Novahobbies' 37g Seahorse Tank Journal

novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
These stink. I need to re-learn how to photograph under the blue lights.
First, the Acan I got a few weeks ago.

Mandarin in the foreground, seahorse in the background....

The pagoda is about 30% bigger than when I bought it.

Terrible shot of the seahorse. She's still light tan, but you'd never tell it from these pics...

And a FTS.

I know. I need to work on better shots.
 
scott t

scott t

Active Member
WOW is right VERY awesome Tank.. I love your Mandarin and The Horse.. I would love to have a Seahorse tank, but I do not know if I am brave enough to even try one...
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Thank you both, I'm flattered.
Meowzer you know I look at your tanks as part of my inspiration, you do such a good job with all your tanks! At some point in the future I hope to have a 200+ gallon tank to swim...er....stock in...
Scott, it's definitely a labor of love, but you shouldn't be put off by the different demands of a horse tank....flow, water temperature, etc. If you're a good SW keeper, you can manage seahorses. The trick is to plan ahead, research as much as you can about the species you want to keep, then plan the entire setup around the horses. Many corals can be kept, as you can see, but many more can not. Same goes for fish if you have a mixed tank - some few species are safe with horses, but there are lots that should never go near a seahorse.
I consider myself an intermediate horse hobbyist. There are a few things in my tank that I wouldn't recommend a beginner trying. The Mandarin, for instance: This is a large adult male, and ordinarily not a fish that should be seen in a 37g tank. This particular male has already been weaned on to frozen mysis and pellet food. Not by my doing, mind you -- this was learned behavior when he was in the 110g tank. The flasher wrasse also requires a little extra care in this tank...just to make sure he doesn't eat the horse's food. So far he's been a very good tankmate, however. Most of all, the horse you see here is a wild caught animal. NOT my best decision to buy, but I couldn't help it. I'm probably the most proud of the fact that I was able to fully de-worm her, wean her on to aquarium foods, and finally train her to eat from a food dish. That took a LOT of patientce, and more than a little luck.
If you do decide to step in and try out seahorses, I would ignore the other tankmates for the first year and just focus on the horses -- start with a tank that has plenty of live or seeded rock, some good light and a photosynthetic gorgonian or two for hitches, and of course buy captive-bred and -raised horses from a reputable dealer. And of course.....RESEARCH!!
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
WOW...thanks Rick....that means a lot to me.....
Just so you know....I am living my horse dream thru your tanks....;) I can not bring myself to do it again......First I have to figure out how to leave the house with the tanks I have LOL
 
scott t

scott t

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by novahobbies http:///forum/thread/366648/seahorse-tank-mock-up/140#post_3335667
Thank you both, I'm flattered.
Meowzer you know I look at your tanks as part of my inspiration, you do such a good job with all your tanks! At some point in the future I hope to have a 200+ gallon tank to swim...er....stock in...
Scott, it's definitely a labor of love, but you shouldn't be put off by the different demands of a horse tank....flow, water temperature, etc. If you're a good SW keeper, you can manage seahorses. The trick is to plan ahead, research as much as you can about the species you want to keep, then plan the entire setup around the horses. Many corals can be kept, as you can see, but many more can not. Same goes for fish if you have a mixed tank - some few species are safe with horses, but there are lots that should never go near a seahorse.
I consider myself an intermediate horse hobbyist. There are a few things in my tank that I wouldn't recommend a beginner trying. The Mandarin, for instance: This is a large adult male, and ordinarily not a fish that should be seen in a 37g tank. This particular male has already been weaned on to frozen mysis and pellet food. Not by my doing, mind you -- this was learned behavior when he was in the 110g tank. The flasher wrasse also requires a little extra care in this tank...just to make sure he doesn't eat the horse's food. So far he's been a very good tankmate, however. Most of all, the horse you see here is a wild caught animal. NOT my best decision to buy, but I couldn't help it. I'm probably the most proud of the fact that I was able to fully de-worm her, wean her on to aquarium foods, and finally train her to eat from a food dish. That took a LOT of patientce, and more than a little luck.
If you do decide to step in and try out seahorses, I would ignore the other tankmates for the first year and just focus on the horses -- start with a tank that has plenty of live or seeded rock, some good light and a photosynthetic gorgonian or two for hitches, and of course buy captive-bred and -raised horses from a reputable dealer. And of course.....RESEARCH!!

