New and getting myself into seahorses

[el pez]

Hi I came onto this forum wanting seahorse and have been reading lots of threads and learning a lot about seahorses. I have lots of plans and everything for the tank. I have not started anything yet and have not bought ANYTHING. lol So here are my plans and hoping for any input or advice or great places to get everything.
Dwarf Seahorses
Tank: 20-30g high
small powerhead with sponge
protein skimmer for 20-30g
I already have my coralife light (10,000k bulb and actinic bulb)
mater test kit
bristle worm trapping system? I read that somewhere
Brine shrimp hatchery
the hydrometer, heater, thermometer
crushed coral
20-30lbs of live rock
Clean-up crew
nazarus snails
turbo snails
peppermint shrimp
blue sea star (not sure)
scooter blenny (not sure)
Coral (which will go in before the seahorses)
i am kinda hesitant about and not sure about all the coral but have some good ideas about what i want to put in there and if needed (most likely) will get a light to better suit the corals.
sun coral
red sea fan
zoas
sea stalk
some different leathers not sure what kind though
and lets just say all the corals that do well with seahorses. lol
I just love corals and im split in two to decide which should go in my tank.
I just know i want corals that my seahorses can hitch onto and that would be beneficial.
I don't plan on a sump or fuge for this tank. If you guys think it would be better to put one on there i will. I am looking for ideas.
Thanks in advance!!!

 

[zeke92]

power head is not needed and will probably too much flow for tiny horses.
dwarves need a tank bigger then 2 gallons but no bgiger then 10. because of food concentration. coralife light may be too much you just want enough to see them and no more, there sensitive to light and due to them barely moving algae can grow on them.
bristle worms don't matter unless you have some humongous man-eaters.
no live rock for a dwarf tank..lots of problems with it.
crushed coral isn't the best to get because it can be sharp sometimes. i would get real fine black sand imo. but white sand is fine, black just makes seeing htem easier.
corals..i wouldn't personally due to dwarves being so small and sensitive to the light corals will need. anything that stings or eats small thigns could mistake a pony for food.
hope that helped...everything else sounds fine. protien skimmer is not nesecary but i'm sure the dwarves will love the awesome water quality it will bring.

 

[el pez]

wow i guess im way off. I maybe mixing information on dwarf and regular seahorses maybe?? i wanted to go with a bigger tank because its just easier to maintain water quality.
What about just regular seahorses? Are they much different from dwarfs?

 

[el pez]

ok i found a place and read a lot of stuff that was said here. Black sand and heater thing. The light I have wasn't said to be harmful though. The problem I have with not having live rock is that its part of the bio filter. What problems do horses have with live rock? Just hitchikers?
The corals I was looking for wouldn't sting or anything and they would be non agressive.

 

[zeke92]

i don't think the light thing is very common knowledge but it's been a big topic on here. on-stinging corals are fine for large seahorses, idk about dwarves, maybe maybe not. Rykna, The Dwarf Queen, will know. =p
bigger seahorses need a tank that is three times as tall as they are when there all stretched out. so a normal tall tnak would work.
live rock has many problems to it. one is someitmes having sharp edges. another is hydroids, aiptasia, and all those small things that can kill dwarves. mantis shrimp and such are also bad, but of course those are generally easy to spot when there eating a horse, hydroids arne't.
if you really do want live rock then you can bleach it for a day or two and make sure there are no sharp edges a horse could get scraped on.
biological filtration is importent for any aquarium setup, but for dwarves its harder due to the problems with live rock and sometimes live sand. live sand should not be bought 'live' because it could also carry dangerous things like aiptasia and hydroids.
thats why a sponge filter is good, cause the sponge is good biological filtration. you can also get a HoB (with sponge over intake) with a big bio-wheel and those goodies.

 

[el pez]

yeah that all makes sence.
I was planning on having macro in the tank too, but i think it wouldn't thrive with out good lighting. Do you keep macro in your seahorse tank?

 

[alix2.0]

also the blue linkia star & scooter blenny wont work in that tank.

 

[zeke92]

i had a small piece of chaeto that seemed to do fine with low lighting. i dont think most macro needs special lighting but then again i havent read much about other macros. dwarves like chaeto and stuff due to the fact it's good hitching and brine shrimp/pods will hide in chaeto. it also helps water quality of course.

 

[el pez]

why won't the star and blenny work?
good thing most macro don't need much lighting. If I can't use LR then I'll plant the heck out of it! lol I might end up using a sump and putting LR in there.
I may end up going with regular SH instead, maybe both. I gots lots of time to think about it.

 

[alix2.0]

the star needs an established tank of a few hundred gallons, and the blenny feeds on pods, which you wont have enough of in that tank. ive always heard/ read that macro requires fairly strong lighting, and cheato likes to be tumbled around in a lot of flow, and that would of course damage the horses.

 

[teresaq]

here are a few things to read https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/330208/dwarf
dwarfs need a tank that is quite steril. any type of hydroid will kill them. tanks should be started with dead sand and dead rock. any type of micro would have to have a panacure treatment to kill any unwanted pests. they are very small, under 2 inches and cant handle too much flow. they only eat bbs or pods, but even adding pods pose a threat of adding hydroids.
if you want a 40 gal tank, and soft corals, i say go with a pair of lrg horses, (reidi, kuda or erectus) easier to keep imo. they can handle non stinging corals, macros, live rock, and if captive bred, eat frozen mysis (only buy captive bred horses) wild caught horses have more special needs.
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