New 6g Pony Tank!!

[zeke92]

Yes yes, i am back, and guess what i got for christmas! I got a 6 gallon tank with a nice good, light, and filter. So i'm gonna re-read my dwarf seahorse book.
Like i said ages ago, i want to try a natural tank. As in, rock, plants, and corals that need no special lighting.
But, i need help.
I need Plant suggestions (preferably plants that can be put in between rock or in the sand, not like chaeto)
And i need coral suggestions.
I am looking into gorgos and sponges at the moment but was wondering what else would work. I'll probably add a small powerhead to keep a tiny current. I am going to try and get the tank covered in plants and cool coral for the horses to enjoy. I'm gonna try and get some live plankton to add to it so i can get a jumpstart on copepods and stuff.
I'll get a pic tomorrow, it's nothing special at the moment, just a tank with gravelly-sand.

 

[picoseahorses2]

for pllant tehre are a number of them! you can have:
Caulerpa --there are many kinds that are all beautiful and some grow on rocks some on sand
hamileda-- a nice algae that rewquires calcium suppliments and grows on rock
red grape agae--very beautiful--grows kinda slow but mine is beautiful and adds color
mermaids bush-- i wouldnt recomend because it needs specific requirements and dies easily
For corals you have to make sure if the dwarf hitches that it wont get stung or eatin
mushroom polyps
zooanthids
most stony corals arnt appropriate for dwarfs
star polyps
if you can think o anything else that wont sting or eat it
with the gorgs you prob know more about them than me but since dwarfs need low flow dont gorgs need to be in a fast current

 

[rykna]

PICS!!!!!

Good to have you back

 

[zeke92]

Well i'm going for natural, so i'm going to be studying tons about there natural environment. So i may go medium or low flow depending on that.
I know alot of people probably won't agree with the whole natural thing, since rock and all that can be a problem, but i think i have everything planned safely so far and still keeping the natural look.
Pics coming in like...10 minutes.

 

[zeke92]

I'm going to read my book and do some research before buying anything, but i should have plants/rock and other stuff in there soon.
I put all three pictures into one big picture to save me upload time, and i only had three good pictures i took, so i improvised in the extra space.

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by zeke92
http:///forum/post/2889971
Well i'm going for natural, so i'm going to be studying tons about there natural environment. So i may go medium or low flow depending on that.
I know alot of people probably won't agree with the whole natural thing, since rock and all that can be a problem, but i think i have everything planned safely so far and still keeping the natural look.
Pics coming in like...10 minutes.
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!! Me too!!!!!!! I've been using cultured pods and such to reseed my tank since September! I have "pre-cleaned" plants, and a purple gorg with several frags I took from it!
Don't hold back with the flow. Ponies love highs flow, just like their favorite hitching post(gorgs). I use spraybars and other pumps.
Currently I am trying to decide if I want to move everything into my 38g tank that I was going to use for a sump, except I couldn't get the stupid overflow to work. I really want to for water quality...and several other reasons, however`38g is A LOT of water for ponies.
Can't wait to see your final set up

 

[rykna]

I have a list around here somewhere that tells all the corals that are safe for pony tanks. When I find it I'll post it

 

[zeke92]

I figure i will use some birthday money to buy the nessecaties. So far i've bought 500ml of live pods, some macro algae, and a rare "String of Pearls" algae tree type thingy:

So..i think i will look at a small powerhead (or two?) to put in there.
I bought the string of pearls since it was freaking awesome looking and it looks like a nice hitching post to start out with. i plan on some sort of tree sponge and a couple types of gorgos later on.
So..i have:
Hitching Post
Macro Algae for nitrates
Brine Shrimp
Copepods
Is there anything i'm missing? I'm gonna wait atleast a month for the stuff to get settled in and running. I used water from the main tank (which is currently clean of aiptasia and hydroids for a few months now, finally). I figure i will just use rock that corals come on instead of buying live rock, just to lower down on chances of wierd/dangerous critters coming in.
Is there any cool cleanup crews i can get in a 6g? Everything i can think of is too big or would eat them. Oh! Tubeworms, i forgot tube worms..i want to buy a cluster of small ones or something.
Anyway, i will also add some asterina stars from the main tank, they have really started populating recently.
Anything i'm forgetting o.o

 

[zeke92]

Originally Posted by Rykna
http:///forum/post/2890238
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!! Me too!!!!!!! I've been using cultured pods and such to reseed my tank since September! I have "pre-cleaned" plants, and a purple gorg with several frags I took from it!
Don't hold back with the flow. Ponies love highs flow, just like their favorite hitching post(gorgs). I use spraybars and other pumps.
Currently I am trying to decide if I want to move everything into my 38g tank that I was going to use for a sump, except I couldn't get the stupid overflow to work. I really want to for water quality...and several other reasons, however`38g is A LOT of water for ponies.
Can't wait to see your final set up

I always thought that if you had quite a few horses and you could keep a large supply of copepods, that they would be fine. Even if they can't find a bunch of brine shrimp during feeding time, they should easily be able to survive off of the pods in the tank. Go for it

 

[dingus890]

YAY!!!Congrats on getting the dwarfs soon!Can't wait to see the tank all set up with the horses.

