120 gallon Seahorse tank?

[TikiDan]

I was looking at my 34 gallon seahorse tank today and started thinking about doing my 120 as a huge seahorse tank.

Everyone has SPS tanks but I have never seen a seahorse tank bigger than 40 gallons

I have a great skimmer now, and everything is running its course, so I am thinking how great it would be to make something totally different! I could do the whole sand bed in a planted sea grass and maybe 5 pairs of seahorses and maybe some other fish. Instead of doing hard coral I could make a yuma and zoo garden along with a variety of colorful gorgonians.

If I go SPS I would have to buy a calcium reactor, or with sea horses I would need a chiller. both close to the same expense, and the seahorses would be about the same as a lot of the SPS that i want. So as far as prices I think they are pretty close.

one quick question would be, how hard would it be to get good water flow in the tank without too much flow for the horses.

do you think it would be worth it, or should I stick to the plan?

[TikiDan]

here are a couple of bad pictures of my current seahorse setup

[DetectiveTofu]

FWIW, I think a 120g sea horse display tank would like hot. It would definitely be different, but awesome as well. Ricordea and zoa gardens would compliment it well too!
What kind of sea horses are those?

[TikiDan]

I have 2 female H.Reidi right now, and 2 males on the way!

[TikiDan]

the females are easier to keep than the males, mostly because they are less prone to disease. So for my first ones I bought females to make sure I wouldn't kill them

[DetectiveTofu]

Ohhh, what are you feeding them?

[TikiDan]

I feed 1 cube of frozen mysis a day.

[LeviTillie]

I think it's a cool idea, go for it!

[gklompen]

You might enjoy this site.

www.seahorses.de

[DM99]

cool idea.

the only problem i see is that with a 120 gallon you would have to direct feed them because they are slow eater and might starve to death if they don't get enough food. if not direct feed probably need a really strong skimmer to pick all the uneatten food. too much flow is a problem also. so hope that help.

dm99

[TikiDan]

my system right now is a standard 120 (4x2x2) with a 65 gallon sump.
My skimmer is a Euro-reef rs180. As for feeding, I would turn off the return pump so the food wont get sucked down the overflow. I would also have a few other fish and clean up crew to take care of any that is missed.

Here is a shot from today with the diatoms is full bloom

[raddogz]

That would be pretty hot Dan! You could add pipefish to the mix as well.

[TikiDan]

Are there any low or medium flow SPS that I could add to it? How much flow do Monti Caps need?

Also, where could I buy a variety of Macro algae?

[raddogz]

I can see monti caps and even digitata growing in that tank without a problem. Not sure about the spiffy monti's like superman etc.

[TikiDan]

for flow right now I have 2 Koralia #4's, each are rated for 1200gph, but it is such a wide spread I think it will be ok....I hope.

My lighting is 2, 250 watt MH so I will be able to keep some of the more colorful gorgonians, which will add tons of color along with some Florida Ricordias, some zoas.

the more I think about it the more I want to try it out

[TikiDan]

Potential tank mates.....

1) Helfrichi fire fish

2) Mandarin Dragonette

3) Yellow headed jawfish

4) pair of pipe fish

5) Pair of Bangaii Cardinals

6) Catalina Goby or Rainfords goby

Still researching for other ideas

[DM99]

not sure but k4 might be too strong

[DM99]

this would be a dumb question but how why is the diatoms at full bloom? really the question is how to get rid of it and what causes it. i seen it in friends tank or if a tank is move but what causes it? is it because it is a new tank or is it going through a cycle? sorry i know this is a dumb question but all my tank that has this problem it usually cures it self really fast.

[LeviTillie]

Originally posted by DM99
not sure but k4 might be too strong

Why do you think that? The K4's move a lot of water but don't create focused current like other PH's and while this is a 120g I think it's only 4 ft but my K2 isn't terribly noticable in my 3ft tank... Is the length of the tank the concern or just the inhabitants?

[bob124578]

The diatoms may be from a lack of flow in some areas.

I have a 90 gal Seahorse tank -- the top is good flow and one area of the bottom has flow and the rest of the bottom section is very low flow -- but there IS movement.

Tankmates are: Yellow Clown Goby (awesome little fish)
Green Clown Gobys (2)
firefish gobys (3)
pipefish (4)
and Purple Queen Anthias (3)\
with 4 Seahorses

SPS's tend not to do so well in this system because the flow is just not enough to keep them clean. Also, being heavy on macroalgae -- the nutrients tent to be higher then a pure reef.

Mushrooms, tunicates, dusterworms and colorful macros can make a colorful display in a larger tank of this nature.

[TikiDan]

Diamtoms are because it's new! It has only had water in it for about 2 weeks.

I have included water, sand and some small LR from my established tank though.

[TikiDan]

I thought Anthias, but they will out compete the horses for food.

[bob124578]

They do to an extent but they can not get into the masses of macroalgae and those areas are where the pipefish and seahorses hang out. The Anthias are up high in the water column in the current. I feed the system "in" the current so the Anthias hang there. Most of the live bugs are hiding in the macro.

[TikiDan]

ok fair enough, I will look into that. I was also thinking a McCoskers flasher wrasse but was worried about the same thing.

[bluenassarius]

Dan,

Go for it dude! keep lots of macro so pods, mysid shrimp can breed in peace. it'll help keep the nutrients down and provide snacks for your horsies.

have you decided which kind of macros you are planning to keep? botryocladia is colorful and are good for seahorse hitches.