Starting seahorse biocube, but getting cold feet

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intdes

Guest
I have had a FOWLR tank for about 6 years now. Most recently, I had a snowflake eel that never came out except to eat. He was living in a piece of live rock and he just stopped eating. I think he got to fat for the holes in the rock... Anyway, he died several months ago and the tank has had just the cleaning crew in it. About a week ago, I was adding water as I have seahorses on hold at the LFS. Unfortunately, the tank was leaking somewhere. (The carpet surrounding the tank was soaked!) I took the tank apart, the live rock went into a large holding tank and the sand was kept in the tank with a few inches of water to cover it.
I bought a 29g biocube the other day and put the sand from the original tank in it. I also took the ceramic rings out of the original canister filter and put them with the bioballs, bringing me to my first question.
Since only the tank is new, it's already cycled correct?
I tested the water from the original tank before adding it to the new tank and ammonia and trites are 0 with less than 10 trates.
I was going to transfer the live rock into the new tank this week (was waiting on the water to fill). I have a RO that is VERY slow and didn't want the rock to dry out in the new tank.
Is there any issues with transferring the rock?
Lastly, the LFS is going to extend the hold on the seahorses, as I want to make sure the new tank is ready.
Any suggestions?
 
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intdes

Guest
I forgot to mention why the cold feet part... the LFS got 4 seahorses in tuesday, they were 3 black and 1 yellow. I put 2 on hold Thursday as my tank was being switched over. I went back Saturday and one black had died and the yellow looked sad (the other 2 black they had in back). They were fed Thursday while I was there and the yellow ate quite a bit. All 4 were in a 6 gallon tank. Is the size of the tank they are in at the LFS the problem?
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Hi,
What type of seahorses are they? Color means nothing, they change color according to mood, surroundings of tank decor and other reasons we don't even know about. I suggest you get your horses from a breeder or from Seahorse source. I don't recommend the tiny zosterae...they must have live food. Always go for captive bred, feeding on frozen mysis shrimp. A 6g tank is only suitable for the zosterae. Your LFS doesn't sound like they know what they are doing, I would pass on the specimens they want to sell you and check out the site I mentioned. This site also sells captive bred Erectus horses, that feed on frozen food.
About the rock...a long as they don't have aptasia or a butt load of bristle worms...it should be just fine. You are correct that if you just swap the tank and keep everything else...it is still cycled.
 
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intdes

Guest
Thank you! I think they are kuda from what I've been reading. I'm considering putting off the entire seahorse tank... The LFS was feeding them brine shrimp, which if captive bred they should eat frozen. I don't want to risk the bacteria issues with other than tank raised. The LFS also said they only eat once a week, which also seems to be WRONG! I've seen recomendations to feed 2x a day, big difference.
My rock has no aptasia that I can see, I put a few pieces into the new tank and noticed what appears to be a single, skinny white worm.
I'm going to keep researching before I decide and may change my mind yet again...
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by intdes http:///t/395390/starting-seahorse-biocube-but-getting-cold-feet#post_3520080
Thank you! I think they are kuda from what I've been reading. I'm considering putting off the entire seahorse tank... The LFS was feeding them brine shrimp, which if captive bred they should eat frozen. I don't want to risk the bacteria issues with other than tank raised. The LFS also said they only eat once a week, which also seems to be WRONG! I've seen recomendations to feed 2x a day, big difference.
My rock has no aptasia that I can see, I put a few pieces into the new tank and noticed what appears to be a single, skinny white worm.
I'm going to keep researching before I decide and may change my mind yet again...
I keep two types of seahorses (different tanks) Kuda and Potbelly. Captive bred
seahorses are as easy to keep as regular fish. Yes, I feed them 2Xs a day, but they are fine if they eat only once a day...mine are spoiled. However, once a week is crazy, and live brine shrimp is fed to the tiny little Zosterae horses but they eat 2 to 3Xs a day, not once a week, brine shrimp is too small for Kuda or Erectus horses.
Did you have a look at the site I mentioned? The seahorses I'm talking about are large, my Kuda horses are about 8 inches snout to tail tip. You could keep only 1 pair in a 29g biocube. You would be happy I think with a pair of Erectus or Kuda seahorses (they have the same needs). At Seahorse source the Erectus cost $64.95 each, and $54.95 for the Kuda.
SWFish.com (this site) sells the Kuda for $59.99 The great thing about this site is that you get a 14 day guarantee, worth it's weight in gold let me tell you.
All of the SHs I wrote about are captive bred, and eating frozen Mysis shrimp. Set your tank up with stuff the horses can hitch to, and a couple of airlines..(no stone) and you are good to go. If you put a power head in the tank, make sure the horses can't hitch their tail to it and get hurt on it, I use Seiko brand PHs myself on my 90g but no PH at all on the 56g. Your biggest cost would be the chiller, if you opt to get one...the perfect temp for horses seems to be around 74 degrees. However the Seahorse source info says both species are happy with the temp at 77 degrees...those folks know their stuff. I don't have any heaters on either of my tanks.
If you like seahorses, get them from the sites I mentioned and not that pet store...they are awesome fish to keep. I used to have a reef in the 90g, but after having the Kuda...I changed my 90g to a Potbelly tank, I have enjoyed SHs more then all the fish I have ever kept in the 40 years I have had tanks.
 
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saxman

Guest
Any LFS that keeps SH in a 6 gal tank should be avoided, at least for SH. Flower gave you some great advice, and just to chime in, I recommend keeping your SH below 75*F to mitigate the bacterial count in the system, this is esp. true if you're a SH novice. FWIW, I haven't seen any of the "plug-n-play" tanks that run cooler than about 79*F intrinsically, and most run a couple of degrees warmer.
There are indeed a few things you can do to cool the tank down a bit without chilling it if you want to go forward with SH in that setup, one of which is replacing the stock pump with a cooler-running pump (fewer Watts drawn). This alone will give you about a 2*F-3*F drop in temp. I'm really liking the Sicce Syncra Silent series for this. They're super quiet and pretty power efficient.
 
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