If I ever tried it I would def do a lot of research for them, as I have waited and done a lot of research on just having a SW reef tank.. I would never jump right into something.. Maybe someday I will give it a shot, but have to get my Reef tank set up first because I just know that it is going to take its toll on my pocket.. Thanks for the info and for sharing your Awesome tank...
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
This is very similar to the fist video, I just used my EVO to film this one so it's a little nicer. I'm going to try replacing the light with the 15,000K bulb today to see if I can get some better pictures/video that way...

If you listen, you can hear one of my cats yelling at me to go feed her....
 
posiden

posiden

Active Member
That's a very nice tank. I like it big time.
IYO, how much light do the gorg's need? How much does the halide heat up your water?
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
The gorgs are photosynthetic, and they need a decent amount of light to thrive. They will survive under PC's, but you'll probably see better results under T5s.
The MH increased my overall temperature from 72-73 up to 74-75. I suspect if I increased the number of fans blowing across the water (there's only one right now) I might be able to drop that again.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
It's funny you asked today...this is the first day in almost a month that I've been able to really sit down and look through the message boards. Been missing my fish addiction!
Here's the breakdown:
Female H. erectus
Male Green Mandarin
Male McCoscker's Flasher Wrasse
Unidentified "Assorted" sand sifting goby (similar to diamond, smaller with blue spots).
Coral:
Purple Brush Gorg
Purple Frilly Gorg
Various Zoanthids: Blue, Green, Orange, Purple polyps
Ricordeas: 1 Blue, 1 Green, 2 Yellow and 2 Red
Small Colt coral
Assorted Mushrooms
Mushroom leather
Small GSP frag
Green Pagoda Cup
Red Acan (6 polyps)
Purple Chalice with pink mouths
Encrusting Montripora frag
I think that's it.
Right now, however, I'm afraid most of what you can see is GREEN HAIR ALGAE.
Due to a couple contributing factors, I've had a massive...and I mean MASSIVE.....GHA outbreak. I had a decent sized piece of Kenya tree coral turn to goo overnight after the delivery apes at USPS ruined the package.... I had hoped it would revive, but it died overnight after a couple days and contributed to a Nitrate bloom.
I also think the spectrum of the bulb that comes stock in this light fixture is pure, undiluted crapola. Word of warning - I think the "el cheapo" fixtures we all know and bash are getting much better....but do NOT use the bulb that they come with. A 14000K Phoenix is en route, and should be here on Friday.
And, finally, tragically, I know that I contributed to the bloom. I did a big water change after the coral meltdown, but I was "too busy" for about 2 weeks afterwards. Can't do that in a seahorse tank. Especially a heavily stocked seahorse tank. The GHA took over much of the rockwork, grew in to the overflow and slowed down the filtration rate, covered the powerhead and so reduced the ambient tank flow, and generally wreaked havoc with the gorgonians. Of all the corals I listed above, I worry about my Gorgs the most....I may lose those. If I trim them back, I may save the core, but I'm not holding out much hope.
After all that bad news, I *do* have some good news to report: I've done a couple WC's this week, a full filter clean and bioball wash, and as of now the GHA is receding a little bit. I think I'm going to have to do 10g changes weekly for the next couple months to really nip it in the bud. I'm also going to add a pair of young mexican turbos temporarily. I toyed with getting a lettuce nudi, but I keep hearing mixed reports as to whether they eat regular hair algae or just Bryopsis...which is not my problem. So I'm not sure about that. It would look cool, though...
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Oh I forgot: the GHA outcompeted the Caulerpa, so my tank is now (sadly) Caulerpa free. I need to find a good online place for some fern and grape caulerpa.
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
Wish I had known you wanted grape, I took about 2 gallons out of my 150 gal yesterday. Take a look at the pics in the algea forum lol.
I will let you know if I get more.
T
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
My Phoenix bulb came in today. Since today is also my tank maintenance day, I decided to hold the light off until the tank is clean. I'm halfway through the cleaning job and I've learned a new lesson. Probably something that a person with more common sense would have realized by now, but oh well:
You HAVE to blow off your rocks more often in a relatively low flow tank.
What a newb mistake.
I discovered where the source of my nutrients have been coming from. Holy freaking cow, my rock was dirty!! I haven't even started the actual water change yet; I'm just waiting for the filter to clear up the water a bit from all the suspended detritus I blew off of the rocks. Between brushing the rock with a toothbrush and blowing it off with the baster, my tank is something of a soupy mess right now. Seahorse is sulking, but ironically the mandarin is going to town eating all the pods I disturbed. It's kind of funny to watch him "pop" pods in the water column itself.
So, here's the algae battle plan:
Weekly 25% water changes of 10 gallons, brushing the rock with every water change
Blowing off the rocks ever couple days
Increasing Magnesium to 1600 (bought a test kit tonight to monitor the Mg properly)
Addition of a few more small mexican turbos to the tank.
Continuing the probiotic dosing regimen I started 2 weeks ago.
I would rather not use the bulldozer mexican turbos, but I will probably buy a few small ones and just give them back when they outgrow the tank. It's been my experience that the younger turbos are actually more effective algae eaters anyway. When they get to ping-pong ball size they act like they slow down and eat less, while the little ones zoom around and make a bigger dent in the algae mass.
I would like to find a way to reduce feeding, but of course that can be very hard to do in a seahorse tank. Messy little buggers, aren't they?
Once the water change is done, I'll install the new bulb and fire up the light to see how it looks. I took a picture of the tank pre-cleaning with the 20,000k Odyssea bulb burning, so I am curious to see what the 14000k phoenix bulb is going to look like in comparison. I'll post pics after the coral has perked up tomorrow.
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
I think I have a little more flow then you, and my rocks arent real tall, but man is my tank dirty too. My biggest problem right now is flat worms. I keep syphoning them and this week I added a scooter blenny, Hoping it will eat a few. I want to use flat worm exit, but my male is due any day and dont want to move him to a holding tank.
Want some babies to raise. lol
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

