Considering switching to Seahorses.. advice?

DracoKat

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Hi all

I presently have a 6 yearold established reef tank, and I am heavily thinking about switching it over to seahorses.

I'd like to know what I'd need to get rid of, and what I can keep for these cuties? And any advice so I can consider if the switch is right for me?

75g tank with 30g sump

Equipment which is pretty basic:
Skimmer
Carbon reactor
Macspect Gyro (Def will have to go, too powerful)
Heater
ATO

Livestock- I am sure all will have to go:
Bristletooth tang
Foxface
2 paired clowns
2 melarious wrasses
engineer goby
starry blenny
Filefish

Coral (this I will need help with as I know some are stingers):
Gogorian (This I can keep)
Galaxia
Monti
Duncan
Kenya (working on getting rid of)
Zoas

The tank has about 50-60lbs of live rock. I assume I would have to weed some of this down and do mostly sandy bottom?

Any advice would be great as I continue my research :)

DD91AC67-1E05-47F2-AB4F-13F87016890C.jpeg
 

Jekyl

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Seahorses require lower temperature than most reef tanks can handle. They also require feeding 3 times a day. That's all I got for ya lol.
 
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DracoKat

DracoKat

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Still helpful! lol. I don't mind the frequent feedings and I can easily lower temp if needed.

I just need to figure out which corals I can keep and what needs to go
 

Jekyl

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I hear the feeding can be an issue with them. They have quick digestive systems. From what I've heard you will need to clean your tank much more frequently due to the food they don't eat being left behind. Kind of like having to vacuum after every feeding. Chiller may be needed to maintain proper temperature also.
 

DED65

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Looks like you have good hitching posts with the Gorgonian. The stinging corals can be an issues if the seahorses hitch on them, you can wait and see on the Duncan, I would be concerned with the Galaxia. I would think the Blenny and Filefish would be fine, the others may outcompete for food. Again, you can always try and see what happens. Seahorses can handle more flow than most think, they will figure out the high and low flow areas. They are messy, slow eaters and it will take more maintenance. If you train them to eat in a certain area, it will make the cleanup a lot easier. The temperature is better below 75 degrees.
 

SaltBabies

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I keep my tank at 73 and have found this to be a good temp. I feed twice a day. I do keep other things than seahorse only but more those fish would be too fast and aggressive the blenny maybe ok if it doesn't rip algae off things.

the gorgonians, kenya and zoas (but not tons) would probably be ok. I mean they's love the gorgonians and probably the kenyas.

While you can have a tall tank. Some seahorse keepers purposefully keep a shorter tank to try to keep them from breeding so they don't have to deal with babies. Honestly 12" is enough for most erectus. I have a lot of seahorses and they like the bottom 12" of the tank except when mating and when hunting the live ghost shrimp treats I put in occasionally.

I turn my pumps off and overfeed with my mixed tank so everyone gets as much as they want. I have an Enheim battery powered vacuum and a good clean up crew for the waste. A skimmer is a must as they are messy eaters but I think good clean up is too. I have a sand shifting bella goby does a good job, peppermint shrimp. nassarius snails, spaghetti worms and amphipods and copepods. But I mostly try to make sure to vacuum up after every feeding. Some people even train them to a feeding dish to help with that but they masticate their food and make lots of small pieces. Mine are spoiled and bite the heads of the frozen mysid and leave them everywhere.

I breed seahorses and have had them for some years. I don't find them near as hard as some make them out to be. I think low temp, good food and some common sense go a long way. Some also swear by water changes.

I can tell you while I have gorgonians, mushrooms, ricordia, sponge I make the tank for the seahorses. So I have macro algae and lower flow than most reefs. It is super low but the middle of the tank is designed for lower flow with an outter raceway and I turn the pumps off to feed. I also supplement their feeding with live foods for variety such as amphipods and live shrimp. They go nuts for both.
 

rayjay

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Too much disinformation being put on s. media and on forums. i.e. they don't NEED a tall tank, it just makes it easier to do the mating dance. Another one is they need low flow. WRONG, most of us have a MINIMUM flow of 10X and many of us have systems in the 20X range and above, just not in directed blast that can damage seahorses. You can HAVE a lower flow if you want, but higher flows set up properly will help to keep the crap in suspension longer allowing for it to be picked up by the mechanical filtration and thus improving water quality without extra hands on work.
The stickies at the top of the forum can provide a lot of information for you but you still need to be careful as some posts might be misleading.
More precise information information has been compiled by Dan Underwood and you can find it on Seahorse Source's Group on Facebook. Look for the line of links below the group name and click on FILES.
 

SaltBabies

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BTW I had a typo. It was supposed to say. my tank isn't super low flow but does have areas for them to get out of the current. There's an outside raceway type current and I have a seahorse tower / cave area that is much lower flow in the center.
 

Devaji

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While you can have a tall tank. Some seahorse keepers purposefully keep a shorter tank to try to keep them from breeding so they don't have to deal with babies. Honestly 12" is enough for most erectus. I have a lot of seahorses and they like the bottom 12" of the tank except when mating and when hunting the live ghost shrimp treats I put in occasionally.

you know I was thinking this very thought the other day about shorter tank keeping the babies down. I have talked to Dan and alyissia over the years about tank size they both said a under 20" tank would work I have been thinking about a 17.7" tank as one of my options for a SH tank.
 

SaltBabies

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Yes 17 inches should be high enough. While my seahorses spend a lot of the time in the bottom of the tank I wouldn't recommend 12" but most tanks that are large enough are also tall enough.
 

Doctorgori

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I got mine in a reef, I pay no never mind to the flow as the horses sleep mid day and find the spot they like anyway.....I can see not adding clams and acros, but I have plenty of LPS and mine avoid the hammers, torches, et. I keep my tank in the low 70,s no issues with the coral growth et
 

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