Sea Horse tank

Would you mind telling us about your horse system?

 

Before I start off I want everyone to understand that the tank I speak of
no longer has Seahorse in it, not because they did not do well but because
keeping seahorses is very time consuming, understand that for them to be
happy and most important healthy they must be feed no less that 2 times
a day and 3 times would be even better.

I decided after a year and a half I just did not have the time to properly take
care of them anymore and I did not want anything to happen to them. I gave
away the horses to a good friend that has time. I hope to be able to do it
again sometime in the future when time does permit me to, maybe after I am
retired.

First off anything less than a 29 Gallon tank is to small of a tank for Sea Horses,
and the taller the tank the better because they require allot of vertical room not
horizontal space and a BIO cube is not a good tank for seahorses due to its
low height and the fact that they run hotter than most normal reef tanks do.

Second hooking it up into a existing system is not a good idea for because all
Seahorses should be kept in temperatures lower than what we keep our reef
tanks at. They should be kept at a range no higher that 73 and no lower than
67 degrees. Now this is not because they require the colder temperatures but
because most if not all of the Bacterias and other pests that cause seahorse
sickness and death cannot live at temperatures that low.

As Incognito stated the need for low flow is not true. I keep mine in a really
heavy medium flow tank, with lots of lower flow areas where they can hitch to
rest. For flow I have 2 Maxi Jet 600's and the flow coming out of the 75G
rated HOB filter that I have on the back of my tank. The larger of my 5 seahorses
loved to hang out in the higher flow areas, they would swim against the current
and get as close to the outlet as they could then swim of to the
side.

My seahorse system is a 56g column tank, lighting consisted of an 8 bulb
18" T5's lamps built into a DIY hood, I use a HOB Filter & Surface Skimmer
from Foster & Smith Aquatics. Also had a bulk Reef Supply Dual Carbon/GFO
reactor and for flow as I said I have 2 Maxi Jet 600's

Here are some photos of my tank and the seahorses that were in it, the first
one was about 6 weeks after initial setup.


Shortly after the introduction of the first 4 seahorses, 2 females and 2 male,
I lost 1 male a week or so after introduction.



All 4 eating, the black one was my favorite


One of my favorite poses


Some of the other residents of that tank.

My Mysis eating Mandarin.


This was taken shortly before I got rid of the seahorses, notice how well the tank
had filled in and the corals had grown.