Dawn's seahorse garden. Farewell 36g bowfront!

[vlangel]

A cleanup crew will do basically nothing with detritus except that some will move it around and get it back into the water column by accident. The snails, hermits, and starfish that are purported to eat it simply do not. If this were true, I have literally a half inch tall pile of detritus that none of these organisms would ever have reason to leave, yet it continues to be ignored

Ha ha, yes you got that right. Although i do think my atlantic cucumber eats detritus but of course he never leaves the sandbed.

Coral likes to eat it

Amen to that! My poor coral gotta eat something.

[pgrVII]

Ha ha, yes you got that right. Although i do think my atlantic cucumber eats detritus but of course he never leaves the sandbed.

 

Amen to that! My poor coral gotta eat something.

Come on dawn we all know coral likes a pristine sterile environment

[HarryPotter]

Could you perhaps use UV? I don't know

[vlangel]

Come on dawn we all know coral likes a pristine sterile environment

Correction, they like a pristine sterile enviroment with food! Kind of like us, ha ha! Actually the type of coral i have do not like a pristine sterile enviroment either.

[pgrVII]

Correction, they like a pristine sterile enviroment with food! Kind of like us, ha ha! Actually the type of coral i have do not like a pristine sterile enviroment either.

Oh no no I was being really sarcastic lol my tank has some dirt in the water for sure too coral likes it some even the sticks

[vlangel]

Could you perhaps use UV? I don't know

I actually have one but when i moved the sump downstairs it quit working. Supposedly they don't help much according to other seahorse keepers (so i did not buy another one)but i wonder??? Maybe you are on to something Harry.

[HarryPotter]

I actually have one but when i moved the sump downstairs it quit working. Supposedly they don't help much according to other seahorse keepers (so i did not buy another one)but i wonder??? Maybe you are on to something Harry.

No idea but they do kill waterborne bacteria and parasites so perhaps they could help?

 

If yours is an easy fix I would do that first before taking out the seahorse-crossed lovers.

[vlangel]

Oh no no I was being really sarcastic lol my tank has some dirt in the water for sure too coral likes it some even the sticks

I knew that Patrick, i was being sarcastic right back at ya, ha ha! Well except my last sentence.

No idea but they do kill waterborne bacteria and parasites so perhaps they could help?

If yours is an easy fix I would do that first before taking out the seahorse-crossed lovers.

What seahorse keepers claim is that it does not kill vibrio, the bacteria that attacks seahorses. Still, i have run one for years and i could get the same one as i have the old one plumbed into the new system.

[pgrVII]

I knew that Patrick, i was being sarcastic right back at ya, ha ha! Well except my last sentence.

What seahorse keepers claim is that it does not kill vibrio, the bacteria that attacks seahorses. Still, i have run one for years and i could get the same one as i have the old one plumbed into the new system.

I'm slow on the uptake

[vlangel]

So far so good with the seahorses. Adam's spot looks no worse, maybe slightly better. His color is very good and pretty much what it always is. (I say that because when a seahorse is stressed for whatever reason they often darken in color). Adam does not look stressed to me. Eve also is doing well. Both ponies are eating like horses so i think things are under control. At least in regards to seahorse health.

 

I am noticing that i am getting algae growing on my rock work. That is a new developement for me. Of course in the past i have always had a ton of hermits who were in my employment and charged with keeping the tank clean. That is not the case with seahorses now residing in the tank. I only have 1 small hermit, a few trochus snails, 2 nassarius snails, 2 bee snails and a peppermint shrimp or 2. I am guessing i need more trochus or margarita snails. I can take a toothbrush to some of the algae. That might be why my nitrates and phosphates were so low- the algaes are using it all? Ha ha, nothing is ever simple, is it?

[Nano sapiens]

So far so good with the seahorses.

 

Ha ha, nothing is ever simple, is it?

 

Good to hear that the Seahorses are doing better.

 

Algae. Marvelously adapted to take advantage of any fortuitous changes to the environment, but what a pain ;/

[vlangel]

Good to hear that the Seahorses are doing better.

