First off, i will tell you that you might end up regretting a tall tank. They are hard to get to the bottom of, and you will probably find trouble in getting good air circulation.
I disagree. I think you should go with a tall tank. Seahorse like the vertical swimming room like most fish like the horizontal swimming room. I have always kept tall tanks and have never had an issue with circulation. To get to the bottom, buy a mag float, an algae scraper, or get a chair. It is not really that big of a deal. I had a tank that was 3' tall, was never a problem.
Recommended tank size for a seahorse would be min of twice the seahorses length. At least 3xif you want to watch the mating dance which IMHO is one of the coolest things about having seahorses.
Canister filters are great, with layers of filtration and dont require too frequent cleaning.
This has not been my experience. Yes, Cannister filters are great. I love my fuval 304. I do clean it out every few weeks to avoid the build up of nitrites. Sounds big, takes 10 minutes. I think you would be happy with one. The Magnum HOT model is also very popular with other seahorse keepers I know.
UVs are good, and often used in addition to other filtration systems, although i dont know a whole lot about them.
UV's are great. Love mine! As Dragonscales said they sterilize any single celled organism that goes through them at higher flow rates and kill parasites as well at lower flowrates. I would run this after the cannister to ensure the water passing through is clean so a bacteria can't hide on a piece of dietrius and escape safe and grow immunity or resistant.
The other great benifit is they kill micro algaes. Very good addition to the system if you have the cash.
Protein skimmers are very important as well.
For what? I have run seahorse systems for years without one. I don't think they belong on a seahorse tank unless it is housed in the sump. The problem with skimmers is seahorses that are pre disposed to Gas Bubble Disease will have problems in a tank with a skimmer. How do you find out if your seahorses is predisposed to GBD ? ? ? You come home and find him floating, unable to regulate his bouancy. The disease is treatable. It is not a death sentence if you know what your doing or know who to ask for help, but I choose not to risk it.
I did keep a Remora Pro in my sump for a couple months but had to remove it because it was out competeing my macro algaes for nutrients.
As for LR, the amount doesnt really matter. A lot of times, i hear 1 pound per gallon. Im not sure the point of this. Maybe it is how much fits well? IDK.
I would say it matters a great deal if you are looking for the rock to aid in the biological filtration. I would get at least one pound per gallon or even a pound and a half, or more. It does depend on how it fits, and aquascaping. I have over 2 lbs per gallon with tons of swim room.
You will want to make sure you fully cure your LR. This will remove any unwanted hitchikers that will later cause problems in your system. It is so important and so many skip this step. If you want to keep seahorses you really need to cure your rock.
Ive heard of anemones hitch hiking on LR, so just examine it before you buy it. And if u get home and find something undesireable u can probably go exchange it for another one. They can be VERY hard to get off a rock, sometimes impossible. Once i had one that was intertwined in the rock so far we had to chisel that part of the rock off because it just wouldnt move. {then took it back to my LFS and it came off the next day, then reattatched, then unattatched, then someone fnally bought it and i got my missing rock back!}
Like I said you need to cure your rock. You don't want the hitchhikers, you want the benificla bacteria used to help filter the tank.
If there is an anemone or aiptasia on the rock there are inexpesive products like Joe's Juice, that will remove the offender with a single squirt in a matter of seconds.
Where did you hear about clams and scallops not being good tank mates? They arent aggressive, dont move, as far as I know are nice additions to any tank.
They are not good tank mates. Clams and seahorses have no business being in the same tank together. All who have tried that I know of swear they will never do it again due to there experiences. It is not a good idea. It only takes one time to kill the fish.
One coral banded shrimp would probably be a nice addition to your tank. I say one because they fight if not in pairs.
Uh . . no it wouldn't. If you want to keep shrimp I would go with peppermints as your best option. Cleaners are O.K. IME but I have read of others accounts that the cleaning actions of the shrimp causes the seahorses stress. If your not going with any corals you could get saron, or camel as well.
Aragonite reef sand provides great filtration of ammonia nitrites and nitrates, and you may consider using a bag of wet or "live" sand as well.
A sand bed will provide filtration once it becomes established. The live sand is already alive. I tend to by dead things now and just spend longer cycling my systems. It is much easier IME if you know everything that you are putting in your tank and not getting some unidentified or wanted speciment, like a bristleworm, or mantis shrimp ( although mantis doesn't come in livesand but bristleworms do. BTW Cure your rock, mantis do come in there)
RO water is always the best route.
Right On
Your research is as good as mine as far as finding the temp. and kH for that specific species of seahorse.
For Erectus you want to keep them between 72-75 F. The higher temps are more condusive to bacteria growth and potential problems. Over 78 will cause the seahorse stress.
After it has been cycled with LR, add some snails, hermits, whatever for cleanup of brown algae you will go through. All stars and seahorses need VERY stable conditions so make sure to add things slowly so you dont have too much bioload for the tank to handle at once.
For snails I would recommend Astrea, or Naussarius, Turbo's grow big and can knock over rocks. Margarita's are really a temperate speices that don't fair well in tropical tanks. Naussarius is also efficent at stirring the sand bed.
For hermit crabs, THE ONLY CRAB I HAVE FOUND TO BE SAFE IS THE SCARLET REEF HERMIT CRAB. I would stay far away from all others.
