Dawn's seahorse garden. Farewell 36g bowfront!

[vlangel]

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

Yes mine is pink and that was the very 1st coral I ever bought way back in the 90s because I thought they were pretty. I have to say mine isn't very pretty right now. I will get a pic when it recovers.

[Felicia]

I definitely don't want to discourage you from a UV sterilizer, since I am completely on the fence about them myself. If you get to the point where you can't think of anything else, it's worth a shot to see if it helps!

 

The sharp coco worm tubes sound like they could really be the culprit! If all the seahorse spots have been in the same, lower belly, upper tail area, that implies to me that they're probably getting small injuries hitching and not just getting and infection without a starting injury. The coco worm tubes being close to the bowl specifically as hitches really makes me think that could definitely have been an issue! Glad you caught that!

 

I'm sure your colt coral will be just fine. I think it's pretty indestructible When I bought mine recently, it was on a huge piece of live rock. That would be great if I needed rock, but my scape is done, so I wanted the coral but not so much of the rock. I asked the store employee to use the coral saw to try to cut down as much of the rock as possible. The kind of rock it was was super hard to cut and he had it out of the water for quite some time, manhandling it to position the rock under the saw. Then it got thrown in a bag and made a 40 min drive home with me. It was just fine

[Mariaface]

Jagged edges can also hold tiny pockets for bacteria to fester in!

[vlangel]

I definitely don't want to discourage you from a UV sterilizer, since I am completely on the fence about them myself. If you get to the point where you can't think of anything else, it's worth a shot to see if it helps!

The sharp coco worm tubes sound like they could really be the culprit! If all the seahorse spots have been in the same, lower belly, upper tail area, that implies to me that they're probably getting small injuries hitching and not just getting and infection without a starting injury. The coco worm tubes being close to the bowl specifically as hitches really makes me think that could definitely have been an issue! Glad you caught that!

I'm sure your colt coral will be just fine. I think it's pretty indestructible When I bought mine recently, it was on a huge piece of live rock. That would be great if I needed rock, but my scape is done, so I wanted the coral but not so much of the rock. I asked the store employee to use the coral saw to try to cut down as much of the rock as possible. The kind of rock it was was super hard to cut and he had it out of the water for quite some time, manhandling it to position the rock under the saw. Then it got thrown in a bag and made a 40 min drive home with me. It was just fine

Don't worry Felicia, you are not encouraging or discouraging me about getting a UV sterilizer. I am on the fence as well and can't decide.

 

It would be great if those sharp points were the issue with the ponies' marks. I do think what ever it is, its related to hitching though.

 

And I expect my colt coral to perk up. Its Adam's favorite spot and he will be bummed if it doesn't. But like you said, they are pretty much bullet proof so I am not worried.

Jagged edges can also hold tiny pockets for bacteria to fester in!

That is true making the ponies' even more suseptible to infection.

[vlangel]

I noticed that my water level in the DT rose just a tad after the rampage against algae. It turns out that some bubble algae got trapped in the hofer gurgle buster slowing the flow just a hair. I removed the standpipe in the overflow box and let the drain run under a full syphon for a time to flush any caught algae out. I sure don't want to come home to any floods.

[vlangel]

The colt coral is perking up as predicted. Everything else looks good too. Adam's spot is the same. I am doing a lot of water changes until I see improvement in Adam's mark.

[vlangel]

I noticed friskiness happening in the seahorse garden this morning!

[Astinus]

Oh Good!

[vlangel]

This week's episode 38 of the BRS 160 was very informative. It was on mounting corals with epoxy, glue gels and super glue. It also covered coral placement, lighting and how par impacts coral which is the portion of the video that I found very good. I highly recommend it.

[Elizabeth94]

Your photo taking skills are great I thought about setting up a seahorse tank before but I know I don't have the time and patience to keep them happy and healthy (not to mention I am still in college). It'll have to wait a long time before I even think about it again.

 

Good to hear they are both doing better.

[vlangel]

Your photo taking skills are great I thought about setting up a seahorse tank before but I know I don't have the time and patience to keep them happy and healthy (not to mention I am still in college). It'll have to wait a long time before I even think about it again.

 

Good to hear they are both doing better.

 

Thank you, its nice to hear that you think my photo taking skills are good as I have always considered myself very mediocre.