 

Algae. Marvelously adapted to take advantage of any fortuitous changes to the environment, but what a pain ;/

Yes it is. I doubt that i can lower the bioload as i think i feed the ponies pretty efficiently. That means i need to deal with the algae more effectively using more algae eating snails, but ones that don't mow down macro algae. Also maybe i should change the resin in my RO/DI. I don't have a TDS meter so i don't know how exhausted my resin is. Maybe i will ask the guys at my local club if any of them have a TDS meter.

[Felicia]

Glad to hear Adam hasn't gotten any worse. I am still very up in the air about whether UV really works.

 

I work in a lab that does cell culture, so we have multiple biosafety cabinets (where you do the cell culture) that have to stay sterile. They're all equipped with overhead UV lamps that are supposed to be turned on when no one is using the cabinet. However, there have been some more recent reports debating how effective the UV sterilization really is compared to the healthy risk of UV exposure to lab personnel. My lab decided several years back to stop using the UV lights at all and now we just sterilize with ethanol. Point being that even in a laboratory environment, not just the aquarium industry, this seems to be a topic of debate and no one is quite sure on effectiveness.

 

It is true that UV kills bacteria, but it will have varying levels of effectiveness on different types of bacteria. Also, the bulbs have to be cleaned regularly, as they will collect gunk which impairs their effectiveness. They also have to be replaced regularly as the lose power and effectiveness over time. Just seems like there are a lot of conditions to get right for them to really work well. The thing that has always baffled me in aquarium UV sterilizers is exposure time. When we used to use the UV lamps in our lab biosafety cabinets to sterilize, the assumption was that you should expose something to UV for a minimum of 30 minutes to kill bacteria. However, the water flows quickly through inline aquarium UV sterilizers so exposure time is more like seconds. I don't know if I buy into UV being able to have much effect that quickly. Here's a paper I found where the investigated the requited exposure time to kill a strain of vibrio and it took 10 minutes. E. coli took 30 min.

 

 

The other big concern I have with UV sterilizers is, are the bacteria really even flowing in the water column to be exposed to the UV? Most bacteria grow as biofilms on surfaces (for example, the nitrifying bacteria that inhabit the surface of live rock), so I've always doubted that any significant amount of the population would be free floating in the water column. This means the bacteria wouldn't even be flowing through the filtration system and therefore through the sterilizer.

 

Like I said, I'm on the fence about this...just my 2 cents on the consideration.

[vlangel]

Glad to hear Adam hasn't gotten any worse. I am still very up in the air about whether UV really works.

 

I work in a lab that does cell culture, so we have multiple biosafety cabinets (where you do the cell culture) that have to stay sterile. They're all equipped with overhead UV lamps that are supposed to be turned on when no one is using the cabinet. However, there have been some more recent reports debating how effective the UV sterilization really is compared to the healthy risk of UV exposure to lab personnel. My lab decided several years back to stop using the UV lights at all and now we just sterilize with ethanol. Point being that even in a laboratory environment, not just the aquarium industry, this seems to be a topic of debate and no one is quite sure on effectiveness.

 

It is true that UV kills bacteria, but it will have varying levels of effectiveness on different types of bacteria. Also, the bulbs have to be cleaned regularly, as they will collect gunk which impairs their effectiveness. They also have to be replaced regularly as the lose power and effectiveness over time. Just seems like there are a lot of conditions to get right for them to really work well. The thing that has always baffled me in aquarium UV sterilizers is exposure time. When we used to use the UV lamps in our lab biosafety cabinets to sterilize, the assumption was that you should expose something to UV for a minimum of 30 minutes to kill bacteria. However, the water flows quickly through inline aquarium UV sterilizers so exposure time is more like seconds. I don't know if I buy into UV being able to have much effect that quickly. Here's a paper I found where the investigated the requited exposure time to kill a strain of vibrio and it took 10 minutes. E. coli took 30 min.

 

 

The other big concern I have with UV sterilizers is, are the bacteria really even flowing in the water column to be exposed to the UV? Most bacteria grow as biofilms on surfaces (for example, the nitrifying bacteria that inhabit the surface of live rock), so I've always doubted that any significant amount of the population would be free floating in the water column. This means the bacteria wouldn't even be flowing through the filtration system and therefore through the sterilizer.

 

Like I said, I'm on the fence about this...just my 2 cents on the consideration.