 

[picoseahorses2]

basically for dwarfs teh clean up crews are like just some micro brittles some snails and stuff like that maybe a small shrimp
corect me if im wrong but ii think some small sexy shrimp would be a really cool clean up crew for dwarfs and they are fun to watch

really nice tank far!!!! its awsome!!!!
and i love that string of pearls you have, i have the red grape algae but yours is amazing far more beautiful than mne!!

cant wait to see the whole thing come together
and thanks for correcting me aboutt eh flow and gorgonian rykna^

 

[zeke92]

Thanks guys.
I figure once i get all my stuff (chaeto, pods, plant) i will wait atleast a couple weeks for it all to get started and settled in. i might add some fake plants till i can get more hitching posts depending on how big the plant is.
I'm gonna try to culture phytoplankton and pods in the garage for extra food, plus i am having trouble keeping pods in my main tank. I ordered phytoplankton today, it is suposed to have four species in it.
also i ordered 100 onyx nassarius snails for my main tank. These will be safe and helpful in the 6g right? how many..10?
i'm a bit worried about the bio load. my book says the babies will make it pretty bad, and i plan on only using rock that comes with the corals i will buy later on. any suggestions? my sponge filter that i accidently bought is for an 80 gallon (i misclicked on amazon >.> ) and it would take up alot of room, and i'm not sure what else to do. the filter is built really wierd so i can't put anything in it to help really.

 

[cleve_seahorse]

Originally Posted by zeke92
http:///forum/post/2893830
Thanks guys.
I figure once i get all my stuff (chaeto, pods, plant) i will wait atleast a couple weeks for it all to get started and settled in. i might add some fake plants till i can get more hitching posts depending on how big the plant is.
I'm gonna try to culture phytoplankton and pods in the garage for extra food, plus i am having trouble keeping pods in my main tank. I ordered phytoplankton today, it is suposed to have four species in it.
also i ordered 100 onyx nassarius snails for my main tank. These will be safe and helpful in the 6g right? how many..10?
i'm a bit worried about the bio load. my book says the babies will make it pretty bad, and i plan on only using rock that comes with the corals i will buy later on. any suggestions? my sponge filter that i accidently bought is for an 80 gallon (i misclicked on amazon >.> ) and it would take up alot of room, and i'm not sure what else to do. the filter is built really wierd so i can't put anything in it to help really.
If in a jam you can always use pantyhose to cover the filter...it still filters but doesn't suck them in...I use them in all my pony tanks

 

[teresaq]

There are lots of differant grasses that you may be able to use. Turtle grass, shoal grass. Should be very nice when you get done.
TeresaQ

 

[zeke92]

i got my string of pearls today, it's about two inches or so tall. Thankfully they had it glued to a piece of rock so i didn't have to worry about getting it to stay somewhere.
I'm gonna bring two 10 gallons to the garage at the house. Would one 10 gallon for phytoplankton and another for copepods be a good enough culture setup? i'm expecting alot of boxes the next couple days...hopefully i get most of my stuff tomorrow
i'll be buying the powerhead at a store soon hopefully, should i get one that stays in one spot or one that moves it's current back and forth?

 

[teresaq]

what about somthing like this - it has a spray bar a spray bar and is only like 30 bucks.. I wonder if it would be to strong. maybe ask cleveland seahorse she keeps dwarfs
Innovative Nano Canister Filter

 

[zeke92]

i'd have to take the hood off to do anything like that, and the lights are in the hood =/
i'm gonna post some new pics soon. i added fake plants until i can get real ones.

 

[zeke92]

Ph was at 8.8.....trying to lower it. Ammonia was 0. Nitrite was 0. Nitrate was 20. Does this mean it is getting rid of the last bit of ammonia from the piece of shrimp i took out a few days ago? i had a piece of krill in there to feed the bacteria and i took it out a few days later. Otherwise the tank water was already cycled in the main tank. i will test salinity in a little bit, i added new water a second ago.
hopefully getting a powerhead soon....should i get one that moves or one that shoots in one direction? and how strong?
the plant had alot of pieces fall off, but only light colored ones fell off. i figure it was die off that hasn't fallen off yet. no red pieces have fallen off yet. it seems to be growing tiny little 'limbs' in various spots, they are just slight bumps on the plant. i added the 500 copepods today and gave them some dead phytoplankton. i should be getting my snails and live phyto any day now.

 

[30reef]

Nice setup.

 

[picoseahorses2]

ya sometimes that hapens to my plant too, the wil look they are starting to die and start falling apart only to reward me with a new set of even ore beautiful leaves, stems, ect. lol so dont worry your plant is probobly still adjusting to its new suroundings