You are wise to wait until you are in a position to care for seahorses. I am home, (I guess you would say retired now)and am glad that I can give them all the care and attention they require. They are needy but I love their personalities. Someday will be your time if you want them and I have no doubt that you'll do great with them.

[vlangel]

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

Here is a pic of the the colt coral. It is the pink one in the upper right corner.

[vlangel]

Last night I pondered the possibility of removing some or up to half my of my rock work. Every once in a while I go through a restless spell with my tank for 1 reason or another. This time has been a result of having ponies with compromised health. I actually love the way my tank looks (coral and scape wise)but I was thinking if I open up the tank it will be more maintenance friendly for the seahorses. Some of the rock I can move to the sump but I will not have room for all the coral if I do this. Its a big step and I must not be impetuous about it since I really like the looks of my tank now. It would be a shame to change it to something I was not happy with.

 

My thoughts if I do this is to leave the right side as is. The left side I will remove all but much smaller rock work to surround, or partly surround the feeding dish. I will still keep the gorgonians for hitches of course.

 

What do you folks think?

[Felicia]

Glad to hear Adam isn't getting any worse. Sounds like he should be ok with just the water changes. That last photo of him is fun. Looks like he's still interested in food, which is always a good sign!

 

Are you thinking of rescaping to make it easier to remove detritus and get back behind the rocks? Is there any way to just change the scape a bit without removing a ton of rocks? Like maybe moving things forwards a bit to give better access behind? I love the way your tank looks, but I understand the itch to change things up and the health concerns with the seahorses. Definitely a hard call! Have you considered waiting a month or so to see if there are anymore ulcer issues since maybe the problem was just physical injury from hitching? I'd hate to see you change the tank a ton if you like it, if that really isn't an issue.

[vlangel]

Glad to hear Adam isn't getting any worse. Sounds like he should be ok with just the water changes. That last photo of him is fun. Looks like he's still interested in food, which is always a good sign!

 

Are you thinking of rescaping to make it easier to remove detritus and get back behind the rocks? Is there any way to just change the scape a bit without removing a ton of rocks? Like maybe moving things forwards a bit to give better access behind? I love the way your tank looks, but I understand the itch to change things up and the health concerns with the seahorses. Definitely a hard call! Have you considered waiting a month or so to see if there are anymore ulcer issues since maybe the problem was just physical injury from hitching? I'd hate to see you change the tank a ton if you like it, if that really isn't an issue.

Yes, Adam seems to be doing fine...eating well and courting his lady. His marks appear unchanged. I am learning that seahorse skin regenerates really slowly. No wonder they get infections so easily when their wounds are so slow in healing.

 

I am thinking of rescaping to make detritus removal easier and more effective. I actually have the rock work pretty far forward away from the back wall but with both rock formations being pretty tall it still makes accessing the back wall tricky.

Yes, I will ponder this awhile to 1. See if the cause of the injuries has been remedied and 2. to see if that is what I really want to do.

If I do change it I will remove the ponies temporarily and I will have a lot of new salt water made to offset the gunk that will be released into the water column. That way they should be returning into reasonably good water quality.

[jedimasterben]

One thing I would seriously recommend is raising the rock up off the bottom of the tank/sand by just a bit. I have my two rock formations only touching the starboard in five spots total, so detritus can only collect in one specific location now instead of under the entire rockwork.

 

If you can add more intermittent flow, then I would also recommend doing that. Maybe would need to put a powerhead in an egg crate shell, won't look fantastic, but with seahorses you have to be more cautious, as you know

[Felicia]

Yeah, I had the same issue accessing behind my rocks in my seahorse tank which created a bunch of issues. Seahorse tanks need to be tall, so then you end up making a tall scape and then its hard to get back behind that. The only thing I could think would be if you lowered your scape, but that might look weird in a tall tank. Definitely take some time to think about it! Maybe you'll get inspired with a cool idea.

 

Oh, so Ben's comment about intermittent flow got me thinking. I know MP10's are expensive, but have you ever considered buying a used one or two? You can set them on a mode like reef crest where they randomly change the flow speed all the time, which may help keep detritus off the rocks better. With constant, steady flow, you always have the same flow pattern, so there will be spots where detritus can settle. Just a thought! Maybe you could find a couple used MP10s.

