130l Seahorse Setup

[kelwoo]

Hello to all those reading this.

I have been a tropical fresh water fishy friend for many years and have recently decided to go to the salty side. My partner starting down the salty path a year ago now with a 25g nano and ever since we started down the path i've been wanting to convert. Through setting up the nano (which is doing very well) and reading your posts and journals etc.. we both have gained a lot of knowledge and experience, so i've decide to take the plunge.

I have recently purchased an aqua one 620T (130L) which (as the title of my journal suggests) is to be a seahorse setup. Since i'm starting from scratch i thought it would be nice to do a step by step journal of my setup. I have done my research and know seahorses take care and dedication so i'm not doing this lightly or rushing in. Slow and steady!

At the moment i have only brought the tank as i can't set it up till i have sold my freshwater tropical setup (fully planted 112L setup with CO2). Once i have sold it i can then setup the new tank. can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My plans for the seahorse setup:

I want to try and make it as natural an environment as possible for the SH, how well this will go i don't know due to finding resources but i will try.

I plan to put approx 15kg of live rock (tongan branch and fiji) (inititally and possibly adding more at a later date)

sandbed- haven't decided what sort yet any suggestions welcome.

and a selection of macro algaes (red and greens) and if i can get some, some sea grass. (any to stay away from in your experience?)

Plan on dosing the tank at this point with copepods to boost the population in prep for the SH.

Then if all is well i will get the CB SH (H. comes, H. barbouri, H. reidi, haven't decided which one to get a pair of yet or what is available, but i have plenty of time to choose).

Other tank mates will be the CUC (selection of snails), cleaner shrimp (most likely X2) and eventually once the tank is mature enough possibly a pair of mandarines.

All help and advice welcome, hopefully it won't be too long till i can start and i'll be posting as i go.

I hope you follow, enjoy and remember fish are friends not food!

Kelwoo

 

[bae1994]

welcome to the salty side sounds a good tank

 

[ChrisKis]

Hi Your tank sounds great, can't wait to see it, hope you sell your old tank soon.

 

[seffieuk]

Hi and to the salty side

Sounds like a lovely tank, I don't have any experience with sea horses so will be watching this thread with interest. My only thought at the moment is that a pair of mandarins in a new set-up really is a no, no and the tank really isn't big enough to support a pair. You would need to start a pod culture for just one let alone two (which is do-able, as I did it and if I can do )

Anyway, hope it isn't too long before you get started with a lovely project

Seffie x

 

[kelwoo]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Well after my new tank sitting there taunting me (for a week in it's box) i decided i couldn't wait to sell the old tank before setting up my SH tank, so fractured elbow and all i decided to bite the bullet and dismantle the old tank and set up the new. It now means that my living room is a complete mess and resembles an out of business fish shop but hay it's worth it!!

So the weekend started with spending the whole day dismantling the old tank, (doesn't sound to much work but loaches don't like being caught, and shrimp are fast and jumpy when you want to catch them)

Finally everyone was boxed up and it was one of many trips to the LFS. A little sad as i have had some of those fish for years and the tank was looking the best it has for a while. But cheered up when i saw the SH in the LFS and remembered why i was doing this!

The rest of saturday/ early hours sunday morning was cleaning out the filter, tank etc.. and building the stand for the new tank.

It was decided at this point to give up for the day and regroup ready for sunday.

Sunday - first thing to do was to fix the backing/ blue background onto the back of the tank. Simple enough right? wrong, could we get the background on straight, unpuckered and looking good, polite answer - no! 30mins later 5 min job done! good start.

So it was off to the LFS for the first pick up. 6x25l barrells and two trips later the new tank was full. I am now successfully breeding bubbles.

Phoned up STM and ordered 11kg of fiji live rock which i'll be picking up next w/end. (still planning on getting more for the tank, but i want to pick what other bits i get so i can finish off the aquascaping). A quick trip to another LFS looking for sand and i come out with some red bamboo macro algae and sand on order, also ready for collecting next w/end. Sand on order is pink fiji. For now the bamboo algae is in my partners nano tank till mine is ready.

Final job for the day was adding the salt to my tank. Not much to look at but here are some pics.

My previous freshwater tank

My new bubble breeding tank

Built-in filter (plan to put LR rubble in there and some carbon)

Not much happening now till i get the LR and sand, (but Rome wasn't built in a day) when i can start aquascaping. Full update on next w/ends adventures and aquascaping fun (fully illustrated- hopefully) coming soon.

kelwoo

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks good so far. Be sure you make cood friends with connorsbala as he's our resident SH keeping expert

 

[kelwoo]

opps...... don't know what happened, but managed to post twice.

Deleted this one - please read below.

 

[kelwoo]

Sorry for the delay, but here's my latest update.

Another long weekend so i better start from the beginning.

