pgrVII Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Madagascar! Wow, that is very cool. How long will you be there? (Be sure to stay on the look out for those crazy penguins, ha ha! And King Louis too!) Dave and i went to Senegal Africa about 5 or so years ago. It was amazing! We're not sure yet still got alot to plan out,just making the frame of the plans as of now. Senegal sounds pretty cool too. Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 That is too cute! Adam and Eve could feel the love, that is for sure. Thanks RIP! Link to comment
RIP Sebastian Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 That is too cute! Adam and Eve could feel the love, that is for sure. Thanks RIP! Seemed like the perfect GIF to me! Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 Eve is totally healed now and there is no more evidence of a spot. Link to comment
ReefWeeds Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Eve is totally healed now and there is no more evidence of a spot. Link to comment
RIP Sebastian Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Eve is totally healed now and there is no more evidence of a spot. YAY!!!!! You're the best seahorse mom ever! Link to comment
YaBoyLaj Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Congrats, thats great to hear Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 YAY!!!!! You're the best seahorse mom ever! Thanks for cheering her and me on through the tough times! Thanks for all the encouragement! Link to comment
Felicia Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Thats so awesome to hear! Yay for your kick butt husbandry skills Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 Congrats, thats great to hear Thanks for caring about Eve's well being and for cheering her on! Link to comment
cowabunga-reefer Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Im interested to see what you do. Definitely sounds like it would make water changes easier. What about cleaning your sand bed during water changes? You'd still have to lug stuff up into the living room. If your plan works though that would be great...I know my living room hardwood already shows the signs of me spilling salt water on it. Luckily I'm a renter lol so I will come up with a better plan when I move. I'm actually in the process of building a sump for my tank. Confusing for a first timer. We have the exact same tank and I was trying to see what you are using. I was going to go with a 20gal sump. But our overflow gph should still be about the same right? Ok, so i have been thinking (which is always dangerous) about moving my sump to the basement. There are definite advantages, 1. The chiller and it's noise will move out of my livingroom to the basement. 2. It's a little cooler down there so the chiller should run less. 3. I will convert my 20L into a sump and increase my water volume by 10 gallons plus have a more spacious sump to work in. 4. If I make RO/DI in the basement in the brute can on the dolly, I won't have to lug water. I can just mix the salt in the brute can, wheel it over to the tank and pump it into the sump. There is a drain right near where the sump will be so I can syphon the water out of the sump right into the drain. 5. With water changes happening in the basement all salt, buckets and syphon hoses will move out of the livingroom plus the tank cabinet can now hide towels, nets and test kits ect...thus uncluttering my livingroom. If I keep the head loss distant to 10 ft or less I think I can continue to use my 9.5 mag drive return pump if I run just 1 bigger line up to the tank and just have 2 loc line splits at the top of the tank. Currently because I split the return right out of the pump into 2 lines, 1 going thru the chiller and 1 going thru the UV I lost a lot of flow. With a bigger sump I can use a small pump in the drain chamber for the chiller and UV and dump that water right in the return chamber. It seems like a no brainer. Cost won't be a lot, just the wood for a stand to hold the sump and some plumbing. O yeah, some plexiglass and silicon to turn the 20L into a sump and a small Rio pump for the chiller and UV. I can not really think of a drawback except I just kind of liked having everything where I could see it all at once, (you know, turn the return pump off and watch it drain into the sump or turn the return pump on and watch it fill the tank up and begin draining) but that's not a biggie. So, what do you think, does this sound like a good idea? Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 Thats so awesome to hear! Yay for your kick butt husbandry skills It is very awesome, but i am thinking it is my husbandry that somehow was lacking and contributed to her condition. Hopefully i have remedied whatever caused it? I am learning that a seahorse tank should probably not be packed full of coral, although i love that look. All that coral slows and disrupts flow so that detritus can get caught and settle creating conditions conducive for dangerous bacteria. Link to comment
Astinus Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Just curious, where can Sea horses be found in the wild? Are they found in Coral reefs? I ask this because... A) If found along Corals..what Types? Soft or Hard? *Having a brain fart with my thoughts about this right now, need to come back to this thought process* Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 Im interested to see what you do. Definitely sounds like it would make water changes easier. What about cleaning your sand bed during water changes? You'd still have to lug stuff up into the living room. If your plan works though that would be great...I know my living room hardwood already shows the signs of me spilling salt water on it. Luckily I'm a renter lol so I will come up with a better plan when I move. I'm actually in the process of building a sump for my tank. Confusing for a first timer. We have the exact same tank and I was trying to see what you are using. I was going to go with a 20gal sump. But our overflow gph should still be about the same right? That is great and i will help any way i can with pics and explanations. It has revolutionized my WCs for sure. You are correct about me still needing to lug water when i syphon the sand bed. Usually i only do that once every other month and i only syphon out about 2 and a half gallons so that is not too bad. I lay a towel on the floor when i do lug water to the tank. If you use the same gph pump with the same head height and diameter line then you should get the same flow as i am. My pump is a MagDrive pond pump 9.5 and my tubing was 1"ID eheim green tubing with 10 ft. head pressure. I ended up with just a single return nozzle in the tank because i could not find a dual locline that fit the U tube that hung on the tank but i am satisfied with it. One thing i would do different is buy a HOB overflow box that can handle more than the 400gph because my drain is noisey. My overflow box is really too small to have a 2 or 3 drain system but they are much quieter. Google or look on youtube at bean animal drains or durso drains to see what i am talking about. My pump is almost too much for my single drain and its on the verge of creating a syphon which makes a toilet flushing noise. I have remedied that with a hofer gurgle buster but its still a steady gurgle which i am ok with but i would have done it differently if i had known. Just curious, where can Sea horses be found in the wild? Are they found in Coral reefs? I ask this because... A) If found along Corals..what Types? Soft or Hard? *Having a brain fart with my thoughts about this right now, need to come back to this thought process* I think in the wild that they are not in the coral reefs as much as the grass flats of the ocean. That of course makes my tank not authentic at all but the grasses are difficult to grow so i just chose soft corals because they wont harm the ponies and are sturdy enough to tolerate cool water. Link to comment
