Seahorse & mixed reef tank

[jck16]

I figure I've been using this site to buy things from people and lurking around without really participating, although I've been mentioning to a few people I've met that I wanted to keep seahorses. I finally got my H. barbouri pair for about a week, so I guess it's about time I share some pictures.

I set up my tank originally just for seahorses with some coral, but I waited 6 months before actually getting the seahorses and got impatient just staring at rock so I filled it up with corals during that time.

8/2011 Pictures of bare tank and right after putting in the live rock.

(sump)

12/2011: Took this picture right after the swap. I was using 10000K lights with an attempt to add some blue with side LEDs, but it wasn't working well.

2/2012: Changed bulb to Phoenix 14000K and took off the LEDs. Sold off the clam and put a Duncan in its place.

Full tank

Female seahorse.

Male seahorse clinging to a sea whip with some acans from Cherry Corals.

I don't know who donated the green nepthea at the swap, but the frag I got is doing really well so thank you.

Rastas and purple hornet frags.

My SPS section. The purple cap. is doing really well. The M. setosa is slowly growing. I'm still waiting for the Pokerstar monti to really start encrusting the rock.

Utter chaos and candy apple from Cherry Corals (whom I highly recommend). The utter chaos grows really well in my tank.

Mushroom and polyp rock.

My sump for those who care.

Almost forgot to mention my CUC: bunch of nassarius snails, ceriths, 2 peppermint shrimp, bunch of hitchhiker stromatella snails and limpets.
And I have a 2-3 inch green mantis shrimp I tore up the tank to catch and threw into the refugium instead of killing.

Boring specs:
30 gal. xhigh, SG: 1.027, Temp: 74 deg
Phosphates low enough not to have problem algae in the display, Cal & Alk don't care as long as things are growing although I add some ESV 2 part every day. I don't test since the corals have all been happy and growing for 6 months now..probably not a good idea in the long run though.

Please leave any questions/comments/advice. Thanks for looking!

 

[fishman1069]

It looks good. I really wouldn't be dosing anything tho without testing. Out could be raising your levels slowly and eventually they will get outta control and wipe out your tank.

 

[KathyC]

It looks good. I really wouldn't be dosing anything tho without testing. Out could be raising your levels slowly and eventually they will get outta control and wipe out your tank.

+1

The tank does look good, but you are heading for a disaster by dosing & not testing

 

[reefs4life]

Looks good but I personally think your temp is a bit low and your salinity is a bit high but others can chime in about it

 

[Awibrandy]

Nice!!!! Your tank looks really nice!
Wish I had the nerves to keep seahorses.:happysad:
As already stated; Do test if you're dosing...

I did donate Palau Neon Green Nepthea to the last swap, but don't know if anyone else did as well. If you happen to have a frag from my nepthea I must tell you it is a fast grower, and will sting other corals in it's path. Do keep an eye on it. On another note, it also requires very little from you. It will grow & glow regardless of where in the tank you place it.

 

[jck16]

Thanks for the comments. Yah, I've been kinda laissez-faire about the whole dosing and testing stuff, but I know I definitely need to be good about testing. Actually my tank really shoulda crashed 2 months ago. I had misread the label on the ESV bottle and was dosing like 2x the recommended max dose every couple of days which went on for like 1-2 months.

The temperature is right, seahorses need to be kept below 75 to prevent vibrio infections. Montis can tolerate a min of 74 deg, the others can go down to 72. I want my SG around 1.026 which I will try to correct at the next water change (should be today haha).

I don't think I got the frag from you Awibrandy, it was some guy who donated it at the fragging demo which Ming did. But I will keep an eye on it now that you mention it will sting. And there's no way in hell I'd attempt keeping wild seahorses, these guys are captive bred and eating frozen mysis.Thanks.

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

Nice set up James keep them updates and pictures coming buddy

 

[NYC Joe]

Very nice.
I do miss my seahorses.
Temp is ok in my opinion.
Although I think 74 would be better.
Never had luck with sps in my tank. Seahorses are too messy and eat a lot.