After setting up the tank and putting the water in i was waiting a long week for my live rock and sand, (both were ordered, just had to wait.)

Wednesday i received a call from the shop i had ordered the sand from saying they couldn't get any and didn't know when they could -disaster! They said they would phone back when they knew.
Problem No. 1

Not much happened after that till saturday when we picked up my live rock. Up early and an hour drive to STM to pick up live rock. Thought it would be best to pick it up ourselves as it would be out of the water for as short a period as possible, plus we were going to world of fishes to pick up a sixline wrasse (PJ) for the nano tank so it made sense.

It was back home ASAP to acclimatise PJ and aquascape. Carefully inspected each piece of LR(one crab found and removed along with a couple of bristles), washed and place in the tank - stop for lunch.

LR just put in tank

Refuelled and ready to go - it was time to aquascape. Several hours later and a few angry words i was finally happy with the tank.

Aquascaping complete

So by the early hours of sunday morning aquascaping was finally complete (with no sand ) and PJ in the nano. With every part of our bodies aching it was time for bed so we could start the 'adventure' again sunday.

Sunday was out and about to find the right connections for the RO unit, and to find out when i could get my sand (as i had heard nothing since wednesday ) The plans for the rest of sunday was to bash and smash the remaining LR into rubble for my filter and setup the RO unit - what actually happened was i tested my water and crashed for the night. Tank cycling nicely.

Ammonia = 0.25mg/L
Nitrite = 2mg/L
Nitrate = 80mg/L

As we crashed we noticed PJ was harassing Mandy our mandarin (in the nano) - lights went out and they both went to bed, it was decided i would watch them monday and keep an eye on the situation (as i'm off work with my arm). Possible problem No.2

Problem No. 2!!
The harassing continued monday, poor Mandy was battered with a split in her tail and scared to move from her corner, so when Chris (my partner) got home the decision was made to try and catch one and put them in the frag tank to split them up till the weekend and we could sort it out properly. Easier said then done. Problem No. 3

After an hour of trying to catch one and failing there was nothing left to do but to utilise every bucket and container we have to dismantle the nano so we could catch PJ.
Success PJ now has a new home in the frag tank (till the weekend at least). Whilst the nano was in bits we decided to take this opportunity to catch Mr T (our rather large brown emerald crab), a few large problem bristles and re-aquascape. This took all night so the LR rubble and the RO unit was put on hold.

Tuesday
Calm compared to the last couple of days and finally managed to do the LR rubble (still no RO yet) and fixed (with epoxy) some upper rocks in place in my SH tank and tested water again.

Ammonia = <0.25mg/L
Nitrite = 4mg/L
Nitrate = 100mg/L

So with the nano sorted, Mandy happy, my rock fixed in place and sand arriving tomorrow i finally had time to update my journal.

I'll post a new pic when i get the sand in. Isn't keeping fish fun!?

Kelwoo

 

[SkiFletch]

It's never smooth is it? . Looks good so far

 

[kelwoo]

Thanks Ski

No it never is, it doesn't seem to matter what tank, fish, salty or fresh there's always something!

 

[Trod]

Looks good, I love reading everyones adventures, nothing is ever simple in SW but we all think to ourselves 'oh I'll just do that quickly' then 4 hours later we're still at it We must all be mad

 

[kelwoo]

It's been a while so i thought i would update on what has been going on. No major problems since the last time, just tidying up.

So my sand finally arrived wednesday last week, and the tank seems so much nicer since it's gone in. I think it's just cos you can't see the reflection of the rock on the bottom now, and it's one step closer to the finished tank.

So what do you think?

I also have added a few macro algaes that i have found, my fav being the red bamboo

The tank is starting to show signs of life, feathers are popping up everywhere

worm tracks in the sand and one small crab he seems to be an algae eater (like the emerald crab) which i'm gonna try to get out, but having experience with trying to get crabs out of the nano, it's not gonna be easy!

As you might be able to see in the pics i have a nice algae bloom going on in the tank. It has finished cycling now so i have ordered my clean up crew. My CUC consists of:

6-8 nassarius vibex
4 cortez large ceriths
8 small mexican baja snails
6 trochus snails (black foot)
6 neritu snails

I know it looks like a lot of snails but because it's a SH tank i'm not having any hermit crabs and it is a mixture of algae eaters and detritus snails.
They should hopefully be arriving wednesday onwards. (ordered from fragman)

ohh and the best news is i've sold my old tank!! more money for the SH fund! and it means my living room is becoming more of a living room than an out of business fish shop.

So that's it fully updated. Will post again when the CUC arrives.

Kelwoo

 

[ben1987]

looks like its going to be a nice little tank that

 

[Trod]

Certainly coming along nicely

 

[mooey65]

Same tank as mine you have me thinking now