New to seahorses. Set up of new tank

[bgilson]

I have a 75 reef tank that up and running over a year. Nitrites and ammonia are 0 and nitrates are at 5. Im going to turn my 55gallon into a seahorse tank. To start up I was thinking of taking about 15 gallons of water out of reef tank and put into the 55 to help with start up. What that be an issue? Would it even be worth transferring over since its not even 50%. Im going to be running a hob and fx6 that I used for 25 cichlids. I will be deep cleaning both. What kind of media should I put in the fx6. Ill put some liverock and artificial coral for the seahorses to hang on. Doing bare bottom. I will also be adding pipefish in the tank with alot of cuc. Thanks for any advice.

 

[MERKEY]

You need to cycle the 55g first unfortunately even from freshwater.

Use as much rock from your 75g as you can and add new rock back to the 75g and yes as much water as possible is this situation.

If you don't have enough live rock your 55g will need to cycle for the seahorses.

We used to run an fx6. We removed the plastic trays and filled it with live rock.

Leave a little space for a bag of carbon or rowa if you ever need to add something like that to the fx6.

Depending where you get your seahorses you may want to get a chiller as some species like water around 70.

Good luck

 

[bgilson]

You need to cycle the 55g first unfortunately even from freshwater.

Use as much rock from your 75g as you can and add new rock back to the 75g and yes as much water as possible is this situation.

If you don't have enough live rock your 55g will need to cycle for the seahorses.

We used to run an fx6. We removed the plastic trays and filled it with live rock.

Leave a little space for a bag of carbon or rowa if you ever need to add something like that to the fx6.

Depending where you get your seahorses you may want to get a chiller as some species like water around 70.

Good luck

Yea I was curious about adding live rock to the fx6. So just empty everything out. I was thinking of getting life rock to put in there as live rock options arent close at the moment.

 

[MERKEY]

Yup just empty out the fx6.

You're basically going to use it as a super large bacteria reactor with live rock from your 75g that's a year old.

If you are starting with new dry rock then you need to cycle the 55g.

 

[vlangel]

I painted the bottom (outside) of my seahorse tank to look more like sand. Since I am an artist I also painted a mural on the back but this 56 gallon column tank worked wonderful for my ponies.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a 75 reef tank that up and running over a year. Nitrites and ammonia are 0 and nitrates are at 5. Im going to turn my 55gallon into a seahorse tank. To start up I was thinking of taking about 15 gallons of water out of reef tank and put into the 55 to help with start up. What that be an issue? Would it even be worth transferring over since its not even 50%. Im going to be running a hob and fx6 that I used for 25 cichlids. I will be deep cleaning both. What kind of media should I put in the fx6. Ill put some liverock and artificial coral for the seahorses to hang on. Doing bare bottom. I will also be adding pipefish in the tank with alot of cuc. Thanks for any advice.

With the canister - you will need to closely monitor nitrates which they can produce and will have effect on seahorses and also assure the current from canister is subtle or can be reduced as they are slow and weak swimmers and often wait for food to come to them.
Media should be carbon, phos media and dirt entrapment fiber or filter pads.
They are susceptible to various parasites and water quality will be of importance

 

[bgilson]

I painted the bottom (outside) of my seahorse tank to look more like sand. Since I am an artist I also painted a mural on the back but this 56 gallon column tank worked wonderful for my ponies.

Thats awesome

 

[bgilson]

With the canister - you will need to closely monitor nitrates which they can produce and will have effect on seahorses and also assure the current from canister is subtle or can be reduced as they are slow and weak swimmers and often wait for food to come to them.
Media should be carbon, phos media and dirt entrapment fiber or filter pads.
They are susceptible to various parasites and water quality will be of importance

Yea I will be cleaning it out alot but also have macroalgae to help out with that. I have one chaeto in my reef tank and it keeps the tank in check beautifully

 

[vlangel]

Thats awesome

Hey bgilson, is your last name Gilson? That is my last name.

 

[vlangel]

Seahorses don't get sick from parameters that are off, they succumb to pathogenic bacteria that grow where there is detritus and decaying food, both of which can build up in a canister filter. If you clean the filter twice a week, you should be fine.

 

[bgilson]

Hey bgilson, is your last name Gilson? That is my last name.

Yes it is lol

 

[Redemptioner]

I would not use any rock or water from an established system. You really want to control what goes into a seahorse tank to reduce the likelihood of bacterial infections, so start with dry man-made rock and a trusted bacterial supplement to kick things off. You should also invest in an oversized UV sterilizer and don't introduce any fish unless you have a QT tank to heavily treat the fish for a month before hand.

Put in a feeding station (glass tube coming down from the water surface to a glass bowl on the bottom of tank with something clipped to the bowl to allow the seahorse to grip onto) where you can start to train your seahorse to come and eat from the one spot. This will have a massive impact on reducing waste and ensures everyone gets enough to eat.

When you get the horses, after floating to get temps the same, put them in a RO/DI water bath for 8mins before adding them to the tank, they don't need any drip acclimatisation because their skin works a different way to fish. This will kill off the majority of pests straight up and won't harm the horsey. If it starts to wig-out in the freshwater, this means it has parasites or infection, so leave it in the water longer to 12mins to kill it off. The seahorses start to wig-out cause the parasites start to try to to flee the fresh water with some burrowing in deeper, don't worry the fresh water will still kill the suckers. This is also a good sign to buy your seahorse elsewhere if they wig-out, try not to buy them from a store where they are already in holding tanks as this is generally where they pick something up. You are better ordering them in and collecting them from your lfs while they are still in the breeders water/bags.