Thanx
-Joe

 

[Cmnj]

Nice tank setup

 

[NYreefNoob]

nice, but will say this, any coral that you have that has tenticles can kill or seriously damage the seahorse, really watch you amonia and nitrate levels as these are quick to kill seahorses. as for having sps thats a up and down, you need the flow for them but the sh cant really handle the flow and definately not during feeding, the picture with the almost white seahorse and zoa's to the right of it looks like you have some type of pest in there also, dont only feed mysis either to the sh's, they will gobble up spirula brine as well, when doing water changes really make sure temp and salinity is good, and the sh can and will live in a salinity of 1.20 never went lower then that though

 

[jck16]

Hey NYC Joe. I actually set the temp to 74 already based on your advice on previous threads (I searched seahorses on MR a coupla times and your name kept popping up hehe).

NYreefNoob, thanks for your input too. I guess I'll explain some finer details about the seahorses. First of all, I actually heard from the breeder that Barbour's seahorses like a little higher flow since they apparently won't touch food once it's hit the ground which I've found to be very true. In fact, they weren't eating well when I first introduced food simply because I would switch off the return pump and just let the food float down. I've found they really got interested when I mixed enriched live brine and PE mysis together at every feeding (although the male is a little less responsive than the female).

The tank cycles at like 15x-20x its volume every hour. The SPS seemed to be doing well, but we'll see how that goes now that I've added the seahoses.The tank is used to very heavy feedings though since like 2 months in because I used to have a non-photosynthetic sea fan but that died on me. I used to have problems with cyano which is still visible in the 12/2011 picture but adding chaeto into the sump and having macro in the display has really reduced it. Plus keeping up with water changes every 1-2 weeks.

The "pest" is a hitchhiker tube coral (Cladacora arbuscula) that's been there since like day 1. I've seen my horses brush up against them without any reaction except for the coral retracting. I spent months finding and destroying hidden crabs, aiptasia, and mantis shrimps and didn't really pay attention to the corals. I did try to pick all my coral from the approved list on seahorse.org but maybe I'm still endangering my horses? Here's a complete list of all my coral:

LPS
2 acans, one lobo, one Duncan, bunch of hitchhiking corals (tube corals, hidden cup corals, knobby star coral, 3 rose corals one of which is a very nice mint green color)

SPS
purple M. cap, Pokerstar monti, M. setosa

softies
sea whip, sea plume, corky fingers, zoas, rics, mushrooms, green nepthea

I guess I'm most concerned about 2 euclid worms that come out and nip off pieces of macro and the hidden cup coral but let me know if anything off the list stands out.

Btw, you meant a SG of 1.020 right? the last digit is cut off but I assumed that's what you meant. I've always kept tanks at 1.026-1.027..I don't feel comfortable lowering it to 1.020 just for the horses. I already compromised by setting the temp at 74 degrees

 

[NYC Joe]

Also join seahorse.org

Cover your powerheads with a mesh of some sort. They can get their tails stuck. Had that happen to me. Gets ugly.

Also the SG why wouldnt you just leave it at .025 or .024?
I see no benefit from any lower or higher. Any particular reason?



Thanx
-Joe

 

[NYC Joe]

Wow mantis crabs. And worms Jeez.
Those worms don't sound too friendly.

Get a good cleanup crew. Snails only. I don't trust any crabs.
As long as you follow seahorse.org list u should be ok.

And good luck!!! Didnt mention that!!!!


Thanx
-Joe

 

[jck16]

From what I know, seawater averages 35ppt which is about 1.026. These seahorses originate from the Indo-Pacific where it's about that salinity, so I just keep it there. I don't think it'll stress them too much from what I've read, but I'll consider lowering it if they start showing signs of distress/illness.