yoshii Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Yaaay! So glad to hear about Eve's recovery! Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 Yaaay! So glad to hear about Eve's recovery! Thanks yoshii, i am rejoicing as well. Its so good to see the ponies flirting and dancing and doing what seahorses do! Link to comment
Felicia Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 It is very awesome, but i am thinking it is my husbandry that somehow was lacking and contributed to her condition. Hopefully i have remedied whatever caused it? I am learning that a seahorse tank should probably not be packed full of coral, although i love that look. All that coral slows and disrupts flow so that detritus can get caught and settle creating conditions conducive for dangerous bacteria. I'm telling you that I think in our small (relative to the ocean we have TINY systems) aquariums some bacteria is inevitable no matter how amazing your husbandry. I still think you rock! Link to comment
cloakerpoked Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 I'm telling you that I think in our small (relative to the ocean we have TINY systems) aquariums some bacteria is inevitable no matter how amazing your husbandry. I still think you rock! Not just inevitable, but vital. After all, it's bacteria that feeds our nitrogen cycle in the tanks. Bacteria is the most versatile and inevitable form of life in every ecosystem. A few thoughts from catching up on the thread.... 1st and foremost: Glad that Eve is feeling so much better. Look forward to seeing your tank in person again. Secondly: I wouldn't do any over-the-back if setting up a tank. Check out glassholes systems, and just drill the tank for a sump. Of course, if the tank is already set up, that's not an option. Lastly: I loved my ASM skimmer, and if my tank hadn't come with the Tunze skimmer that it did, I would have bought one for sure. I still may, since it worked so great in my last tank. You want to use a gate valve on a skimmer, not a ball valve. Ball valves are clunky and difficult to "fine tune." Gate valves are much easier to make very small incremental changes. In the mods I've seen for skimmers, the valve was used on the output pipe to change the height of the water in the skimmer body itself, not necessarily to throttle back the pump. The idea there is that you can choose exactly how high the water is in the skimmer body, which allows you to easily control what kind of skimmate you get. Obviously we're talking about pretty small changes here, dealing with 1/16th rotations on the valve, not something ball valves play nice with. Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 24, 2016 Author Share Posted March 24, 2016 I'm telling you that I think in our small (relative to the ocean we have TINY systems) aquariums some bacteria is inevitable no matter how amazing your husbandry. I still think you rock! You are very kind Felicia. And i know that you are right also about a certain amount of pathogenic bacteria being inevitable in any aquarium regardless of the husbandry. I guess that is why seahorse keepers should have their medicines already on hand instead of waiting until the ponies get sick. It is not a case of IF but rather WHEN they get an infection. Somehow i forget that and think it must be my fault when they get sick. Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 24, 2016 Author Share Posted March 24, 2016 Not just inevitable, but vital. After all, it's bacteria that feeds our nitrogen cycle in the tanks. Bacteria is the most versatile and inevitable form of life in every ecosystem. A few thoughts from catching up on the thread.... 1st and foremost: Glad that Eve is feeling so much better. Look forward to seeing your tank in person again. Secondly: I wouldn't do any over-the-back if setting up a tank. Check out glassholes systems, and just drill the tank for a sump. Of course, if the tank is already set up, that's not an option. Lastly: I loved my ASM skimmer, and if my tank hadn't come with the Tunze skimmer that it did, I would have bought one for sure. I still may, since it worked so great in my last tank. You want to use a gate valve on a skimmer, not a ball valve. Ball valves are clunky and difficult to "fine tune." Gate valves are much easier to make very small incremental changes. In the mods I've seen for skimmers, the valve was used on the output pipe to change the height of the water in the skimmer body itself, not necessarily to throttle back the pump. The idea there is that you can choose exactly how high the water is in the skimmer body, which allows you to easily control what kind of skimmate you get. Obviously we're talking about pretty small changes here, dealing with 1/16th rotations on the valve, not something ball valves play nice with. Thanks for the well wishes for Eve! You are right Nate about bacteria being vital but i think Felicia was referring only to the pathogenic strains that are dangerous, especially to seahorses. I agree, i would not do another HOB overflow box but in every instant i already had water in the tank or as in the case where i consolidated to one tank, the transfer was done in a matter of hours. There was not time to drill the tank nor could i risk a mishap. I am pretty sure grim reefer also already has his tank with water and livestock. Looking forward to you and the family coming! You and i must be careful not to go into our own little aquarium world though and only talk tank stuff! Ha ha! Link to comment
Felicia Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Yep, I meant the bad bacteria And yeah, Dawn, you just have to stop blaming yourself. I just don't think husbandry in our tanks can ever be perfect since we can never come close to matching the ocean. We just have to do our best and be vigilant and ready to act if there's an issue. You did it all right and Eve is back to her healthy self because of you, so definitely don't blame yourself. Link to comment
vlangel Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 I am back after a wild wonderful weekend of happy mayhem with kids and grandkids! I did not really have time to do anything with the tank for a week but did 2 WCs last night. I accidently bumped Eve with my feeding tube and now she has a slight abrasion on her side and i don't want it to get infected so i will probably do another WC today along with cleaning the glass and some general maintenance. Link to comment
cloakerpoked Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 After watching how much work Seahorses are, I've decided that they will never/ever be a species that I keep. I admire all of the work that my mom puts into her animals, and she does such a great job, but there is no way that I could do that for myself. Link to comment
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