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Cultivated Reef

My 2.5-Gallon Soon to be Dwarf Seahorse Tank!


Fishgirl2393

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I've been told that any drop of water is a risk (so yes, reef tank water would be too). You could pass it through a UV sterilizer and that would probably work.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I will be watching your progress!

 

I have a fluval spec 2 that I would like to set up. Dry rock and dry sand that will be cycled.

I would like to have some caulpera but its interesting that's where you think you got your amphipods from. Did you dip the plants in freshwater?

 

This will be a longer project for me. Maybe next fall I can have the correct setup for them. I have a red sea max reef tank and frag tank so I know to be VERY pateint when setting up saltwater environments.

 

You noted that now you are going for a larger tank

1 - what mods did you do or recommend for the 2 gallon

2 - why are you switching tanks now?

 

 

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  • 2 months later...
Fishgirl2393

Well, I've not updated in a while but in the next few weeks, I plan to get some more dwarf seahorses. And instead of the 10-gallon setup, I've set up a tiny 1-gallon tank on my desk. However, if I end up with lots of babies, I will upgrade to a larger tank (probably a 3-gallon). I DIY'ed a miniature protein skimmer for the tank with some parts from an old under-gravel filter and a medicine cup. It is air-driven and so far seems to work really well. The tank is the little "corner" shaped tank from walmart. I don't plan on a heater right now because the tank stays warm without one and is too small. I'm probably going to put an air stone/air hose in for extra circulation. The tank will get small water changes often.

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Fishgirl2393

And the cycle is in full swing. Ammonia: 2ppm, Nitrite: 1ppm, pH: 8.1, nitrate: 0.

Tank is not going to have live coral (because of the possibility of stings to the seahorses) or plants (because of the risks of hydroids and amphipods). I have a few dead barnacles (collected and cleaned) in there and a small piece of dry rock in there as well as a fake plant (I may change the fake plant which looks OK to a different fake plant that looks more saltwater eventually). I'll post pics soon (but not tonight). Still figuring out the lights. Want to go LED (not expensive LED since there will be no corals) so I'm going to be looking around.

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Fishgirl2393

Cycle results from today: Ammonia 4ppm (is this any cause for alarm for it to be this high?), nitrite 2ppm.

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Fishgirl2393

And the ammonia/nitrite keep going up... today ammonia is 6-7ppm, nitrite is 3-4ppm. I've added Microbacter7 about 3 times. Is this normal for it to be so high?

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Fishgirl2393

The ammonia is STILL at 7ppm. What's going on? I would think that it would be lowering a bit by now.

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Nanofreak79
Anyone tried the "Hatch-N-Feeder"? Does it work pretty well?
I heard it's not a good idea. It creates a place for nastie bacteria to grow and possibly harm the ponies.

 

Cool to see another tank. I didn't realize you started this.

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Fishgirl2393

Oh, I've had them before. Just had some issues due to predatory amphipods (they were large and ate the babies that were born every few weeks). I'm not using the hatch-n-feeder (that was from 2011). I've been watching your thread too! But yeah, I'm not sure why my cycle is taking a while to get going. Ammonia at 7ppm is pretty high to not move for about a week.

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Nanofreak79

Hmmm.....I always use the prodibio products to quick cycle a tank. My cycles usually take about two weeks with dry rock. It's weird if your adding a bacterial supplement. Maybe try a different kind and see if that helps. Sorry, didn't notice dates. I heard about the amphipods to. I'm going with live macro, but doing freshwater dips to clean em up.

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Fishgirl2393

Ammonia STILL at 7-8ppm. So, I'm going to do a water change tomorrow and try to add something to help this along.

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Still waiting on cycle to proceed. Ammonia still 7(ish)ppm and nitrite still 3-4ppm

I am in the same mode as you, waiting for my seahorse tank to cycle!

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  • 1 month later...
Fishgirl2393

Tank has been cycled for a while. Been too busy to get the seahorses lately but will be ordering soon. Changed filtration/circulation from an air line (for circulation) and a DIY protein skimmer to a Whisper 3i (1-3 gallon air driven filter). It has carbon and PhosGuard in it. Still deciding on the light but I'm looking for a cheap LED fixture (doesn't have to be powerful).

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  • 3 weeks later...
Fishgirl2393
That's cool. I can never get the babies to live longer than about a week.

I know they say they can be raised together, but try separating them out into a bare tank with just an airline in it for flow. Just water changes to remove waste. That's just an idea. I have heard that getting enough bbs into the tank for the babies AND adults is hard. Don't know. I guess you could ask a breeder and see what they say. Could be enriching the bbs (do you?) is needed...

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Fishgirl2393

SUPER excited!!! I just placed an order for two pairs (4 seahorses) of dwarf seahorses!!! I'll post pictures of the tank as soon as I can and will post pictures of the ponies once they get here. :)

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