[lilpaco]

Hi everyone! I have been in to saltwater fish for a while now and I have a 65 gallon tank and a 6 gallon custom eclipse system with some mushrooms and a open brain. I have just sold my 6 gallon tank to my uncle for his office and I have just bought me a 28 gallon euro bow front tank!!! I have also purchased 10 dwarf sea horses. I plan to keep just the sea horses and coral with the 380 Watt lights I'm thinking of buying but I don't know if thats going to be too much light for the sea horses or dose it matter? I've got a magnum HOT for filtration (too much ??) and still looking for a skimmer. I got 35 lbs. of LR from work (care A lot) with mostly branch rock for them to grab on too. I plan to build the stand this weekend but I have to get my lights first and my substrate (deciding between Black sand or live sand. (any help) Any help or suggestions are much appreciated!!

[NATIVEVAMAN]

380 watts is about twice what might be needed in any tank.
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Seahorse Organisation. Keeping and Breeding Seahorses in the home aquarium.

[lilpaco]

Hey are you saying thats too much or its a lot of light?

[NATIVEVAMAN]

If you are talking about 380 watts on a 28 gallon tank I am saying that 13.57 watts per gallon is to much lite.6 watts per gallon is plenty.for hard coral and clams.You are talking about light that would cause instant bleaching.

[lilpaco]

well the light comes with 4 cords what if i put all of them on different timers? with atinic blues in the morning (7 am) mixing with the 20,000 K early after noon(10am) , the 150W MH from like 1-4 then back to the 20K and atinic blue till like (7pm) then blues till (10pm) then LED's till next morning? would that work? I've already ordered the lights so im kinda stuck with them, you know?

[e_baer]

Originally Posted by lilpaco

well the light comes with 4 cords what if i put all of them on different timers? with atinic blues in the morning (7 am) mixing with the 20,000 K early after noon(10am) , the 150W MH from like 1-4 then back to the 20K and atinic blue till like (7pm) then blues till (10pm) then LED's till next morning? would that work? I've already ordered the lights so im kinda stuck with them, you know?

can you name the wattage of all the lights? Like the actinics are how many watts? what about the 12k?

And how many bulbs of each do you have in your fixture?

[lilpaco]

Here is the started work on painting the back of the tank and the out line of the stand! P1190747.JPG

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[e_baer]

The stand looks really nice. I made a stand too, but found that the plans I got online were not as stirdy as I had hoped for, so I made a few adjustments of my own.

[lilpaco]

Thanks! the stand is comming along should be staining it tommarow night! just put the 2 shelves in it.

The lights are as follows 250w MH
65W PC Atinic blue
65WPC 20,000k
and i think 4, or 6 blue night light LED's.

[Barry69]

I have been considering dwarf seahorses also. I read that a 28 gal tank is much too large, even for 10 because it is too difficult for them to catch their food. Food of choice is brine shrimp.

I could be wrong but you may want to look into that. Good luck with whatever you chose.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

In one of the links I provided you will find mentioned sea horses that have been trained from birth to eat flake food but will also eat pods and brine shrimp.I had no idea how much care these critters require until I read the articles.One of the links is from an organisation that has a forum.

[lilpaco]

thanks for the posts! in the tank size, Im thinking it wont be much of a problem with all the LR and Curlopa (sp) i've got i think there going to be fine.

I've got the whole brine shrimp hachery set up for live baby brine so i think that should be enough with mysis added.

any thoughts to corals i can or can not keep with them?

[lilpaco]

day two of stand building
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[e_baer]

I am jealous of that stand!

As for what corals you could keep with them.....

Sea Life Inc.

