remember your first post?

this is mine. i'm researching, mostly. the boss wants seahorses so i'm giving her seahorses. i'm well read, but i get conflicting info from the forums. some say no tank mates, some say a few, there's this coral or THIS coral but certainly not THAT coral, blah blah blah. i'm just sifting the info so i have a general grasp and i can kind of take off in a well-informed direction of my own. i've noticed noobs get the cold shoulder sometimes in leiu of much more "experienced" hobbyist questions, but for the sake of intrduction, here's the preliminary plan:

a 29g biocube because, as far as i can tell, it's twice the volume without twice the price.

LR with as much LPS (right?) coral as i can add. i like polyps and clams. maybe some complimentary finger corals for gripping.

a couple crabs and shrimp.

a firefish or mandarin just to add some flavpr without adding too much food competition.

still debating the whole MH/T5 upgrade.

so there's the plan. i'm visiting aquariums like a rabid madman. if you know any in the LA area i'm all ears - i'm always on the look out for that ONE that has everything i need that no one knows about but all the best hobbyists use it. and i'm here, as well as some other forums, gathering as much information as humanly possible. i'm excited to see where all this goes. pix and updates will ABOUND (i get pretty obsessive about new hobbies) so keep an eye out. and thank you so very much for answering all my stupid newbie questions in advance, as i'm sure there will be many. (for example, links to a step-by-step biocube set up? what's a FOWLR? can i use hermits instead of snails?)

 

Generally speaking, sea horses are best suited to a species only tank. They can easily be out competed for food and require low flow, cooler water temps. and non-aggressive tank mates. There has been a recent debate on this forum as to whether you can keep sea horses in a reef tank, which it sounds like what you want to do. The experienced hobbyists basically say no, at least for a long term situation, while there are a few who are currently attempting it with their tank.

Being that you are new to this hobby, I highly suggest not starting with sea horses. Even if you research a lot, and that sounds like what you're doing, you really need some hands one experience with this hobby. You need experience at cycling, maintaining parameters, coral keeping, disease, dips, equipment etc. I know you may be experiencing some "pressure" to have sea horses, but you should know they are very difficult to keep, especially for a new hobbyist. They are prone to disease and can be very picky eaters. If I were in your position, I would start with a reef tank, your planned setup sounds good, except for the mandarin which again is a very picky eater and will most likely starve to death in that size tank unless you buy live pods or it eats frozen food. Go slow, continue to research and good luck.

FOWLR - Fish only with live rock
You can use hermits instead of snails, but if you keep both, hermits will kill snails to get their shells.

 

The biocube 29 is a great tank, I have one myself. It would be a good size for some dwarf seahorses. The lighting it comes with is good for some softies like mushrooms, some leathers, some zoas. If you want, there is a website, nanotuners.com that offers lighting upgrades for the biocube. I would add any fish tankmates if you're planning on doing horses, especially not a mandarin in a new tank that size. They need a ton of copepods to feed on and that will take awhile to get a population up. Keep the questions coming and we'll help you all the way. Welcome to 3reef!

 

guitarman - thanks! i'm leaning more and more towards starting the corals, letting them blossom, getting used to the cycling and the maintenance and the "habit" of the hobby before adding "starter" fish like blennies or jawfish - which are preety basic maintenance, right? personally, i'm more into the NON-swimming species i can keep, so as i learn more (and experience MUCH more) i might keep swimmers to a minimum. that being said, "my budget" loosely translates to "her whims" so if the hippocampi remain "our" goal, then i'll take it from wherever i am a few months from now. but i'm fine taking it slow (or until she forgets she ever wanted seahorses - she's a girl, so next week it'll be clown fish. or koi. ).

anpgp - thanks for the nanotuner reference. i was probably going to upgrade the lighting for the sheer ability to add what i want later anyway. on the other hand, what exactly would i want to include that would need hundreds of dollars more light? fyi, i want these

and these

and these

i thought these were essentially the "building blocks" to advance to more challenging and exotic corals. am i over-reaching?

 

The good news is that those corals are are fairly easy to keep and don't require all that much lighting. However, the last ones, acans can get expensive especially the more colorful ones.