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Polarcollision's Dwarf Seahorses


Polarcollision

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Polarcollision

ONE YEAR, ONE MONTH OLD:

 

2.25.16

 

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12.18.15

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EQUIPMENT

AQUARIUM: Innovative Marine Nuvo 8 (12" x 12" x 12")

LIGHTING: Par 38 LED

SKIMMER: Eshopps

HEATER: cobalt neotherm 25w

CONTROLLER: Reefkeeper lite

ATO: JBJ

PUMP: Cobalt MJ400 with a split stream return nozzle

IN-TANK BRINE SHRIMP HATCHERY: Custom

MEDIA BASKET: one InTank media basket with filter floss and carbon

SAND: CaribSea ocean direct Caribbean

 

 

LIVESTOCK

Dwarf seahorses

Green mandarin dragonet

2 pom pom crabs

Lettuce nudibranch

 

CORAL

SOFTIES: sinularia, various leathers, zoas, xenia, clove polyps, shrooms, green star polyps

INVERTS: various gorgonians, sponges, feather dusters

ALGAE: red titan, ochtodes, red grape, gibbesii, bryothamnion, branching coralline

 

 

Links:

http://fusedjaw.com/aquariumcare/dwarf-seahorses-as-pets/

http://fusedjaw.com/breeding/breeding-dwarf-seahorses/

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Polarcollision

I started this tank over a year ago with the idea of keeping dwarf seahorses. Unfortunately, right off the bat the tank came down with a nasty case of dinoflagellates. After half a year of trying every treatment I could find I kinda just gave up but never took the tank down. Then one day I couldn't take the dino smell and did a quick water change using old water from the Nuvo 24. Also added 1.5 inches of sand. Miraculously, a few weeks later the dinos were cleared up and have been gone for 3 months now.

 

There will always be a nutrient issue in this tank due to the massive amounts of brine shrimp hatching each day. It seems to follow a cycle of a small diatom outbreak which quickly gives way to hair algae. The hair algae also comes and goes.

 

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Polarcollision

The second big success with this tank is successfully keeping a green mandarin dragonet. I believe the dinoflagellates feed amphipods which in turn feed the mandarin. She also hoovers BBS. Here she is about 7 months in the tank, fat and healthy.

 

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Oh fun! A new thread for the ponies! Happy Birthday to your tank! You just reminded me that I forgot about my tank's birthday, which was 10 days ago. Whoops! Time flies!

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Polarcollision

from my other thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/337141-polarcollisions-nuvo-24-dwarf-seahorses/?p=5239587

 

DWARF SEAHORSES

 

Acclimating in a jar. Fingertips for scale. They're even tinier than expected. A little more than 1" extended, but hitched to a post, they look barely larger than 1/2". Sorry about the potatocam photos

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Almost a year later, there are ponies in this tank!!

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Polarcollision

Feb 4th from my other thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/337141-polarcollisions-nuvo-24-dwarf-seahorses/?p=5249822

 

POM POM EGGS!

 

LFS had 3 pom pom crabs and were kind enough to catch all of them so I could look at their underbelly plates. Two looked the same and one was different, though I couldn't tell if either had the wider plates of females. The different one was also a brighter salmon pink, where the two similar were more a pale magenta pink. Anyways I took one of each type on a gamble. Just a couple of days in the tank and the salmon pink crab is confirmed FEMALE. Check out that bright orange belly! (sorry about the grainy iphone phone pics)

 

More free fish food!

 

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love pom poms. Had what I thought was a pair until one killed the other one. I guess what looked like mating was a strong arm robbery for it's nems.

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Polarcollision

From Feb 11: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/337141-polarcollisions-nuvo-24-dwarf-seahorses/?p=5257164

 

Figured out how to upload video from the phone! Enjoy, seahorse lovers!

 

 

Also, check out the new corals from Stellablue: 2 types of branching coraline, green silularia, and 2 red macros tucked in around the sides. Seahorses really like the rigid branching red macro.


Made another quick iPhone video of the dwarf seahorse tank. Enjoy!

 


One more seahorse video for you all. Tried to include all of them.

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Polarcollision

Hey everyone, I hope this works. The tank is here to stay, soooo, it seemed like a good idea to move the seahorses over here.

 

I love the new video! I like how the seahorses are in little clusters :) So cute! They're definitely just like little miniatures of the full blown seahorses. They look just the same in how they're hitched and snicking food until you look at the coral and realize the scale.

They're so funny that way. Sometimes they're all over on the far left gorg, sometimes on the sinularia, and sometimes in the algae. Right?! Even their eyes scan for food exactly the same as the bigger ones.

