10 Gallon Dwarf Seahorse

[stephanthegreat]

Hello, I am new to the world of saltwater. I have kept various tropical freshwater tanks (as of right now, I have 110g African Cichlid tank). This fall, I'm off to college and looking to bring a 10g tank I have sitting in my garage. As I was looking for what kind of fish to put in it, I stumbled across the idea of Dwarf Seahorses. There are a ton of questions I have. I have been doing a ton of reading on nano saltwater tanks and more specifically, seahorse tanks and there seems to be no special equipment besides a filter and heater.

So here are my questions:
Do I need other equipment? If so, what would I need?
I understand that water changes must be very often. How often? I read someplace that it's every day and another place said once a week.
This also can't be the most expensive tank in the world. I am a college student and I don't have a lot of money. I understand that saltwater is all around more expensive but I can't drop $200 on this tank. So if that's the case, stop me now.
Lastly, I will be at college and will have to come home a couple times a year. Will the car ride stress them out to no end? Is that just not an option?

I love fish and would absolutely love an aquarium in my dorm and have it be my distraction from school (healthy distraction of course). If seahorses are a bad idea but another kind of saltwater species would work, I'm open to suggestions.

 

[lmforbis]

Everything I've read about dwarf sea horses has said they are very difficult to keep. Certainly not appropriate for a first time saltwater tank. They are difficult to feed and need pristine water and it needs to be on the cooler side requiring a chiller.
10 gallons is very small for salt water. One small fish like a goby and that's about it.

 

[jay0705]

Agreed, the Dwarf part lends people to think small tank. Not so much with these guys. Not that they need a huge tank,just that there other needs are more easily met with a larger tank

 

[stephanthegreat]

In response to your comment on the tank size, these dwarf seahorses are so small that you can't do a bigger tank. They don't swim around too much and they need the food to plentiful enough to make a snow effect so they can grab it from their hitch. With a bigger tank, you would have to add a ton more food to ensure that it gets to all parts of the tank and in doing that, you compromise water quality.

Anyway, I can't do seahorses. I can't hatch brine shrimp all the time on top of tank maintenance. If anyone has any other ideas for a 10 gallon tank I'd love to hear them. I would really like to get into saltwater and am willing to do so with this tank. I would rather not do live rock and such due to the extra equipment. I'm not to fond of the idea that my pet rock could get stressed out and die.

 

[bang guy]

Look into having a Tiger Pistol Shrimp and some type of Shrimp Goby like an Antenna Goby. Very easy to care for and very entertaining.