vlangel
Seahorse whisperer
Hi folks,
This tank has been up a while but my vision for it has changed. This tank was set up in October 2016 as a seahorse species only tank. I was upgrading to keep 3-4 seahorses. I spray painted a mural of my first stallion Adam on the back glass in memorial to him, since he had just passed prior to this set up.
Leak test. by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
I painted the bottom glass underneath to look like sand so I could keep my ponies in a bare bottom tank. I have found with seahorses that are high maintenance that a bb tank is much easier. The tank and ponies were doing great until I got bored and decided to change things.
January 2018 I added sand to the tank. I got bored of the almost sterile unnatural look of the seahorse tank.
2018-01-17_03-05-59 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
2018-01-26_06-07-16 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
When I worked at a lfs we used to tier our FW aquascapes. I have always been a fan of DSBs so I wondered if I could tier my SW aquascape. I used my live rock as the retaining wall. It worked pretty well, especially having a column tank that had some height.
I had added some pajama cardinals but now that I had sand and hiding places I thought some gobies and blennies would be cool. It was until 2 of my 3 ponies came down with skin infections after the new fish arrived (There is a good reason seahorse keepers have specie specific tanks ). That was September 2018 and it meant another change for the good of my creatures.
2018-11-29_04-59-13 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
I went into the archives and dragged out my original 30 gallon XH seahorse tank and set it up for the ponies right next to the now 56 gallon natural nutrient tank. The seahorses got the basement sump since I needed that for their many WCs. The natural nutrient tank became an aio with an AC 70 hob filter. It has an Ice cap gyre and a Coralife 4 bulb HOT5 fixture. Presently it has 12 fish, mixed coral, and assorted macro algae which help export nutrients, (along with a 5 gallon WC once a week). Here is the last FTS.
2019-01-23_11-02-50 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
FISH: 2 pajama cardinals, 2 blue gungeon dart fish, 2 green clown gobies, 2 yellow head fang blennies, 2 barnacle blennies and 2 combtooth blennies (one a linear and the other an orange spot).
INVERTS: 2 peppermint shrimp, a pom pom crab, an anemone crab, a few small blue legged hermits, a few emerald crabs, 2 bumble bee snails and a handful of nassarius snails.
CORAL: aqua trumpets, neon green trumpets assorted acans, 2 different blastos, xenai, gsp, assorted shrooms, zoas, palys, sun coral, snake coral, assorted sponges, assorted gorgonians and a couple unidentified SPS.
MACRO ALGAES: codium, feather caulerpa, green grape caulerpa, mermaid fan, shaving brush, halimeda, an unidentified green macro, red titan, and red grape caulerpa.
This tank has been up a while but my vision for it has changed. This tank was set up in October 2016 as a seahorse species only tank. I was upgrading to keep 3-4 seahorses. I spray painted a mural of my first stallion Adam on the back glass in memorial to him, since he had just passed prior to this set up.
Leak test. by Dawn Gilson, on FlickrI painted the bottom glass underneath to look like sand so I could keep my ponies in a bare bottom tank. I have found with seahorses that are high maintenance that a bb tank is much easier. The tank and ponies were doing great until I got bored and decided to change things.
January 2018 I added sand to the tank. I got bored of the almost sterile unnatural look of the seahorse tank.
2018-01-17_03-05-59 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr2018-01-26_06-07-16 by Dawn Gilson, on FlickrWhen I worked at a lfs we used to tier our FW aquascapes. I have always been a fan of DSBs so I wondered if I could tier my SW aquascape. I used my live rock as the retaining wall. It worked pretty well, especially having a column tank that had some height.
I had added some pajama cardinals but now that I had sand and hiding places I thought some gobies and blennies would be cool. It was until 2 of my 3 ponies came down with skin infections after the new fish arrived (There is a good reason seahorse keepers have specie specific tanks ). That was September 2018 and it meant another change for the good of my creatures.
2018-11-29_04-59-13 by Dawn Gilson, on FlickrI went into the archives and dragged out my original 30 gallon XH seahorse tank and set it up for the ponies right next to the now 56 gallon natural nutrient tank. The seahorses got the basement sump since I needed that for their many WCs. The natural nutrient tank became an aio with an AC 70 hob filter. It has an Ice cap gyre and a Coralife 4 bulb HOT5 fixture. Presently it has 12 fish, mixed coral, and assorted macro algae which help export nutrients, (along with a 5 gallon WC once a week). Here is the last FTS.
2019-01-23_11-02-50 by Dawn Gilson, on FlickrFISH: 2 pajama cardinals, 2 blue gungeon dart fish, 2 green clown gobies, 2 yellow head fang blennies, 2 barnacle blennies and 2 combtooth blennies (one a linear and the other an orange spot).
INVERTS: 2 peppermint shrimp, a pom pom crab, an anemone crab, a few small blue legged hermits, a few emerald crabs, 2 bumble bee snails and a handful of nassarius snails.
CORAL: aqua trumpets, neon green trumpets assorted acans, 2 different blastos, xenai, gsp, assorted shrooms, zoas, palys, sun coral, snake coral, assorted sponges, assorted gorgonians and a couple unidentified SPS.
MACRO ALGAES: codium, feather caulerpa, green grape caulerpa, mermaid fan, shaving brush, halimeda, an unidentified green macro, red titan, and red grape caulerpa.
Last edited:
2019-01-28_04-24-07
