Researching 75 gal seahorse/pipe tank

[techigirl78]

Would there be any issues having a softies/LPS tank and seahorse tank connected to the same sump/refugium? If yes, what are the cons? I QT everything and understand that what effects one will effect the other, but anything else?

[BruceW]

Well two things come to mind. One, seahorses are big eaters and they poop out a lot of waste. They can quickly over tax a filter system and pollute your coral tank. You would have to keep on top of you water quality even more then a regular reef tank. Two, if you have wild caught fish in your reef and captive bred seahorses, they will be exposed to all the pathagens that your reef tank animals carry. Even QT will not totally get rid of all WC "germs".

[techigirl78]

Maybe then I'll just try out a pair of pipefish with some of my really laid back gobies. I'll keep thinking about it.

[Fredfish]

Hmm... Not sure I agree with you Bruce. I would call seahorses average feeders for their body size. Clownfish on the other hand are real pigs. :D

On pathogens, the main concern is pathogens carried by wild seahorses as these do not need to cross any species boundry to infect. Lots of folks keep wild fish with seahorses without any ill effects.

How about some more details on the setup? Is 75 gallons the combined volume of the two tanks or is that just the seahorse tank? What sort of filtration/nutrient export do you have on the system?

Fred

[techigirl78]

At this time I have a 125 gal main. I want to hook this up to a 55 gal refugium/sump with an ASM-G4 or G3 Protein Skimmer, then attach a 75 gal for seahorses and pipefish with marine plants and macro algae in it.

[techigirl78]

I already have about 200 lbs of live rock, may get another 45 lbs if I go with this setup. The macro algae in the refugium and seahorse/pipefish tank also were intended to serve of nutrient exports.