself with glass. So all that is installed and the tank is a little cooler. The high yesterday was 73 degrees in the tank. Not bad for a 90+ degree day.

One the plus side the bryopsis is starting to die off. Hopefully soon I can get things back under control and be ready for ponies. I have seen some killer deals on some but had to pass with everything going on in the tank I just didnt think it would be a good idea at this time to pull the trigger.

vlangel · Apr 5, 2017

bobman said:
Yay my LED lights came in. I went with SB reef which should be more than capable of running my seahorse reef. I also finally repaired my baffles in my sump and i a make over. I went with walmart cutting boards instead of glass this time since I can be a little hard in the sump area due to lack of room. This way I dont break the baffles. Even if I knock them lose thats not a big deal as thats just a 10 gallon (25%) water change to empty the sump and re silicone them back in. I just didnt want to take the risk of cutting myself with glass. So all that is installed and the tank is a little cooler. The high yesterday was 73 degrees in the tank. Not bad for a 90+ degree day.

One the plus side the bryopsis is starting to die off. Hopefully soon I can get things back under control and be ready for ponies. I have seen some killer deals on some but had to pass with everything going on in the tank I just didnt think it would be a good idea at this time to pull the trigger.

I have Lowe's plexiglass in my sump and like you I can re-silicon if need be. It works well.
I am glad that your temperature is doing well. It sounds like it won't be long before you are ready to order ponies.
I am ready to pull the trigger on ordering more seahorses this week.

bobman · Apr 11, 2017

Went to go get some ponies over the weekend but my local (sort of) place that carries captive bread ponies were out of stock till next week

I did get some life in the tank finally I mean the feather duster and hermits were cool but I have to liven up the tank a bit. I also tossed out all my macros in the tank as they just were not doing what I wanted and didnt think they would make very good hitching posts. So I got some gorgonians along with a few leathers and zoas.

Sorry for the blurry pics my phone sucks but its all I got till I buck up and buy another camera.

bobman · Apr 25, 2017

I finally pulled the trigger. I have 2 awesome ponies. I think 1 is male and the other is female. I hope so anyway. It was a lot harder than I though trying to determine the sex. The guy at the fish store was not much help. He was just a helper and matt at summers aquatics who I normally deal with had stepped out for a bit. Therefore it was left to 2 complete rookies. I think the big black one is male and the smaller yellow one is female but I am not sure. The yellow one was orange when I bought her. Hopefully she will turn back. I also got a free feeding station. After a long drip acclimation I put them in the tank and later tried to see if they would eat frozen mysis and boy did they. They showed no mercy and were not shy eaters at all. I see I got some work to do on getting them used to the feeding station but it going better than I expected.

Pics because well we love pics.

bobman · Apr 26, 2017

Got a little nervous today. Last night the better half called me to tell me she tried to feed the ponies but they would not eat while I was at work. She feeds them when the lights come on (3pm) and again at about 7-8. Then I feed them when I get home from work right before my whites turn off at just after midnight. I asked her how much she was feeding and she said a whole cube. well for 2 little ponies thats a lot so when I got home I seem mysis all over the bottom and figured well no wonder they are not eating they have been eating all day. So I turned on my spray bar to blow everything off the bottom and into the sump and didnt attempt to feed them last night. I decided to feed them before heading to work today and they still did not seem interested. They looked at the food like they were going to eat but just sat there staring at the food not eating. Last night while cleaning the tank I seen one of my leathers was bleaching a little at the base so I did some tests and everything seemed ok. Salinity was 1.024, cal was high 500ppm, alk 8.4, mag 1320, didnt test for ammonia and nitrites but nitrates was 4 ppm and phosphates was .05 pm. Highest temp the water got was 74.8. Not to bad but what is a little alarming is I tested my water 4 days ago after a water change and my nitrates was 1.5. Thats a pretty big spike in just a few days. I have water mixing to do another water change when I get home tonight. Just wondering if I should be concerned I know the ponies have only been in the tank for 4 days and the first 2 days I did all the feeding since those are my days off and they ate really well for me. Just wondering what everyone thoughts are there bellies look ok and not like they are hungry but then I am a rookie when it comes to ponies.

vlangel · Apr 26, 2017

If 1 of my ponies has 1 off day where they do not eat well or not at all I keep my eye on them the next day. If they eat normal the next day I breathe a little easier. If they still don't eat well then I usually do a water change, check parameters and use the turkey baster to blow stuff off the rock, macros and coral. By day 3 I consider putting them in a hospital tank and treating. If I don't know what to treat with I start with Furan 2, an antibiotic that is fairly effective with many seahorse infections.