[lilpaco]

Ha thanks! Just added the corner board. As far as the corals is that the only ones that can be kept in the same tank or is that the only one that is bennifical to the horses because theres others i love to have

[hartsafire]

Hi, I`m new on this forum.. I was reading the Q on dwarf seahorses ..If you will go to Berghia Nudibranchs, Captive Bred Seahorses, Banggai Cardinalfish, Phytoplankton they have a wealth of information of the dwarfs.. and how to set up a tank for them.. these are fairly easy to keep if you have the proper set up and are willing to do water changes vacuum the sand floor daily.. are willing to do constant shrimp hatchings.. and enrichment of the live shrimp. live shrimp alone will not keep them healthy , You cant put these with live rock nor live sand.. too many bad things in the rock and sand to kill the dwarfs such as hydroids.. wrong bacteria.. etc. I decided not to go with the dwarfs.. I have a 29 gal with a pr of H. Reidi`s that is producing fry every 2 weeks.. It really pays to do your homework before jumping into a species specific tank.. ..according to what I have studied small 5 gal tanks are ideal , no corals at all in their tank.. Hope this helps you make the right decision on dwarfs.

[hartsafire]

Oh yes as far as lighting goes the dwarfs need no special lighting..

[hartsafire]

Hi, I`m new on this forum.. I was reading the Q on dwarf seahorses ..If you will go to Berghia Nudibranchs, Captive Bred Seahorses, Banggai Cardinalfish, Phytoplankton they have a wealth of information of the dwarfs.. and how to set up a tank for them.. these are fairly easy to keep if you have the proper set up and are willing to do water changes vacuum the sand floor daily.. are willing to do constant shrimp hatchings.. and enrichment of the live shrimp. live shrimp alone will not keep them healthy , You cant put these with live rock nor live sand.. too many bad things in the rock and sand to kill the dwarfs such as hydroids.. wrong bacteria.. etc. I decided not to go with the dwarfs.. I have a 29 gal with a pr of H. Reidi`s that is producing fry every 2 weeks.. It really pays to do your homework before jumping into a species specific tank.. ..according to what I have studied small 5 gal tanks are ideal , no corals at all in their tank.. Hope this helps you make the right decision on dwarfs.

[gudar]

i might be getting a pair of dwarfs but the tank i want to put them in is really small. im going to use a 1 gal because my 9 gal reef has too fast of a flow and my 65 gal is too big and it also has agresive fish

[hartsafire]

hmmm a 1 gal... what kind of filter u planning to use? I read on a forum of one guy that had a 3 gal tank with 51 dwarfs in it.. thats scarey!!! he said they just kept havin babies.. he was movin up to a 5 gal.. lol... I visited ora`s online store, they claim to have dwarfs that are weaned to frozen food.. You can`t order from them as they olny sell to LFS but they can put you in touch with a LFS that orders from them and they can order for you.. I was planning on selling my mated pr of H. reidi`s and getting a different type..was looking into dwarfs and what kind of set up to use.. one sight says undergravel filter with dead sand and another says just sponge filter with artifical hitching posts.. not sure what way to go.. I have a 5 gal acrylic tank. but would have to decide on filter and substrate... let me know what you are using.. Right now I have apprx. 55 reidi fry... eating hatched bbs. if I wanted another of the larger species, think I would go with erectus or capensis.. the reidi babies are very difficult to raise..

[gudar]

im going to use a nine gallon nano cube insted i already have brine,copepods,amphipods, and tiggerpods cultured so all i need now is some base and live rock and some more macroalge

[hartsafire]

Um a 9 gal nano... what kind of filter system are u thinking of? I wouldnt use live rock unless you plan on using panacur to kill off hydroids.. Many have used a good commercial live sand with no problems.. I have a 3 gal dead sand dead rock cycling now... with an air driven oxy sponge filter from drs fosters and smith..I threw in a piece of raw shrimp to get the amonia cycle going..... I have a 24 gal aquapod. my first saltwater aquarium, and I wouldnt use it for dwarfs simply due to the fact the dwarfs would go over the vent and be sucked up by the pump.. the flow is too strong for them anyway.. unless you modify it I wouldnt trust it... the micro algae is great..read up on the dwarfs first.. look on ebay.. I found the book The complete Guide to Dwarf seahorses in the home aquarium by Alisa Abbott Wagner... Great tips on the tank .. filter.., substrate etc.. Let me know how your tank is going..