Thanks Felicia, that is a very interesting article and i also appreciate your input regarding your lab experience too. Now I am on the fence. Actually I was on the fence before but was thinking a UV sterilizer couldn't hurt. Still, it will cost me about $100 to replace my turbo twist which is probably an inadequate UV sterilizer anyway, (but that is what i am plumbed for). The only reason i am considering it is I only had 1 incident of bacterial infection in the year + that i ran a UV. Now in the 3 months since not using one I have had 2 incidents already and this system has more flow turn over and has had more frequent WCs and should be superior in every way. I am baffled and perhaps grasping at straws.

[markalot]

I wonder if blowing the rocks every 3 days might actually stress the horses more?

 

Hope they continue to do well!

[Sk8n Reefer]

Glad Adam is maintaining ? Hopefully you will see improvement soon. Hermits not a good idea with pony's?

[vlangel]

I wonder if blowing the rocks every 3 days might actually stress the horses more?

 

Hope they continue to do well!

I have wondered that too Mark. They don't look stressed as when they see that turkey baster in their tank, they still remember the early days when i fed them right out of the turkey baster. They follow it around hoping for something edible to come out of it. It always makes me feel like a 'meany' playing a trick on them.

[vlangel]

Glad Adam is maintaining Hopefully you will see improvement soon. Hermits not a good idea with pony's?

Thanks Scott, I am optimistic about Adam.

 

No, most crabs are a no no in a seahorse tank. (Only very small blue or red legged crabs are considered safe). There is always the possibility of an inadvertent pinch that could start an infection. I have even wondered if the 1 crab I have is responsible for any of the spots on the ponies lately? Its a red legged hermit but has gotten bigger lately. Definitely not responsible for Adam's latest however because it is a perfect circle. A crab pinch would be less uniform.

[vlangel]

Alright, I think I might have found a possible cause to the ponies marks on their skin. This morning I set about dealing with my new algae issues on the rock work. Step 1 is manual removal and step 2 is aquire more algae eating snails. Step 1 included temporarily removing rock and/or coral to get access to the offending algae. In the process of doing that I cut my hand on the empty coco worm tubes that i had near the ponies' food dish for them to hitch to. It was covered in razor sharp points from tiny aquatic critters making a crusty home there. Needless to say those critters are now contacting their home owner's insurance to cover catastrophic damage since I took a scrubby pad and ground all the points down to nubs at best! I am wondering if the ponies were injuring their delicate skin on those coco worm tubes? Seahorses lack scales and their skin is fragile and easily wounded. I have at least for now eliminated that as a cause of future skin problems on the ponies.

 

And I have less nuisance algae in the tank as well.

I am mixing salt right now to do a WC to offset any debris and detritus I may have inadvertently kicked up from my algae purge rampage.

[gena]

Do you think that could have been the issue all along? What a relief if that's what it is. Better than never knowing!!!!!

[Astinus]

Glad to hear that U may have eliminated 1 source of injury.

Algae is a PITA!

[vlangel]

Do you think that could have been the issue all along? What a relief if that's what it is. Better than never knowing!!!!!

There is just no way of knowing for sure but even if its a possibility of injuring a pony in the future it needs to be dealt with. The reason I am considering it a possible cause is all the marks on Adam and Eve so far have been on their lower stomach or their upper tail area. These are all places that come in cantact to their body when they are hitched. I guess only time will indicate if that was the reason.

Glad to hear that U may have eliminated 1 source of injury.

Algae is a PITA!

Yes, I am glad I noticed that. It is not a place that my hands are generally near when I am in the tank.

 

And algae is a pain but in a seahorse tank algae happens! Fortunately my macro algaes are well established or else this problem would have been much worse.

[Astinus]

Time and Observation, Vlangel.

I know U know this, and I hope that was the only source of the injuries. Good Looking out!

[vlangel]

My poor colt coral is so beat up looking. I actually dropped it on the floor when I was removing it to get rid of bubble algae. Adam went to hitch on it and it was so shrivelled he couldn't even get a hold of it. Hopefully it will rebound. Generally they are a pretty tough coral.

[Astinus]

My poor colt coral is so beat up looking. I actually dropped it on the floor when I was removing it to get rid of bubble algae. Adam went to hitch on it and it was so shrivelled he couldn't even get a hold of it. Hopefully it will rebound. Generally they are a pretty tough coral.

Just Googled "Colt Coral" It's pretty. Is Urs Pink? Maybe a Pic?