Nano Tank Diary

[Flumpus]

Tonight my wife and I began our journey into the mysterious world of salt water! My wife came home with 10lbs of live sand, 10lbs of live rock, a power head, some filter media, and 10g of salt water. They didn't have a good marine test kit, so that comes tomorrow. I'm not sure at this point if we'll be doing our own water or not. I assumed we would, but at $0.39/gallon, and the store on my wa home from work, my lazyness may win out on that one. Anyway, here are the first pics...

I hope no one is tired of these diary threads... They seem very helpful to the person writing it and the people following it who are planning similar things... Anyway, more to come later!

 

[phoenixfire]

wow seems really cool...keep posting pictures...especially when u get those seahorses!!...they are fascinating creatures

 

[Ethos]

****Make sure they're dwarf seahorses. They're cute and small in the store, but become mini monsters.
6" is the expected size of most small adult seahorses. Dwarfs are nice and get about half that.

 

[Flumpus]

Don't worry... already have them picked out. We're going to get a mated pair of Zulu Lulu (Hippocampus capensis) from seahorse.com. 4" max, they recommend them for a beginner with a 10g tank, and that sounded like us!

 

[Flumpus]

Well, day two, and all is well. The water has cleared up, and I've already spotted a tiny feather duster on one of the pieces of live rock. I guess I'll take this time to ask about a cleanup crew (won't add until levels are all zero though)... I'm not really going to have any corals, just macro algae, so what would be good for that? Thanks.

 

[bunjiweb]

I would reccomend getting more live rock, probably another 10lb to be honest. The more the better. Also for Seahorses you want low flow but you want good flow over your live rock so i would try and mount it so it is directing flow upwards at the waters surface to make enough turbulance and to turn over the water. It may also be worth getting a mini powerhead to go underneath the live rock.

Remember seahorses can be very sensitive and certainly needa good variance of food in their diet to do well. Macro algaes such as culurpae are a welcome addition in a seahorse tank. I would probably suggest that after your tank is cycled and your crabs and snails have been in there a couple of weeks you should start with a small goby or 2, maybe something like yellow bean gobies or neon-striped gobies. Let these sit in the tank working it over for a couple of months and then when you are confident that everything has been doing great for a while add the seahorses.

If you are only having algaes you don't need alot of light, T8s will surfice, or bog standard T5s if you want some polyps in there. Certainly mushrooms and star polyps would work fine and add a bit of variation to the tank.

Also consider that if you are buying online they will need to be packed very well as it is winter at the moment you don't want them freezing to death on their journey to your house.

Ben

 

[Flumpus]

Thanks for the reply!

I figured 1lb/gallon, but when we got it in, it definitely looked a little sparse. Mounting the powerhead like you recommend is certainly doable, so I'll look into doing that. I'll also see about getting a mini powerhead.

That sounds like a great idea to have a couple small gobies in there before adding the seahorses. I think I'll do that. Would I be able to keep them in there when the seahorses arrive?

Also, you mentioned crabs and snails, would I want a single shrimp also, or no?

 

[steelhealr]

Did I miss what size tank you set this up in? I'm not a big fan of caulerpa...not worth the risk of it going sexual and nuking the tank. It does seem that there is minimal LR in there....tank size? SH

 

[Flumpus]

It's a 10g... And ya, the live rock doesn't seem like much. It's 10lbs, which I thought would be enough, but we're getting more today. Probably another 5lbs to see how it looks, then more if we need to.

 

[bunjiweb]

You wouldnt need a shrimp, although you could have a cleaner shrimp, or a few sexy shrimps in the tank instead of hermits. Personally I would have 3 Turbo Snails, 2 Cerith Snails (sand sifting), and 2-3 hermits (or shrimps).

Gobies would be able to live with seahorses fine, they are a perfect partner.

Also i would agree with steelhealr's cautious approach to algae, you have to make sure you keep an eye on it and rip out any areas that look like they are starting to loose colour. You may be better with a small patch of well trimmed algae, and the rest soft corals and mushrooms.

Ben

 

[Flumpus]

Thanks for the clarification about a shrimp. I'll leave that up to my wife, as it's really her tank

We'll certainly be careful with the algae. I'll let my wife know that when she does get it, she's gotta keep a very close eye on it. I suppose I'll be watching it too, even though I give her a hard time about being so fascinated with seahorses

I'll post a few more pictures tonight, after we add the second batch of live rock we're picking up.

Oh, another quick question, and I'm sorry if I'm not able to provide enough information. At the Dallas World Aquarium, and at our local LFS, we have seen a little goby/blenny looking fish that digs a hole in the sand and pokes his head out. I've looked around a little, and think it's probably a blenny and definitely gets too big for a 10g tank, but my wife would love it if that was one of the fish she could have with the seahorses. She saw one digging it's hole at the LFS the other day, it would come out and spit out a bunch of sand, go back down, and resurface with another mouthful, then repeat My description probably isn't very good, and I can check tonight to see if they still have it, but any info yall could give me would be much appreciated.

 

[bunjiweb]

Its almost deffinately a type of goby. There are various gobies as mentioned earlier that have a symbiotic relationship with pistol shrimps. The shrimp digs the whole and gathers food for both animals, whilst the goby guards the home and warns the shrimp of the first sign of danger, retreating back into the hole.

You could get a shrimp/goby pair for your tank, just be careful and make sure you buy a properly paired goby and shrimp.

Ben

 

[steelhealr]

Check out a yashia haze goby and Randall's banded pistol shrimp. SH

 

[Flumpus]

Here's a new shot of the tank, with more live rock. Up to 16lbs now. What do you think? More? Good where it is? I personally think it looks pretty good with this much, but I'm the newbie

Oh, and the fish that my wife likes is the yellowhead jawfish. I looked it up on liveaquaria, and it's there, but it says it needs lots of sand, so probably wouldn't be good.

 

[Dragonscales]

As I said in the other thread of yours flumpus, you shouldn't keep pistol shrimp with seahorses, it's asking for trouble. Some people do keep them without any mishaps, but it isn't worth the risk IMO.

As for your mystery fish, it might be a jawfish if it isn't a goby or blenny. Jawfish are also suitable as SH tankmates.

EDIT: lol you must have been typing when I was, good going on IDing the fish