Fishfreak2009's 30 Gallon Cube Seahorse Build

[Fishfreak2009]

So I'm starting yet another build. Looking to keep a pair of Hippocampus erectus seahorses in a planted setup (ideally with live Eelgrass, but if it doesn't survive, then I will switch to macroalgae. The goal is to get them breeding in here, and tankmates will be minimal (probably just snails and hermits), possibly some blue stripe pipefish and a tiger jawfish. I am also hoping to grow a few gorgonians and sponges in this setup as hitching posts for the ponies.

Since this setup will be kept cooler around 70-72F, I will have no heater. I will be using a knock off reef LED light I got used with this setup that was growing some softies and LPS pretty well. I will be running a canister filter to help moderate flow and to help with dissolved organics from the live plants yellowing the water. I also have an older Prizm protein skimmer that should work perfectly for this setup.

This setup will be started with dry rock, biospira, and Microbacter7 like my other tanks, and will have a deep (6") sandbed for the eelgrass. I am also debating on adding a planted substrate underneath the live sand, or just scraping the muck in my 75 gallon tank's refugium and using that under the sand.

I will also be seeding this tank with copepods from my 75 gallon, and will regularly add live phytoplankton to keep their population high. I will probably also supplement the eelgrass with freshwater plant root tabs, as an additional slow release fertilizer source.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Got some work done on this today. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow when the water clears up.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Still pretty cloudy, but the eelgrass looks pretty good in the back. At least it didn't disentegrate yet during the trip home! Sand bed in the back is 7" deep, about 1.5" in the front. We also had a hitchhiker snail come in. He's pretty cool. Looks like a limpet or Nerite of some kind. Super flat shaped.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Looking clearer and clearer! Added a small orange elephant ear sponge and a small red finger sponge from my 75 gallon today. The hitchhiker snail is climbing across the front glass today. Luckily for him there's plenty of algae on the seagrass leaves for him to eat.

 

[OldRed1]

What a fun build! Looking forward to following along!

 

[Pkunk35]

Very cool, I’ve been thinking about doin a dwarf horse build. Any idea where you will source the seahorse?

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Very cool, I’ve been thinking about doin a dwarf horse build. Any idea where you will source the seahorse?

So far I'm looking at either Seahorse Source, Biota, or Ocean Rider in Hawaii

 

[Fishfreak2009]

That awkward moment when you realize a few days ago you must have accidentally dosed phyto to the tank with nothing to eat it...

Little hitchhiker snails off all the eelgrass I brought back from Virginia Beach don't seem to mind though!

I also glued a little green star polyp to one of the rocks in the front. So far, it isn't a fan of the colder water though (69 F) so I may try adding a heater and bumping the temp up to 73 or so. Tetraslemis suecica definitely doesn't mind the colder temps though!

Unfortunately 99% of the eelgrass ended up dying. There is still 1 nice rooted piece that is nice and green and seems to be growing! Hopefully it survives and spreads across the tank bottom.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Update: Phyto bloom is going away nicely after adding a polishing pad to the canister filter. Just starting to get some diatoms on the bottom and on the glass. I am probably going to remove the last piece of eelgrass. It doesn't seem to be doing very well. I'm also moving one of my spare eheim heaters into the tank, to hopefully help the GSP and eventually other corals do better in here.

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Nice, I will be following.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Well, I moved a couple gorgonians, another red sponge, and some caulerpa over from my 75 gallon today, and then my wife and I visited one of our LFS...

We stumbled across an awesome deal we couldn't pass up. They are wild caughts from Florida, but look great and are already eating live ghost shrimp very well. I may throw in a molly or 2 tomorrow just to provide some live babies for them to eat as well. Going to do my best to wean them onto frozen mysis, but I'm more than willing to feed live ghost shrimp however long is necessary.

Heater is unplugged currently as the tank is sitting stable at 73 degrees, but I will be building a heater guard before it gets plugged in as the temperature drops here in Michigan.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Chowing on live ghost shrimp and even ate a couple pieces of frozen mysis tonight!

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Update: I removed almost all of the GSP as it is dying with the colder temps. Gorgonians, sponges, and macroalgae all continue to thrive.

