sea horse flow rate

[suckafishtankcleaning]

i am going to be setting up a sea horse tank. its going to be a 7 gal bow front. my question is do you think one nano korilla be to much flow or to little?

[cuttingras]

have you read this? Seahorse.com - Seahorse, Sea Life, Marine Life, Aquafarm Sales, Feeds and Accessories - Is it OK for inexperienced, unknowledgeable people to raise seahorses?

[suckafishtankcleaning]

that was horrible article its said nothing usefull

[suckafishtankcleaning]

but thank you!

[cuttingras]

Originally Posted by suckafishtankcleaning

that was horrible article its said nothing usefull

Here's another page you might find interesting..............
Seahorse.com - Seahorse, Sea Life, Marine Life, Aquafarm Sales, Feeds and Accessories - Getting Started


sorry it was horrible, I didn't write it. I do like to go there and read about them though.

and you're welcome

[mandarin11]

For starters, seahorses in a 7 gallon is probably a little too small. What kind of sea horses are you planning on keeping?

As to the koralia, normally for a nano tank they would be great, but not if you want to keep seahorses. The flow rate needs to be very slow, with their food hardly moving through the water so that they can grab it.

[gazog]

I am sorry but that site is full of misinformation!

Starting with their statement on Tank Volume and Stocking capacity, 10 gallons for 2 to 4 individuals!

This is wrong, Minimum recommended tank size for 2 seahorses is 20g tall or at the least a 15 gallon tall and for 4 it is 29 gallons. So this being said, unless you are going to keep Dwarf sea horses a 7 gallon tank is way to small.
And they also very much need vertical swimming room (18" - 24" + in height).

Then the line about temperature range is also wrong, 68F to 82F Optimum: 75

At anything above 76 degrees too warm even for tropical SH. This is a very important factor, as SH tend to be prone to bacterial infections, especially at warmer temps due to an increase in bacterial count. you may hear "SH are found in 80*F water in the wild", but you must remember that the bacterial concentration in a closed system is infinitely greater than that of the ocean. At this time i am fighting to keep my temperature down below 76, I think I might need to add a couple of fans tomorrow.

As far as using a korilla you might also want to rethink that. Seahorses like to hitch to anything they can wrap that cute little tail around. A korilla is an open pump and their tail can get in and get caught in the prop.

I was going to use one in my tank and before I could plug it in one of my horses wrapped his tail around the front of it and when he let go I was shocked to see how far it stuck into the inside of the pump. You might want to stick with a small maxi jet.

And as far as flow goes, contrary to what allot of people say seahorses love flow. Their are some out there that say you should have very little flow in a seahorse tank but this is not true. in fact sea horses will be more active in a tank with decent flow, they will play in it! You just don't want too much, meaning you don't what it to blow them across the tank while they are struggling to swim against it.

If you want to learn about Seahorses the best resource on the web is Seahorse.org they have a library of articles that anyone can read, you should read them... They people on that site have tons of experience in keeping seahorses.

[gazog]

Originally Posted by mandarin11

The flow rate needs to be very slow, with their food hardly moving through the water so that they can grab it.

This is not true, they love flow and will chase thier food around the tank just like any other fish. The little buggers can really move when they want to, belive me. I not only have HOB filter rated for a 100 gallon tank which creats quite a but of flow, I am using 2 Maxijet 400's in my 56 gallon.

[mandarin11]

This is not true, they love flow and will chase thier food around the tank just like any other fish. The little buggers can really move when they want to, belive me. I not only have HOB filter rated for a 100 gallon tank which creats quite a but of flow, I am using 2 Maxijet 400's in my 56 gallon.

While I am glad that this has worked for you, I have run into too many situations where people's seahorses have starved to death because the flow was too much in the tank. I am not saying don't have any flow, but it's not a good idea to put as much in as a reef tank. Not to mention the flow rate of sticking any type of powerhead in a 7 gallon (which as mentioned is too small for seahorses) is much larger than 2 maxi 400s in a 56.

Perhaps you have some seahorses that like to move fast, but many of them like to chill out wrapped around some macro or tonga branch. There are always exceptions to every species, but I have always and will always recommend slower flow for seahorses.

[nemo1991]

yeah 7 gallons just seems kinda cruel to put any creature in, i have a 29 gallon cube, 20" long 18" wide and 18" tall, and even that i was kind of considering, but i decided against it since there expensive : /