A Tank Question

rispa

rispa

Member
So I have a hospital tank set up that is meant to keep my three seahorses until I have a bigger tank for them cycled. I'm having trouble making my mom understand and listen to all the information I'm learning, so getting everything done has been a bit of a struggle. I haven't transferred anyone yet, but was going to today. She went and talked to some ***** people and bought an overpriced book that I told her not to buy, but did come up with something interesting. Would it be better to keep the seahorses in their current tank and move the skunk shrimp and lawnmower blenny to the hospital tank? My water levels are a lot better lately, which is why I haven't been so rushed to move them. With the exception of Nitrates, everything is low. The pH has also gone up a bit on it's own, but it doesn't seem to be going up anymore, so I'll probably start buffing the water, although I was reading somewhere that the buffer is just covering up the problem and calcium levels could be the problem. If any one can tell me more about that I would appreciate it. Also our AC went out yesterday and the day before, so the tank temp went up into the 80's and has only come down to 79.4 F. I'm still hoping that the temp will go down, but it's starting to look like I'm going to need an ice probe sooner than expected. Any recommendation on that would be nice.
Last note; I recently purchased a 55 gallon and when I brought it home I found a sticker that says it is made out of tempered glass. I was intending to make this into a seahorse tank with some other fish and maybe one day coral. Would you guys recommend reselling this tank and getting one with glass that isn't tempered in case I'd like to put in an overflow and sump and/or fuge, or do you think that is unnecessary? Thanks for help ahead of time!
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Man that sucks about the AC... I'm sorry to hear that! If you have a little fan that can blow across the surface of the tank, that might help get the temp down a couple degrees.
 
It's hard to make a long distance judgment when we can't see the tank, but my gut feeling is that if the horses are OK (that is, not sick, don't show signs of stress, and good water quality), then you're probably better off keeping them in the original tank by themselves until the big tank is cycled. You have your own test kit now, right? If Ammonia and Nitrite are 0 and nitrate is less than 30 you should be fine for now. I'd consider a 5 gallon water change to help your nitrate levels a bit. It's probably good that you got the shrimp and LMB into another tank....I'd keep them separated like this until it's time to move them.
 
 
rispa

rispa

Member
I've been doing 5 gallon water changes on a weekly basis and I'm about to do another. My sister thinks the nitrate level is 160, but I still disagree, but then again I do trust her eyes a bit more than mine with that particular color card. Could macro algae help with the nitrates? Also today I purchased two Penguin Biowheel 350's for $45 :) They're a bit salty, but look pretty good. They are also dry, so I'll need to learn how to get bacterial back on the biowheels. My intention is to use them for the 55 gallon. Once I have a stand I'll be ready to get sand and live rock to start cycling it. As for a fan, I currently don't have a small enough fan for the tank, but my mom and I are about to go to Home Depot to get fans and I'll check to see if they have a small fan that will work. By the way, how frequently should I do water changes in the hospital tank? And the filter in the 20 gallon doesn't seem to create as many bubbles as the one in the 16 gallon, so should I make sure to get an air stone for that one? On the note of air stones it seems like the tips and tubing and pumps come separately, or am I confused? If they do come separately, what type of pump do I need? I'll be reading more about this when I get home. Thank you for the advice Nova, anything else you can add would be greatly appreciated!
 
rispa

rispa

Member
The bottom pane has a sticker between the brace and the glass pane saying that all the panes are tempered. Oh by the way, no fans. Also does anyone think that the filters will be too powerful for the seahorses? Will they be enough to properly filter a 55 gallon?
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
The two penguin filters should do a good job for a 55 gallon tank...no, I do not think it's too much flow for a seahorse.
 
Personally I don't think you absolutely NEED to have the tank drilled. Yes, it's nicer and there are less chances of a potential flood...but there are plenty of good HOB overflows that are very reliable. I use this one on my seahorse tank. Of course it's paired with the same brand filter, but you can buy it separately and it's supposedly rated up to 1000g. Properly maintained, I believe it's virtually impossible to flood with this unit.
 
What brand of test kit did you buy? I'm curious because 160 is VERY high, and hopefully wrong. ;-) If you're doing 5 gallon weekly water changes on a 20g tank I don't think there's any way you could be seeing 160ppm Nitrate concentration.
 
rispa

rispa

Member
That's great :) I was thinking that the 350's would be great to keep the water clean, but didn't consider the how safe they were around seahorses until after I got home
I know that one would have been fine, but since seahorses are poop machines and this guy was selling them for pretty cheap, I decided to go with both.
 