I read through this entire thread mesmerized. I'm so glad you kept a diary as you went.. Nova your tank is beautiful! That chiller thing you made..wow. I’m just starting my seahorse tank, you’re so inspiring.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
@ Teresa: Yes, I keep toying with the idea of bringing in a Koralia Nano - or even another K1 - into the mix. Right now there is a spot that I can't seem to get decent flow in, and don't ya know that's ALWAYS the trouble spot where algae starts. I just need to get one of my loaner Koralias back from some friends.... time for them to buy bigger powerheads, anyway!
I totally understand why you don't want to use FWExit yet, I'd be in the same boat as you. I've never had an infestation of flatworms (crosses fingers, knocks on head...) so I haven't had the joy of dealing with that problem. Gotta be better than dinoflagellates, right???
@ Flower: Thanks, that means a lot to me!! Especially with all the wonderful things I've seen you do with your tank! I kind of like keeping this thread active as a journal, if for no other reason than to be able to go back and see my progress, see what mistakes I made, and what I can do to fix them in the future. I'm very grateful that other people find it enjoyable as well.
Well, it's late. As you can guess, I'm done with tank maintenance for the night. I blew off the rocks, did some toothbrush scrubbin', and of course did a 10g water change. My feeding shell and barnacle cluster have soaked for 30 minutes in a 0.5% bleach solution, and will be soaking in a 10% dechlorinating solution overnight to remove any chlorine. This is a trick I learned from reading the Purigen pack recharging instructions.... I've tried it with fake plants, fake corals, and these natural shell pieces and it's the BEST thing to remove green calciferous algae from your decorations. You just have to make absolutely sure that you soak it in a dechlorinator for a good while before adding back to the tank, but the result is worth it. Tomorrow I'll change the filter pads....I like to let them go for a few hours after I do a water change so they pick up the leftover crud that shows up post-cleaning. I'll also do my Mg test and probiotic supplements tomorrow.... I'm just too tired tonight.
Oh! I installed my Phoenix bulb during the cleaning as promised, and of course I couldn't help firing it up for a few minutes.
WOW!!!
It's like looking at a new tank. The 14000k bulb is not as "blue" as the Odyssea 20000k bulb, but it's like an Ice White, and definitely stronger than the Odyssea bulb. I know it's going to burn in and lose some of it's blue, but I'm expecting it. I can't wait to try for some pics tomorrow afternoon and see how they come out.
OK, that's it for me, kiddies. Tired....going to bed! Look for some pics to be online by tomorrow late afternoon. Until then.....
 
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