Feedback on my set-up? Seahorses arriving Tuesday!

[flsvedlund]

Here's the new video!
http://youtu.be/uZ9fv9SE9Pg

[flsvedlund]

And some new photos!

FTS 1/5/14


View from the right side of the tank.

[flsvedlund]

One of the jawfish.

[Bratyboy2]

Beautiful as usual!

[Bratyboy2]

And love the video and music! Love me some Luke Bryant!

How are the colors holding up with the ponies? I see one is white now?

[tjdouglas]

Looks awesome!

[madeyemary]

Just wanted to say that is a wonderful tank and an inspiration!

What is the name of that spiral coral and where did you buy it?

I was wondering what the best way to communicate with Southwatch was...I've had no success sending them a message through the form on their website, and their number goes straight to voicemail. I wonder if they're on vacation..?

[GetLit]

i like the set up very nice

[flsvedlund]

Originally Posted by Bratyboy2

And love the video and music! Love me some Luke Bryant!

How are the colors holding up with the ponies? I see one is white now?

Thank you! I love country music The seahorses are pretty much staying the same colors as when I bought them with just slight shade variations from day to day, except for the one that is now all white. She originally was all white/silver except for some yellow on her head. The yellow on her head has gone away and now she is just a solid white/silver that I think is actually prettier than her original coloring. The photos don't show it as well, but she's very shimmery/iridescent in person. Other than that, my orange pony is still orange, the biggest yellow pony is still bright yellow, and then the gold/tan one with white blotches is still the same color and just changes shades a bit in the gold/tan/yellow range from day to day. None of them have ever drastically changed colors to like black or grey.

Originally Posted by tjdouglas

Looks awesome!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by madeyemary

Just wanted to say that is a wonderful tank and an inspiration!

What is the name of that spiral coral and where did you buy it?

I was wondering what the best way to communicate with Southwatch was...I've had no success sending them a message through the form on their website, and their number goes straight to voicemail. I wonder if they're on vacation..?

Thank you so much!

The spiral wire corals are in the family of black corals and their scientific name is Cirrhipathes spiralis. I've seen them called spiral wires, spiral wire corals, and even spiral gorgonians although they are not gorgonians. They're a bit uncommon, so they're not easy to find but I have a store near me that gets some in from their wholesaler pretty frequently. I'd suggest talking to your local stores to see if they can order one from you from their supplier if you're interested. I haven't seen them sold online much except once in a blue moon on ebay.

Southwatch is definitely not the best at answering their email or the contact form through their site. I had no problem reaching them by phone though and that's always how I contact them. They must be on vacation because they normally answer their phone or call you back by the next day at the latest. Its a small family type business, so they were probably closed for the holidays. I'd say keep trying to reach them by phone.

Originally Posted by GetLit

i like the set up very nice

Thank you!

[Bratyboy2]

That's good t know bout the colors! I'm in the process of getting everything together for this build. Pipefish will be in the tank for sure and maybe one other kind of fish. All fish will be treated no matter what in the safety of the ponies

[flsvedlund]

Originally Posted by Bratyboy2

That's good t know bout the colors! I'm in the process of getting everything together for this build. Pipefish will be in the tank for sure and maybe one other kind of fish. All fish will be treated no matter what in the safety of the ponies

Sounds good! You may want to consider captive bred pipefish from Ocean Rider to avoid pathogen introduction. Prophylactic treatment of fish is definitely a good plan before putting them in a tank with seahorses. My jawfish were in quarantine for a month and I treated them with PraziPro for internal parasites and then I did a FW dip in methylene blue to treat any external parasites such as ich before adding them into the seahorse tank.

[Bratyboy2]

My game plan is to get the ocean rider pipes to train my other pipes. Once that happens they will be treated with prazipro.

Following that I plan to do a paragaurd dip on them before intro to the tank.

I might just stick with the pipe only tank...still a debate in the household

[flsvedlund]

Originally Posted by Bratyboy2

My game plan is to get the ocean rider pipes to train my other pipes. Once that happens they will be treated with prazipro.

Following that I plan to do a paragaurd dip on them before intro to the tank.

I might just stick with the pipe only tank...still a debate in the household

Sounds like a decent plan. I have zero experience with pipefish, so unfortunately I can't help there. Keep me posted on what you end up doing!

[Bratyboy2]

I'll will. I'll prob start a build thread on NR

[David - Miami]

Great video and I love the music. Amazing and inspirational tank. Once my baby grows up a bit, I will be doing something similar.

[Devaji108]

still loving your tank! thanks for the updates...

[flsvedlund]

Originally Posted by David - Miami

Great video and I love the music. Amazing and inspirational tank. Once my baby grows up a bit, I will be doing something similar.

Thank you! Good luck with your new set-up

Originally Posted by Devaji108

still loving your tank! thanks for the updates...

Thanks for stopping by! Glad you liked the updates. I'll keep them coming

[mwilliams62]

Originally Posted by flsvedlund

Thank you so much! I am so glad that other people appreciate this tank! I'm honored that my tank is an inspiration for you!

Right not I am using an old 20" Coralife 96W quad powercompact fixture. Its not ideal, but it came with the tank which I bought used from a member of my local reef club. I've been saving up and in the next month or so, I will be buying an LED fixture to replace it. My plan is to get the Maxspect Razor Nano 10000K fixture for this tank. The Coralife fixture works great and is plenty of light, but it runs very hot so I have to have two cooling fans on the tank to keep the temperature at 72F. Its also expensive to replace the bulbs on this fixture. Finally, it can only just all turn on and off and once and the drastic lighting change seems to bother the seahorses a bit. The new fixture I am getting will be able to do a gradual sunrise and sunset so that its not just a sudden change in lighting.

