1st time pony tank set up!

bgrae001

bgrae001

Member
Hello all,
My wife and I have decided to set up a pony tank. I've acquired a 160 ltr (42 gal) tank and stand from a colleague of mine with a heater and canister filter. I have a left over 150w mh with 2 65w pc's and a seaclone 150 skimmer. I just ordered 60 lbs of live sand and I'll be getting a few pieces of live rock once I set it up.
I have a few sps corals and a few Kenya trees I can put in there for hitching posts. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to put in macro algae or plastic plants. I figure if I use the algae I can help boost the pod population.
I have a few questions.
I see that some of you use a feeding dish for your ponies. Are you feeding frozen or live? If you feed live how do you keep the food in the dish?
Can someone recommend a good book for raising ponies and possible breeding?
I will post pictures as soon as I pick up the tank next week and start to get it running.
I'm very excited to get involved with pony raising. I've been in SW for about 5 years and I have 54 gal reef (established for about a year) and a 125 FOWLR that I'm still setting up. My children are super excited too. I'm not sure what kind of ponies I'm getting. My LFS has a breeder and the ponies they get are black and about 5" long. I have a language barrier since I speak very little German and they speak very little English, but I can say that they run about 39.00 Euros each and that the ponies look to be in good health too.
Well I look forward to posting pictures and seeing what you all have to say.
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
Hi and welcome. Sounds like a great size for horses. Please try and get a picture of the horses, or at least make sure the are tropicals. you may run into troble if the are a species that require colder water.
your tank will need to be kept between 72 and 77.
No coral that can sting.
if you have any questions please feel free to ask
Are you looking at reg size seahorses or dwarfs. dwarfs are usually refered to as ponies here.
I dont think there are really any good books on raising horses, each species young require differant methods.
 
bgrae001

bgrae001

Member
I picked up my tank and stand today. The lady that I got it from had FW fish in it. I had to find them a new home and it wasn't the toilet.
Also I picked up the canister filter and 20 lbs of LS. I'm waiting for the other 40 lbs I ordered to arrive.
I bought a surface skimmer that I plan on using with the canister filter.
I realized today that I'm missing an o-ring for my protein skimmer. I'm going to have a devil of a time finding one to replace it.
I'll post pic's tomorrow. I painted the back of the tank black and I'm waiting for it to dry.
And now the bad news. I found out today that I have to go back to Iraq in 6 weeks.
I just got home in Oct (3.5 months ago) and I have to go back for another 8 months. My wife and I are not happy about this. I'm going to miss the birth of our last child. He is due in June.
 
beenbag497

beenbag497

Member
Originally Posted by bgrae001
I picked up my tank and stand today. The lady that I got it from had FW fish in it. I had to find them a new home and it wasn't the toilet.
Also I picked up the canister filter and 20 lbs of LS. I'm waiting for the other 40 lbs I ordered to arrive.
I bought a surface skimmer that I plan on using with the canister filter.
I realized today that I'm missing an o-ring for my protein skimmer. I'm going to have a devil of a time finding one to replace it.
I'll post pic's tomorrow. I painted the back of the tank black and I'm waiting for it to dry.
And now the bad news. I found out today that I have to go back to Iraq in 6 weeks.
I just got home in Oct and I have to go back for another 8 months. My wife and I are not happy about this. I'm going to miss the birth of our last child. He is due in June.

oh no back to iraq
does your wife know how to maintain saltwater??
 
bgrae001

bgrae001

Member
Oh, and one more ?
What about current in a horse tank? my tank is fairly small and I'm not to sure if I should add a PH. I'll have the HOB Skimmer and I'm using the long tube with all the little holes in it for the water return so I think that I'll have a little bit of flow. If I add too much LR I'll end up with dead spots in the water.
What do you suggest?
 
bgrae001

bgrae001

Member
Originally Posted by beenbag497
oh no back to iraq
does your wife know how to maintain saltwater??
She did just fine on my last deployment. I left her a log and we used the web cam to walk through equipmant maint. The only problem we had was she is to short to scrape down the sides of the tank, the display side was covered in coraline.
 
stevechouinard

stevechouinard

Member
Originally Posted by bgrae001
I picked up my tank and stand today. The lady that I got it from had FW fish in it. I had to find them a new home and it wasn't the toilet.
Also I picked up the canister filter and 20 lbs of LS. I'm waiting for the other 40 lbs I ordered to arrive.
I bought a surface skimmer that I plan on using with the canister filter.
I realized today that I'm missing an o-ring for my protein skimmer. I'm going to have a devil of a time finding one to replace it.
I'll post pic's tomorrow. I painted the back of the tank black and I'm waiting for it to dry.
And now the bad news. I found out today that I have to go back to Iraq in 6 weeks.
I just got home in Oct and I have to go back for another 8 months. My wife and I are not happy about this. I'm going to miss the birth of our last child. He is due in June.

I went to a local hardware store and they had the exact o ring I needed in the toilet section. Try them out I have a seaclone 100 and it was a perfect fit and only 95 cents
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
sounds good. I really like a spray bar in a horse tank. if you find you have dead spots behind your rocks, then add a very small power head.
Sorry to hear about having to go back. Be safe. It dosent seem fair you have to go back so soon, and miss the birth of your child.
 
bgrae001

bgrae001

Member
Originally Posted by SteveChouinard
I went to a local hardware store and they had the exact o ring I needed in the toilet section. Try them out I have a seaclone 100 and it was a perfect fit and only 95 cents
Thanks, I'll try to find one tomorrow. I'm looking for one for my seaclone 150, I have a seaclone 100 on the nano in my daughters room that I can steal for a bit.
 
bgrae001

bgrae001

Member
Ok, so I decided to blow off going into work this morning. Hey what are they going to do? send me to Iraq?
Well anyway. I painted the back of the tank last night and this morning my 3 year old came and got and said Daddy it's time to put water in the tank. So I decided to go ahead and start setting it up. I put in the heater and the filter parts then I added the live sand. I just added enough water to keep the sand wet. I'm going to wait till tonight to fill it up the rest of the way. I'm going to do a water change on my reef tank and use that water to fill up this tank.
I'm still waiting for the hanging kit for my MH light so I wont have lights for about another 2 weeks.
Ok, so here are the pictures I promised.


 
bgrae001

bgrae001

Member
Originally Posted by TeresaQ
[looking good so far. What are you going to use as far as hitches? are you adding any live rock
I'm going to add a few small pieces of LR and I figured that I would transfer some of my acros from my reef tank for hitches.
I also thought about adding a few plants.
I do plan on adding a few Kenya trees and some shrooms and zoos too.
 
bgrae001

bgrae001

Member
Originally Posted by zeke92
it's a comanche helicopter doing a nose dive i believe...
No its a Chinook! This is me in Iraq.
 
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