Help me get started

[Jocephus]

Hi everybody. Looking for a little support. Okay I have a 65 gal tank with mushrooms, star polyps, a torch, one checkered goby, a mollie, a few hermits, and a bunch of snails. I have around 80 lbs of rock in it, PC lighting, and three koralia #1's for flow, along with the return pump (300gpm?). What do I need to do to get started? Yank the corals? Lose the Koralias? Get rid of the crabs? I've done some reading, I believe I'd like to get erectus horses. Anyone have reccomendations for me about any of this?

Thanks!

Joe

[ann83]

Joe,
I haven't kept a lot of corals with seahorses, but I believe you want to ditch the torch coral. The star polyps are fine, as are the mushrooms (so long as they aren't the elephant ear/fish eating variety). The molly may be a problem because seahorses grow algae on their bodies and mollies will pick at that algae, but the danger isn't huge, just keep an eye out. The hermits are also a potential danger, do you know what kind they are?
The koralias need to be covered or taken out, they can take the end off a seahorse's tail.
You also need to make sure that your tank can stay stable between 70-74 degrees.
Good luck. When you're ready, I recommend seahorsesource.com

[Jocephus]

ann83,

Thanks for your post. That makes a lot of sense about the koralias. I'llmove the Torch. The hermits are typical blue or red leg varieties, but not so many that I can't pull them. What do folks use for flow in a seahorse tank?

[ann83]

Spraybars/diffusers, closed loops, some use powerheads but I'm not sure what brands since I don't.

[Jocephus]

Ann, thanks for the response. Are there issues with cyano or nuisance algaes with the restricted flow rates? My 65 has a 300 gpm return, would you recommend setting it up as a spray bar, and using that exclusively for flow?

[ann83]

Pledosophy? Pleeeeedoooo? Hellooo? Come answer these plumbing/flow questions for me :D

Seriously though, I haven't set up that many tanks, so there are a lot of options out there that I don't know much about. You can put a spray bar on your return, and then if you still need more flow to prevent cyano and dead spots, you can fit powerheads with spraybars, or use powerheads with large outlets rather than those with more directed flow.

[Jocephus]

THanks again, Ann83. Maybe someone will chime in.

[David123]

Flow is not a set in concrete thing, once thought that no more than 4-5 times was the limit.

You can pretty well have what you want, long as there are no high pressure outlets.

A 1" outlet pipe with no extra holes will be fine for low flow, but if you put this along the base of the tank, and drill ( for example) 50 x 1/4" holes in it, a few hundred gallons an hour will not be felt much.

Most seahorses like some areas of flow to play in, many times you will see them discover a "ride" where they can go to, swim into the outlet zone, and get washed away, only to come back straight away and do it again, time and time again. Same thing with a bubbler, good for removing ded spots (the bane of any aquaria) and a place where the horses will love to play.

If you go the powerhed route, which im a fan of, you can have a few small ones, each delivering, (say) 4-5 times turn over, one for your UV, one for your mechanical filter, one for your skimmer, one for your external canister filter whatever.

In designing your seahorse tank, ensure that there are some areas of lower flow, and these have hitching post, rest and sleep zones.

HTH

[Jocephus]

David,

Great post, thanks! I will get started on re-constructing my 65 this weekend.

[Sherry13]

Oh a spray bar. Duh... I'm setting up my seahorse tank too and the return from the filter is this adjustable ball and socket "head." I'm going to look for a spraybar, I only wonder why I didn't think of it myself. Thanks Ann! I'll try using what I have first, but if the flow is too much, I'm getting the spray bar, Woopie!

(Am I just tired, or do I always sound blonde when I type?)

Sherry,
Waiting for husband to come home from work,
Mom of six
in WY

[Jocephus]

Okay, I think I'm setting it up this weekend. I'll post pics later today and see what you all think. Thanks for the input.

[krazeekiddie]

Jocephus, glad to see you are taking the plunge! =) Good luck with your dismantling!