Thank you for linking me the one that you have. That pictures gives me a better idea about how the overflows work. Luckily I still have time before I'm going to attempt to put together a sump or fuge, but I seem to like jumping ahead of myself lol, so I'll be looking into the overflow you have and some others.
Yay never ending research that makes for an excellent method of procrastination lol.
 
I have an API test kit. The one with the liquid in the bottles. A lot of people seem to use it and it was recommended, so I decided to go with it. The tank is the 16g bowfront and the filter was filthy until today. I had forgotten about changing filters, so ended up finally doing it today after seeing how dirty it was
. I think I probably needed to change it twice since I got it because of all the algae and how dirty the tank was. The filter seems to be running much better now and the biowheel is turning properly finally :) I was worried I would have to replace it and wasn't sure how to find one since I haven't noticed them at stores.
 
As for the ice probe you suggested, I think I'm going to have to order it online. Today I asked about it and the lady said she thought she had some, but didn't know where they were.
 
I now have a Vertex Portable Refractometer, but couldn't think of the word calibration, so the lady didn't know what I was talking about
I'll just have to go get some calibration fluid from the closer store. Hopefully now I'll be able to make some of my own water :)
 
I'm also adding in some more recent pics:
First off, this thing says hydrometer on it, but I have no clue how to read it. It seems to only be showing temperature. Maybe I'm crazy, seeing things, or missing things

 
Second, I'm wondering why there is cotton stuffing in these decorations. I was thinking for more bacteria growth and after reading a review of a similar decoration was thinking maybe so the fish doesn't get stuck.

 
With this one I was trying to show how the filter doesn't disturb the water much because I was wondering about getting airstones for the fish in here. Also you get to see basically how the tank is set up. The only change was the decoration on the right was moved when I added a rubber band with seaweed for the lawnmower blenny, but I'll probably move it back. So far everyone has been staying on the left side of the tank. The blenny will sit on top with the cotton, the starfish in the plant in the middle, where it first landed and the shrimp has been in different parts, but always on the left side.

 
Last one is of one of the seahorses. I couldn't resist taking pictures of them and this one turned out the best. Fat and happy :) I think they look much healthier and this little girl seems to have an orange tinge since I fed them PE mysis for the first time. The orange becomes more orange sometimes too. It's really neat how you kind of have three colors mixing in her
 
rispa

rispa

Member
Okay, so my API test kit has a copyright from 2007. Would this suggest that it is old and could be giving me inaccurate results? I didn't see an expiration date or anything, so if there is one please tell me where it is.
 
rispa

rispa

Member
I just looked up how to read the expiration dates on the bottles and mine were produced in 2009 and still have about 2 years left until they expire. My guess is that the bacteria caught up to the bioload, but I don't have enough anaerobes to make the nitrate into gas. I tried getting some macro at my LFS but they are out. I did grab a few more snails, another scarlet hermit, some larger shells for the hermit that came with the tank, and a tiny starfish that was hiding inside one of the shells. My LFS doesn't have cured rock, only live rock and some dry rock which is mostly in big chunks. I may check out the other store in the near future, but I don't remember seeing any macro there either. Seahorse tank is looking good. I added two tiny nassarius, a small turbo and the scarlet hermit to it. I added a larger nassarius upstairs to the hospital tank. I also did a water change on the tank upstairs. There's some mysis that was really good at hiding >.< I think it caused slime that I was feeling on the glass. Luckily I haven't been feeding the upstairs tank mysis too often. Main food in there is algae for the blenny, although I don't think he was eating before. I moved the rubber band closer to where the blenny has been chilling and am hoping he will eat now. I'm planning on testing the water upstairs because I'm worried the mysis may have made a mess of the water. If it has I guess I'll do routine water changes and if things get bad enough I'll just bring them back to the seahorse tank. The 55 gallon is currently delayed because my mom is going back to the 20 gallon idea, forgetting our discussion about why that wasn't such a good idea. Actually her idea was to keep the seahorses in their current tank and continue routine water changes and to cycle a 20 gallon for the blenny and shrimp and maybe some other fish. There is still cyano in the seahorse tank, but it's looking a lot better. I think the routine water changes and leaving lights off most the time is really helping even though it's warmer. The growth has definitely decreased a lot. The outside of both tanks are a bit dirty, so I plan on cleaning them up. Also I'm going to peel off the background the on the bowfront, despite the fact that I think there are bugs back there, and clean that. By the way Nova, what is your opinion on what Sax from the other forum said about filter media? Also is there anything else I should add to my to do list?
 
Edit: Done testing the hospital tank
Nitrite: .25
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: .5-1
Nitrate: 0
 
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