You wouldn't believe how many times I took out pieces of rock to try and flush out a crab especially those ****in hairy gorilla crabs. If I caught them alive, I'd throw them to the mantis in the sump or crush them. I am praying I have them all by now, but who knows...I just saw an urchin today that I never saw before. I'd NEVER deliberately add a crab to the display. As for the eunicid worms....I've put coral next to them and they don't touch them. I see them stealing fallen mysis and tearing up nearby macroalgae which is the most destruction they've done. I know where they live though so the first sign of trouble I'm flushing them out hehehe.

I think my intentional clean-up crew (nassarius snails, ceriths, and peppermint shrimp) does a pretty good job. Between them, the filter, corals, and seahorses I hardly see any trace of mysis after 5 minutes.

Thanks, I know I'll need the luck Feel free to keep the advice coming.

 

[NYC Joe]

Also another health tip is to enrich the mysis with selco.
Put it in a shot glass for a few mins and add 2 drops of selco.
let it soak.
Then feed.
Helps with fatty acids to keep them nice and plump.

Also don't forget a fast day.
Once a week is good.

What's your feeding schedule?

Also that worm is also called a Bobbit worm.
Just googled it. Ewwwwww. Creeeeeeepy.
Get it out. Looks evil

 

[jck16]

I've been wondering a lot about the 2 worms that I've seen. What I've concluded is that they seem to be benign scavengers. From what I've read, bobbit worms are in the same genus but they're these nasty 6ft things that shoot out of their burrows to get fish. Mine are like...10cm long and about 3mm wide and look like this (greatly enlarged haha):

Again though, I will keep a close eye on them.

As for my feeding schedule, I feed like 2-3 times a day from 6-10pm (the lights are on from 3-11pm). I feed them Hikari PE mysis which don't need to be enriched apparently. The breeder at seahorsesource said I should also feed them once before I go to work but I'm always in a rush to get to work in the morning haha.

 

[fishman1069]

They look like bristle worms. Check this linkhttp://chucksaddiction.com/ You have to click on "info links" on the left side of the page and then hit hitch hikers and then go into the worm section. They show tons of worms with names and most of them are reef safe

 

[NYreefNoob]

bristle worm is what actually killed off my last 2 sh's somehow they got the sting from them on their tail and ended up dying from it.

as for no problem so far from the lps, all's it takes is one time { ive been keeping sh's about 4 years now }

not saying to drop it to 1.020 but ive had tank down to there for months at a time

also really have to watch the shrimp with them

seahorse.org is a great site but no one ever goes on there anymore, check out the seahorse threads on reef central

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

hey what kind of lights your using and how many watts are they too?

 

[jck16]

NYreefNoob: Yah, when I was browsing (I haven't had any fish in my tank for 6 months, had a lotta time to read on my hands lol), I did note you've been keeping seahorses for awhile so I always pay extra attention to your comments. I do wanna say in my defense that I did a lotta research and I picked H. barbouri because it's apparently is much less prone to coral stings than other seahorses since they're the only ones typically found clinging to hard corals in the wild. I'm not saying that I'm not worried about the possibility, but I've done my best to select coral and tankmates in what I'd call "acceptable risk" category. But yes, I do acknowledge there's always a higher risk for horses especially in a mixed reef environment.

I'm like 110% sure that the worms I have aren't bristle worms or fire worms but of the genus Eunice (I used that website chucksaddition.com and various other sourses but stopped when I got to this article: http://www.chucksaddiction.com/eunice.pdf If you can make sense of it, yoou've gotta be a marine biologist haha). I'm more and more leaning towards the worms I have being one of the benign scavengers in that genus with little risk to the horses but if anyone can tell me for sure, I'd appreciate it. That photos is pretty much how they look. They creep out of a hole in a rock at night, find some food, and dart back in at lightning speed.

Angelo: I'm using a JBJ 150 watt MH fixture with a 14000k Phoenix bulb. Off hand, JBJ's customer service SUCKKKKKKKKS. I ordered that adapter from them for 1/2" tubing for the chiller I got from you. They sent me two sets of the same thing via different shipments and tried to charge me twice. And when I ordered a replacement UV glass shield for the fixture, they first sent me a frickin switch for the ballast instead.