[jedimasterben]

Or heck, really a couple of anything. Tunze 6020 are $40 each and give almost 700GPH each. Put them on a couple of timers to run off and on several times a day, they'll really kick things up. I'm getting one soon to put at the back of my tank under my returns pointing at my detritus pile on the starboard and that should, hopefully completely eliminate detritus from my display.

[Felicia]

Or heck, really a couple of anything. Tunze 6020 are $40 each and give almost 700GPH each. Put them on a couple of timers to run off and on several times a day, they'll really kick things up. I'm getting one soon to put at the back of my tank under my returns pointing at my detritus pile on the starboard and that should, hopefully completely eliminate detritus from my display.

That's true, you could get a JBJ Ocean Pulse duo for not too much money to power a couple inexpensive powerheads so they're intermittent instead of constant. Oh, they're actually on sale on Drs Foster and Smith.

[jedimasterben]

That's true, you could get a JBJ Ocean Pulse duo for not too much money to power a couple inexpensive powerheads so they're intermittent instead of constant. Oh, they're actually on sale on Drs Foster and Smith.

Those can only switch on and off every 6 minutes at the most, and most A/C powered pumps don't want that many hard starts/stops. :/

[Elizabeth94]

What about making a spray bar for the back wall that would sit horizontal to the sand? Would that help move the nasties up front so you can suck them up?

 

I really like your rock work, but then again, Im not the one who has to clean it

[Elizabeth94]

Do you happen to have any links about seahorse care that you recommend?

 

I am finding a lot of sites that just don't fit the bill. I would love to read some more about them

 

 

[vlangel]

One thing I would seriously recommend is raising the rock up off the bottom of the tank/sand by just a bit. I have my two rock formations only touching the starboard in five spots total, so detritus can only collect in one specific location now instead of under the entire rockwork.

 

If you can add more intermittent flow, then I would also recommend doing that. Maybe would need to put a powerhead in an egg crate shell, won't look fantastic, but with seahorses you have to be more cautious, as you know

Actually when I consolidated I did put several small pillar rocks under my 2 very large foundational rocks which had helped, especially on the right side.

 

I was just googling yesterday some of the different powerheads because I was considering intermittent flow. I don't have any controllers so that is making my investment costs go up, (unless I use timers)but I was even looking at the gyre 130.

 

Seeing your suggestions helps confirm to me that I am thinking on the right track so thank you Ben.

[vlangel]

Yeah, I had the same issue accessing behind my rocks in my seahorse tank which created a bunch of issues. Seahorse tanks need to be tall, so then you end up making a tall scape and then its hard to get back behind that. The only thing I could think would be if you lowered your scape, but that might look weird in a tall tank. Definitely take some time to think about it! Maybe you'll get inspired with a cool idea.

 

 

Maybe just removing the top of the left rock formation. The bottom base rock is the very large dense one that I am pretty sure is giving me some denitrification. The top rock is actually a dead coral skeleton and mostly has just a lot of macro algae attached to it. Anyway that would shorten the height making the back much more accessible.

The down side is that high structure is hiding a powerhead but if I totally revamp how I move water in the tank maybe that wont matter so much? I will check out Dr s Foster and Smith.

[vlangel]

What about making a spray bar for the back wall that would sit horizontal to the sand? Would that help move the nasties up front so you can suck them up?

 

I really like your rock work, but then again, Im not the one who has to clean it

I totally considered that when I first began my build and maybe a spray bar needs another look? That is a good suggestion.

 

Where I learned the very most about seahorses was through a free online course offered by Ocean Rider (seahorse.com). They imply that you should buy your ponies from them when you are ready for seahorses but there is no obligation. They send you a comprehensive 10 or 12 (I can't remember exactly now)chapter course via internet and you go through it at your own pace. Pete Gwonjna who has written books on seahorse care 20-30 years ago answers any questions you might have along the way.

You will go through the very first chapters quickly as they cover cycling a tank and filtration and such. Other chapters cover seahorse anatomy and different species, breeding and raising, diseases, treatment and prevention. I still refer to my downloaded version occasionally. Its the most comprehensive material that I am aware of and hey, the price is right! I did feel guilted into buying my first 2 seahorses from them but they have very healthy ponies although they are pricey. From now on I will probably buy from suppliers closer to PA.