There are definitely several considerations with keeping seahorses and coral in one tank. First off is compatibility. You can't keep seahorses with any corals that are sticky, have powerful stings, or are capable of eating slow moving fish. Pretty much all LPS corals and definitely all anemones are not compatible with seahorses. SPS corals can't harm seahorses (except the fire corals), but the seahorses will hitch to them frequently and most SPS corals are too sensitive for that and will lose flesh and end up dying. With seahorses, it is best to stick with softies, macro algaes, gorgonians, zoanthids/palythoas, sponges, etc. Of course there are a few exception. For example, I have some porites (SPS) in my seahorse tank. They don't branch like many other SPS, so the seahorses can't hitch to them and irritate them.

Here's a great compatibility guide for seahorses:
http://www.seahorsecorral.com/Seahorse_Tankmates.html

The other thing to consider with putting corals in a seahorse tank is their flow requirement. It is outdated thinking that seahorses need to live in super calm, almost stagnant water. Your seahorses and your tank will be much healthier with a brisk, moderate water flow. You don't want blasting flow to the point that your seahorses won't let go of their hitches though. Basically, its best to have good moderate flow and set it up so that there are some calmer areas in the tank with low flow where the seahorses can rest. This effects the corals you can have because you can't keep any corals that need super high flow, like some SPS corals. However, most moderate flow corals will do great. Then you can find some corals that only need low flow to put in the calmer areas.

In terms of tank parameters, here's about what they usually are:
Temp: 72 F
Specific Gravity: 1.025
pH: 8.0
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrates: ~5

The seahorses are messy eaters and have to be fed frequently, so this tank needed good filtration to maintain good water quality. I have a skimmer rated for up to 55 gallons on this tank, a media rack with Chemipure Elite, Purigen, and Phosguard, and I run dual media reactors - one with carbon and one with GFO. I also have a bunch of macroalgaes in the display portion and also in the refugium chamber to help with fixing nutrients. I do a 15% water change every week, or twice a week if needed. Since I do frequent water changes, I don't test for or dose Ca, Alk, Mg, or any of the other trace elements.

This tank is a balance of keeping the nutrients in the system low enough to provide good water quality for the seahorses, but having some nutrients is good because the sponges, macro algaes, and NPS corals in my system filter feed off the nutrients in the water. I also made sure this tank had a very good cleanup crew to eat any leftover food from the seahorses, so it can't decay and mess up the water quality. I've got a lot of snails of different types, hermit crabs, and 3 nano serpent stars which do a great job scavenging for uneaten food.

I hope that helps!

One of these days I would love to have a setup like yours. So inspiring....
The information that you have provide does help a lot.

[flsvedlund]

Originally Posted by mwilliams62

One of these days I would love to have a setup like yours. So inspiring....
The information that you have provide does help a lot.

I'm glad my tank can be an inspiration! I try to post useful information on here. If you have any questions I haven't answered though, don't be afraid to ask.

[btreyes]

It's looking better and better! It's soooo trippy too!

[Hudds]

Beautiful as always and nice growth!
Happy with the new lights? How would you rate them vs previous PCs for your setup?

[Fishtitious Per]

Originally Posted by flsvedlund

I've seen them called spiral wires, spiral wire corals, and even spiral gorgonians although they are not gorgonians. They're a bit uncommon, so they're not easy to find but I have a store near me that gets some in from their wholesaler pretty frequently.

Could you tell me the name and location of the store, please? Those spirals are so unique. I visit the Bay Area often (former Half Moon Bay resident) and would love to visit your lfs.

Your tank is gorgeous and bright. I have two black seahorses in a 37 tank that are experts in hiding in their macroalgae.

[flsvedlund]

Originally Posted by btreyes

It's looking better and better! It's soooo trippy too!

Thanks! I think all the spiral wire corals make it pretty trippy

[flsvedlund]

Originally Posted by Hudds

Beautiful as always and nice growth!
Happy with the new lights? How would you rate them vs previous PCs for your setup?

I love the new lights! I liked the PC light fixture just fine, but this new LED fixture is so much better. It runs very cool, so I was able to remove the two cooling fans I had running all the time when I had the PC fixture. I also love the built in 6 time point programming ability. Even though I don't have a controller, I can no set the two channels separately at different intensities throughout the day. The seahorses are much less bothered by a gradual sunrise and sunset than the lights just suddenly flicking on. The coloration from the new fixture is also really good and you can tune the white and blue channels to get whatever color balance you want. Also its small and sleek looking. So far all the corals seem very happy under it.

Originally Posted by Fishtitious Per

Could you tell me the name and location of the store, please? Those spirals are so unique. I visit the Bay Area often (former Half Moon Bay resident) and would love to visit your lfs.

Your tank is gorgeous and bright. I have two black seahorses in a 37 tank that are experts in hiding in their macroalgae.

Its Aquatic Collection in Hayward. They get them in every so often, so you can always call them an request some or see when they will get more if you're planning to be up that way.

Thank you! I was definitely trying for bright colors in this tank! Seahorses sure can be hard to find when they're holding still. Sounds like you must have lots of macroalgae for them to hide in. I have some macroalgae, but I keep it trimmed back because I'd rather the tank be dominated by the gorgonians, spirals, sponges, and other corals.

[plrbear25]

Amazing Christmas tree rock! Lfs?