 

Just stumbled onto this build and glad there are still nuvo 24 tanks out there :) love your tank BTW!! Keep up the videos

Cool! I'll check out your 24. I also thought they were all turning into broken glass and I was jus super lucky. The 24 is more of a mixed reef and the Nuvo 8 is all the recent seahorse pics. I just moved everything over to this thread tonight.

 

Those videos are so sweet! Make my heart melt. The tank looks awesome!!!!

They're super cute. I get nothing done in the evenings anymore--unless watching them counts for doing something.

 

Yes, that is exactly what it is. That is how Adam flirts with Eve also. Sometimes he will pull his head down against his chest when he sidles up to her.

OMG, even this is the same. Do you have any video of yours flirting? Would love to see it. The largest male did the same thing with his head. I wondered if I needed to look for babies, but he would stop to eat. Kinda seemed like all the weird motion wasn't labor if he was eating.
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Polarcollision

Oh fun! A new thread for the ponies! Happy Birthday to your tank! You just reminded me that I forgot about my tank's birthday, which was 10 days ago. Whoops! Time flies!

No way - your predator tank is two years now? Happy tank b-day to you too! Seems weird to start this thread a year late...

 

That FTS just got like bombed

You mean all the pics I added? Was trying to outsmart the post combining by maxing out post images. LOL

 

love pom poms. Had what I thought was a pair until one killed the other one. I guess what looked like mating was a strong arm robbery for it's nems.

They're awesome aren't they?! My favorite crab for sure. The LFS was cool enough to pull all theirs out for a view of their abdomen. Supposedly the plates are wider for females. I couldn't tell so I just took two that looked the most different. Lucky? They tried to kill each other in the bag, but she showed up pregnant a few days later. Guess the makeup sex was good. ;-)

 

omgomgomg:wub:

 

Amazing!!! Such a beautiful tank! The ponies are adorable

 

 

Have you had any problems with hydroids on the rocks?

Thanks yoshii! I'm in love with them too.

 

No hydroids since I followed advice and started with dry rock. It's some kind of calcium carbonate rock that helps keeps alkalinity stable. Like this:

51y24SILXuL._AC_UL320_SR312,320_.jpg

 

I think the fact that it wasnt live made the dino outbreak worse than it could have been. Once the rock got covered in bacteria, etc things started looking better.

 

Guess who's pregnant again? Also caught her digging up sand and cleaning it for dinner. The pom pom in the Nuvo 24 does this too. AFAIK that's all they eat.

 

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No way - your predator tank is two years now? Happy tank b-day to you too! Seems weird to start this thread a year late...

Haha, nope it just turned 1! It was wet on February 15, 2015.

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Polarcollision

Oh I meant I just liked it a bunch of times, this forum might not register that though

I think it did-- there were something like 8 notifications from you. LOL. Thanks man. The horses are feeling the love.

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Polar, here is a video of their mating dance. They were kind of beyond flirting at this point. I think I have another video of more flirtatious movements.

 

Here is another video of them flirting.

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Polarcollision

Polar, here is a video of their mating dance. They were kind of beyond flirting at this point. I think I have another video of more flirtatious movements.

 

Here is another video of them flirting.

 

Oh wow! They sure do look happy in your tank! I always knew you were a good reefer, and seeing them so happy takes it up a notch for me. What species are they? They seem larger to me than the pair I kept in '10--maybe it's just staring at the dwarfs so long. Thank you for sharing! I love seeing their behaviors, especially swimming together.

 

P.S., I couldn't find on your thread how you manage phosphates. GFO? My hair algae outbreak is moving into glorious status this time. I have a lettuce nudibranch but should have picked up 3 of them.

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I remember when I was researching for my seahorse tank that there seems to be a disagreement about whether GFO is seahorse safe. Some people think its totally fine and others insist it causes gill issues or something, but there wasn't much evidence if any at all. However, I do know from having my seahorses and they're need to constantly eat, that phosphates were definitely a struggle. On my seahorse tank I was running a bag of GFO in the back chamber at first and then ended up getting a dual BRS reactor for GFO and carbon. How are your nitrates? Now that I've done biopellets though, I'd think they might be a good alternative for seahorse tanks since they seem to work well for heavy nutrient systems. You have to have enough nitrates to export though since the ratio of exporting the nutrients is like 17:1 for nitrates:phosphates.

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Oh wow! They sure do look happy in your tank! I always knew you were a good reefer, and seeing them so happy takes it up a notch for me. What species are they? They seem larger to me than the pair I kept in '10--maybe it's just staring at the dwarfs so long. Thank you for sharing! I love seeing their behaviors, especially swimming together.

 

P.S., I couldn't find on your thread how you manage phosphates. GFO? My hair algae outbreak is moving into glorious status this time. I have a lettuce nudibranch but should have picked up 3 of them.