We also added another red tree sponge, another type of red macroalgae, and 4 orange chestnut turbo snails (Turbo castanea) to the tank. The ponies love live ghost shrimp, and pretty much refuse any other food, including live brine (which I'm still offering just in case). What I thought may be the start of a bacterial infection on the male is just natural saddle patterning, has not changed at all, even with antibiotics, and has a healthy layer of skin.

Both ponies are now eating between 4-6 ghost shrimp each per day.

I'll attach some pictures of the tank, as well as a poor quality video of the male catching and eating a ghost shrimp in the back of the tank. You can actually hear the pop as he hits the ghost shrimp to paralyze it, and again as he swallows it whole.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Updates!

1. Last piece of eelgrass died and was removed.

2. Added a piece of rock with a toadstool leather and a kenya tree out of my wife's fluval evo and going to see if it will grow in the cooler water.

3. Small piece of GSP that survived the melting episode is now open and growing.

4. We set up some tanks to breed mollies and guppies, so we have a steady supply of small gutloaded fish to feed the ponies! We have a 20 gallon for the sailfin mollies (being converted to saltwater) and a couple 10 gallons for feeder guppies (1 tank of black moscows, which we will use the culls as feeders, and 1 tank with cheapo "feeder" guppies. Hopefully going to add a few more 10 gallons to raise some Opae Ula as well, and we will use those as feeder shrimp.

5. Removed the orange turbo snails. They began eating all the red Gracilaria macroalgae. Moved them into my 47 gallon to help with the hair algae outbreak.

6. These two are piggies! They are now eating about 10 ghost shrimp each per day, and are also eating the occasional feeder guppy. Trying to get them to take frozen thawed jumbo mysis, basically have to get it to drop in front of them and they grab it while it is still slowly falling.

And some pictures!

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Update: Ponies are doing well! No signs of any flesh loss, the coloration on the male is normal saddling. It has not changed at all since he came home, but they were profilactically run through a round of ciprofloxacin and a round of kanaplex.

The ponies eat like champions, but only take live ghost shrimp and the occasional stunned guppy, eating roughly 80 ghost shrimp weekly now.

We did move some more rock and a few more corals into the tank, including a red rhodactis mushroom, a green hairy mushroom, a kenya tree, and a leather coral, all of which are doing just fine at 70 degrees.

They also got 2 new piscine tankmates! We unfortunately lost our female picasso percula clown (she continued to lose weight and wasted away, even with deworming and anti-protozoal meds). So our male moved in here. We also moved a tailless juvenile brown saddleback clownfish into here, as it does not compete well with any other fish, is very nervous, and is not the best swimmer by any means. We are hoping it will pair up with the picasso percula clown. The seahorses completely ignore them, and vice versa, as the ghost shrimp are too big for the clowns, and the seahorses won't go after other foods. We are actually hoping the clowns might help teach the ponies to go after frozen mysis.

And for those who read all that, here are some pictures.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Update! We added a few new fish today! We picked up this amazing female yellow brotulid, and hope to pick up a male soon, to attempt breeding them.



We also picked up a spawning pair of blue eye cardinalfish (Zoramia leptacantha) for this tank as well.

And the female erectus actually ate a piece of frozen mysis today! The clownfish were obviously very excited about the frozen food, which in turn got her excited, and she came up and ate a big piece of frozen mysis! I'm hoping that having these extra couple fish will go a long ways towards teaching the ponies to eat frozen.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

A few quick pics from today. Everyone is doing well. I'm thinking I may add another 3 threadfin cardinals to make a nice little group. Hopefully they'll be more outgoing. Also considering a bali tiger jawfish, if I can find a nice one at a store near me.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

To update this:

I removed all the fish besides the seahorses, as the tank was getting too cold now that we are consistently seeing colder temps here in Michigan. Those fish are all doing much better in a different tank at 78F now. The seahorses are still doing great though at 68-69F.

I am having a major hair algae outbreak currently as well, and added a lettuce nudibranch today who is happily munching away. We also threw in some red people eater zoas I fragged from my 75 gallon, and we picked up a really nice green kenya tree/leather? the other day that is doing very well.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Munching away

 

[Catnip885]

So cute!