RozZy Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Just setup my 3 gallon picotope. My plans for this tank is to start off with corals that are safe for dwarf seahorses.I'm going to create shielded areas were the seahorses can relax with the addition of hitching posts they can grab onto.The equipment I'm using are Aquaclear 70 turned to Refugium, I have a container underneath that I'm using to hatch baby brines and hopefully I'm also thinking of adding an air bubble skimmer called "pico skim 2.0", but I'm not sure it'll be necessary.My apartment has a central Air conditioner and I'm placing the tank near the fan, the temperature in this apartment stays at around 72-74 degrees, so a chiller won't be necessary. I've ordered a PAR 38 from ledtric that I'm thinking of hanging above it as a spotlight, so they have dark parts. I'm also adding hitching posts all over the rock structures as we go!I'm also thinking of making the brine shrimp grow into adult size in the tank before adding seahorses. And also adding different pods. Link to comment
Andrew_Reef90g Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Did you use live rock? Pretty sure you have to use dry rock for dwarf seahorses. Also, a 50 gph powerhead + the ac70 is way too much flow. Seahorses like low flow. Link to comment
RozZy Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 I am aware of the flow being too much, Im going to adjust it when it's time for seahorses. I've gotten rock from a seller that buys from a retailer and he could guarantee that their rocks won't have hydroids, but even if it will do, I wont add seahorses until the aquarium is 100% established, and hydroids usually come out after the cycling is done, and in that case ill get a cleaner shrimp to take care of it or I'll starve them. Seahorses will be the absolute last thing I will add. Link to comment
Mariaface Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I am aware of the flow being too much, Im going to adjust it when it's time for seahorses. I've gotten rock from a seller that buys from a retailer and he could guarantee that their rocks won't have hydroids, but even if it will do, I wont add seahorses until the aquarium is 100% established, and hydroids usually come out after the cycling is done, and in that case ill get a cleaner shrimp to take care of it or I'll starve them. Seahorses will be the absolute last thing I will add. Be very careful; hydroids aren't the only thing that can harm seahorses. Anything with a semi-potent sting will be bad, if not just stressful. That's why people suggest starting with completely dry rock and seeing only what you need (nitrifying/denitrifying bacteria, copepods, coralline algae, microalgae, etc). Link to comment
RozZy Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 Be very careful; hydroids aren't the only thing that can harm seahorses. Anything with a semi-potent sting will be bad, if not just stressful. That's why people suggest starting with completely dry rock and seeing only what you need (nitrifying/denitrifying bacteria, copepods, coralline algae, microalgae, etc). I will be extremely careful! I'm not seeing myself adding any seahorses for a long time. I'm planning on raising pods in it first and adding seahorse friendly corals. When everything is looking good, i'll be adding the ponies! Would a UV sterilizer do any good for stuff that could be harmful against seahorses? But again, thatll lead to more heat. Link to comment
RozZy Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 I'm buying parts to make my own DIY Aquarium chiller. I'm going to attach it to the AC 70 Refugium, It will be able to hold the temperature below 72 degrees. Being an old IT-technican its basically using the same technique as building a water cooler system. Just need a CPU fan, heatsink, Peltier cooler, Water cooling block and a 12v power unit. I'm planning on placing both an ATO container & a chilling container underneath the tank Link to comment
RozZy Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Cycling has started! Ammonia is now at 8ppm! Waiting for my test strips to arrive tomorrow to see if the nitrites has spiked. Placed the tank on a nicer stand, I'm going with a darker theme. I'm getting a par 38 spotlight that I will focus on the rocks in the middle and let there be darker parts around it, im also going to add an extra rock as a shield from the current. As you can see I added 2 small containers underneath it, one for the chiller and the other is an ATO. they total an extra 1.5 gallon of water volume as well + my Aquaclear 70 fuge is about half a gallon! I have modded the AC 70 to have extremely lower flow. Link to comment
RozZy Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 Wow checked the ammonia today and its gone. Nitrites and Nitrates are at 0 ppm, I'm giving it another day or two to see if the cycle is already done. Link to comment
horse_girl Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 If you do add a cleaner shrimp it will need to be removed before you add your dwarves. They've been known to stress out dwarves to the point of dying or reaching into their pouches and pulling out babies. Link to comment
Maniu Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Just curious.... are shrooms considered hazardous in dwarf seahorse tank. I am guessing it could be............ Link to comment
aquarium Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Just curious.... are shrooms considered hazardous in dwarf seahorse tank. I am guessing it could be............ It all depends on the species of shroom. If you put a peice if Brine or Mysis on the mushroom coral and it eats it, it might try to snack on a perching seahorse! If it doesn't, it is fine. Link to comment
Maniu Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 It all depends on the species of shroom. If you put a peice if Brine or Mysis on the mushroom coral and it eats it, it might try to snack on a perching seahorse! If it doesn't, it is fine. If I show you pic of shroom in my pest tank, could you identify shroom and scale it's aggressiveness? I don't feed this tank due to minimal filtration capabilities. Link to comment
aquarium Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 If I show you pic of shroom in my pest tank, could you identify shroom and scale it's aggressiveness? I don't feed this tank due to minimal filtration capabilities. I'm no shroom expert, but I can look it up for you. Link to comment
Maniu Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I'm no shroom expert, but I can look it up for you. Here are the pics of my pest tank: (Honestly, I don't know half acros, chalice and zoas name in my tank lol Never really cared for their names either. I don't need the name of shrooms I got. Just if their are more aggressive ones or not. Dwarf seahorses are super cute but I probably don't have ideal setup for them.) Shrooms are purple with lime green tips Thanks for trying in identifying those shrooms Link to comment
aquarium Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Here are the pics of my pest tank: (Honestly, I don't know half acros, chalice and zoas name in my tank lol Never really cared for their names either. I don't need the name of shrooms I got. Just if their are more aggressive ones or not. Dwarf seahorses are super cute but I probably don't have ideal setup for them.) Shrooms are purple with lime green tips Thanks for trying in identifying those shrooms Those appear to be rhodactus mushrooms which occording to this resource are not safe for seahorses. And dwarfs are so small that they can be eaten by amphipods so I wouldnt experiment with those mushrooms. Link to comment
Maniu Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Those appear to be rhodactus mushrooms which occording to this resource are not safe for seahorses. And dwarfs are so small that they can be eaten by amphipods so I wouldnt experiment with those mushrooms. Dwarfs just seem so tempting however. I am more interested in various Eviota gobies and that's what will probably go in this tank. Thanks for IDing these shrooms. Like I said, I wasn't curious enough to search those out. Till I came to this thread. Link to comment
Nivloc Posted April 9, 2015 Share Posted April 9, 2015 Enjoying your experiences is exactly the type of tank I would like to set up maybe a bit bigger, Link to comment
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