I am sorry Polar, I had missed this post and your questions. Better late than never, right? My seahorses are H erectus. I chose them because they are supposedly a sturdier, good beginner seahorse.

 

I used GFO in the beginning to try and manage phosphates. That worked somewhat but then I worried about the safety of it. I was using tap water so my phosphates were off the chart right from the tap. I had a portable RO/DI that I had never used so I ordered cartridges for it last summer and began using it. I control phosphates with big WCs. I probably do around 40% a week. All the growing macros are taking up some of the phosphates and nitrates too. Also I have a honkin' skimmer for my system. Its rated for 180 gallons and my system is 56 and that keeps nitrates down. My phosphates are .125 and my nitrates are 5 or 10 when they creep up a bit. I actually have some of my coral languishing and I think it is because they would like more nutrients, or that is my theory anyhow.

 

I have read threads by some folks who carbon dose very effectively with seahorses. I have thought about it so I could reduce my water changes but it kind of scares me. I am low tech and don't use reactors or controllers. A dosing pump is something that can malfunction and I would just rather not.

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Polarcollision

I remember when I was researching for my seahorse tank that there seems to be a disagreement about whether GFO is seahorse safe. Some people think its totally fine and others insist it causes gill issues or something, but there wasn't much evidence if any at all. However, I do know from having my seahorses and they're need to constantly eat, that phosphates were definitely a struggle. On my seahorse tank I was running a bag of GFO in the back chamber at first and then ended up getting a dual BRS reactor for GFO and carbon. How are your nitrates? Now that I've done biopellets though, I'd think they might be a good alternative for seahorse tanks since they seem to work well for heavy nutrient systems. You have to have enough nitrates to export though since the ratio of exporting the nutrients is like 17:1 for nitrates:phosphates.

Gah. I did not know that about GFO. Thank you for the head up!! It will be out tomorrow. Curious if there are any links I should read? Also wonder if the problems come with GFO reactors. It can grind up the GFO into dust if flow is too high or it's allowed to tumble. Mine is passive in the media basket, combined with carbon and purigen.

 

The skimmer will be enough once I get the ATO working in the back chamber. It's pretty tight in there so it's taking a bit to make the two floats reliable. In the mean time, the hair algae started collecting detritus and threatening to break out in something worse so I snagged a tiny sea hare from the LFS who has cleared all of the tall hair algae in a week. Hoping the hair algae grows back fast enough to keep it. It's strangely cute. Weirdly, nitrates have always been around 1 for all of my systems, it's always been phosphates that rise too high. At least according to the RedSea kit.

 

I'm very curious about your intank hatchery. Details?

Basically I want to find a way to not have to hatch BBS each day--to be more hands off. Still need to tweak it a little and then I may offer to make them.

 

I am sorry Polar, I had missed this post and your questions. Better late than never, right? My seahorses are H erectus. I chose them because they are supposedly a sturdier, good beginner seahorse.

 

I used GFO in the beginning to try and manage phosphates. That worked somewhat but then I worried about the safety of it. I was using tap water so my phosphates were off the chart right from the tap. I had a portable RO/DI that I had never used so I ordered cartridges for it last summer and began using it. I control phosphates with big WCs. I probably do around 40% a week. All the growing macros are taking up some of the phosphates and nitrates too. Also I have a honkin' skimmer for my system. Its rated for 180 gallons and my system is 56 and that keeps nitrates down. My phosphates are .125 and my nitrates are 5 or 10 when they creep up a bit. I actually have some of my coral languishing and I think it is because they would like more nutrients, or that is my theory anyhow.

 

I have read threads by some folks who carbon dose very effectively with seahorses. I have thought about it so I could reduce my water changes but it kind of scares me. I am low tech and don't use reactors or controllers. A dosing pump is something that can malfunction and I would just rather not.

The little I know about carbon dosing is that the skimmer is required to remove the bacteria. And I am surprised at how many of my dosing experiments were with products that had a vinegar smell. Wonder how many of us are carbon dosing without realizing it! :-) I may try the biopellets and maybe the sulphur pearls--bbs are high in sulphur.

 

So glad you beat the dinos. This thread is awesome.

Thank you! They are still in the system and can come back any time conditions favor them, but the key seems to be reducing phosphates and removing detritus traps for now.

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Polar! I missed this new thread! Looking good and I'm excited to be following along :)


ONE YEAR, ONE MONTH OLD:

 

2.25.16

 

bWzUgtw.jpg

 

 

 

 

Polar - what is that coral on the far right with the neon centers?

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Polarcollision

Polar! I missed this new thread! Looking good and I'm excited to be following along :)

Polar - what is that coral on the far right with the neon centers?

It's a cool GSP I found locally. Love the texture of it!

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