Originally Posted by
Payton 350
http:///forum/post/2679042
No, i know she has had a pretty successful run with seahorses and is pretty knowledgeable in it or at least it seems from a few posts i have seen before. I am just surprised that this method would be chosen by someone of her expertise, when other safer , alternative methods are available and better for the tank and critter
Gosh
I'll try not to let that go to my head.
You're absolutely right. Cycling the sump tank makes no sense what so ever, unless you're setting up a seahorse tank...especially a dwarf seahorse tank. Seahorse tanks need 3 times the cycling time than a reef tank. Besides the need of 100% water quality seahorses also require a huge population of pods; their favorite snack. My 4 month old Black Kuda ate the entire pod population of his 90g to almost extinction within 3 months.
Dwarf seahorses(ponies) do love to eat pods, but require a sterile tank to avoid infestation of hitch hikers such as aiptasia. The one invasion I had devoured 25 of my 30 ponies. Since then all of my seahorse tanks have been artificially seeded.
This is what leads to my choice to cycle the sump tank first. The dwarf seahorse tank can be set up sterile;50 ponies can comfortably fit in a 10g. I'm going to connect the 15g display tank to the 55g sump in 3-4 months. During those months I'll be seeding the 55g with cultured pods to prevent infestation of hitch hikers. The current 20lbs of LS in the sump, I grew in my other pony tank after I boiled and bleached the heck out of all the LR and LS.
Once set up the flow return will transfer pods into the DS, while preserving the main colony in the sump tank. Eventually I'll be adding several different types of shrimp because their tiny larvae offspring are also a favorite of seahorses.
I have never kept aggressive marine fish. The biggest problem I've had was my pin cushion urchin that was in my 90g reef tank. "Timmy" like to pull off the suction cup from the algae clip and place it on his head. He looked just like a little china man. I finally gave up taking it from him, no matter where I put it he'd find it. So I finally let Timmy keep it. Hence why I am asking if there is a fish capable of sharing space with the green death without becoming dinner.