You will need to test out the food at the LFS and see what they will eat and how much. Always feed marine based foods, and if it needs to be freshwater, use a good vitamin supplement to soak it in. Twice a day is good, but only feed what they will eat otherwise the ammonia may creep up on you.
Find out what the LFS is feeding them. MAke sure you see them eat a few pieces of frozen before you buy them. Buy the same kind the LFS is using. You will want to thaw the frozen mysis in salt water. Rinse it off in a small net, and then soak it with enrichment such as Selco, or Vibrance II. Mysis enough is not nutritous enough with enrichment.
If you are going to feed live food, don't feed marine live food, unless it is gaurenteed to be 100% pathogen free. One of the major reasons people have so much more succsess with CB as opposed to WC is beacuse they are free of parasites. Any WC marine shrimp will be bringing these parasites in to your system and directly into there digestive track. Not a good idea.
As far as dumping a bunch in, it will work, kinda. Seahorses don't have a stomach like we do. They never get full. They will eat and eat and eat forever. When there digestive track is full, they will push out the undigested food and make way for the new stuff coming in. There was an experiment with raising seahorse fry that found that having the food stocking densities to high, actually caused the fry to starve to death. intresting how something can starve to death by overeating. But the abudance of food meant that no time was given for the food to ever digest. The fry were actually pooping out live BBS.
When I go on vacation for a few days I order a couple hundred marine shrimp from seawaterexpress and toss them in. Sometimes there are some left.
You should feed them what they can eat in 20 minutes. When you cycle your tank you should make sure it can handel the bioload for what you need to feed your seahorses to save you from having to take all the left overs out. A feeding dish is also a great tool in keeping the tank clean, if you choose to do so. It is a fancy way of saying put the frozen in a removable shell or bowl, place the dish in the same spot everyday and the seahorses will catch on.
I would feed twice a day, 6 days a week.
As far as your setup.
I would go with the HOT Magnum on the 29g, if you haven't already. I would start with 30 lbs of fully cured Liverock, and about a two inch sand bed.
The whole 3x turnover thing IMNSHO is a bunch of hooy. My turnover is closer to 8. Used to be 10. Seahorses have never had a problem. The key is to breaking up the return so it is not all directed in one spot creating a huge current that willblow theseahorses around. I have some of the return directed at the waterline for surface agitation, some towards the back of the rock, some toward the back of the tank, so and and so forth. My return is broken up into 6 different places, so while there is alot of flow, it is not so strong the seahorse can't swim through it. You will be able to look at the tank and tell if the seahorses are being blown around, if so, turn it down, or break it up. I would not run a tank with the flow being under 5x the tank volume per hour. JME
Feed the system pure unscented amonia everyday for a couple of weeks. IF you are unable to get pure unscented amonia then you can use frozen mysis, or table shrimp from the grocery store. Honestly for the first couple weeks, I wouldn't even test the water. I would just add one ounce of amonia at morning and at night every day.
After a couple weeks add the amonia, wait an hour and test the tank for amonia. If there is any detectable level, your tank is not done cycling. You have to wait until the amonia hits zero after you have added some in. that means that enough bacteria has grown to handel the bioload for your system.
You will get a diatom bloom next which looks like a brown slimy algae. Normal, don't worry about it. You can add your snails and scarlet reef hermit crabs then. Wait a couple days and add any tankmates you like.
I have ound I enjoyed keeping goby's best next to seahorses. My favorites have been
Twinspot, cute and a good sand sifter. Friend named him Confuscious because he looks so wise
Yellow Watchman goby, sand sifting kinda shy, does well with a pistol shrimp for a friend
Firefish , get a couple so you can see them interact
Dragonet or manderine, not really good for your tank, sorry
Any shrimp Goby.
All of these are peaceful and make good tankmates IME. I try to remeber when I choosing tanmates that I am setting up an ecosystem. Nothing but the eahorse is ornamental, everything else has a job. I think it has been good for me because I understand what everything in my tank, does, and needs. It will make you a better keeper.
In a 29g you could do 4 erectus a couple of gobies and a cleanup crew IMO as long as you have decent filtration, and stay atop of your parameters. I would start with 2 and add 2 later from the same breeder. (The same breeder part is so important, but this post is already long enough). I would not put more than 4 horses in a tank that size IMO.
I don't mean to come off so arguemenative, but I do disagree with alot of what was posted. I think forums like this are designed for debate, but at the same time we all have different experience levels. From my years of experience abd research, I have found these things to be true. I do not mean any disrespect at all towards anyone. I am just here to share what I know.
Here are some links you might find helpful or interesting
http
/www.seahorse.org/library/articles/cycling.shtml
http/www.seahorse.org/library/articles/testing.shtml
http/www.seahorse.org/library/articles/p...ioSeaSand.shtml
http/www.seahorse.org/library/articles/SeahorseFoods.php
http/www.seahorse.org/library/articles/GBD.shtml
http/www.seahorse.org/library/articles/LFS_guide.shtml
Hope this helps.
At one of the websites I visited (which seemed to offer alot of good, sound advice), they mentioned you could use a UGF and a canister filter for a seahorse tank. Is this possible? Or do you need the same equipment as a normal marine tank, like protein skimmer, etc.)? Also, would a 30 gallon tank be large enough for seahorses? I've had some trouble finding minimum tank sizes. Would I be able to house any inverts. with the seahorse? To be quite honest, seastars, shrimp, etc. is what I really like about marine setups.
), just post away 
