Pete Giwojna
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Re:new seahorse tank - 2008/05/11 20:20
Dear Sindy:
Excellent! It's good to hear that you're going to upgrade your new seahorse tank, Sindy. Your seahorses will fare much better in the larger 35-gallon aquarium, whereas the 12-gallon nano tank was designed for keeping live corals and maintaining a mini reef, and should excel in that role. It would also make a nifty quarantine tank.
Tunze makes quality protein skimmers but I'm not sure if a model designed for a nano tank will be adequate for a 35-gallon aquarium. Be sure you pick out a protein skimmer that's rated for at least 35 gallons.
When it comes to hang-on-the-back skimmers, both the AquaC Remora and Euro-Reef series of protein skimmers are first-rate units that may also want to consider. You can't go far wrong if you select a quality AquaC or Euro-Reef skimmer rated for an aquarium of at least 40 gallons. I've also heard good things about the H.O.T protein skimmers. I believe Premium Aquatics carries all of those brands of hang-on-the-back protein skimmers, and I would select one of the above if I was you.
If space is at a premium as far as installing a protein skimmer goes, a lot of hobbyists like the Red Sea Prizm protein skimmers because of their sleek compact design.
Whether or not you want to set up your new tank using tap water and artificial salt mix, or purchase natural seawater from your LFS, or obtain RO/DI water from your LFS and use that to mix up your salt water using an artificial salt mix is going to depend on the quality of your municipal water supply and whether there is a good local fish store in your area that you trust.
If possible, I recommend using reverse osmosis/deionized water (RO/DI) to fill your new aquarium initially and for making regular water changes once the aquarium has been established. RO/DI water obtained from a good source is ultra-pure and using it to fill the tank will help prevent nuisance algae from ever getting started in the newly established aquarium. In many areas, tap water may contain significant levels of amines, nitrates, silicates and phosphates, all of which contribute to the growth of nuisance algae in the aquarium. These substances have been removed from water that's been purified by reverse osmosis-deionization filtration, and setting up your aquarium using RO/DI water from the start can thus help prevent nuisance algae from ever getting a toehold in your tank. And believe me, preventing nuisance algae is far easier than eradicating it once it rears its ugly head in the aquarium!.
If you do not have an RO/DI unit of your own, you can always purchase the reverse osmosis/deinonized water (RO/DI) instead. Most well-stocked pet shops that handle marine fish sell RO/DI water as a service for their customers for between 25 and 50 cents a gallon. If your LFS does not, WalMart sell RO/DI water by the gallon for around 60 cents, and you should be able to find a Wal-Mart nearby. (Heck, even my drug store sells RO/DI water nowadays.)
However, it's not always safe to assume that RO/DI water purchased from your LFS or your drugstore or some other convenient source is as pure as you might expect. If the merchants selling the RO/DI water are not diligent about monitoring their water quality and changing out the membranes promptly when needed, then the water they provide will not be a good quality and will not produce the desired results. I suggest that you look for an aquarium store that maintains beautiful reef systems on the premises -- that's a good sign that they know their stuff and are maintaining optimum water quality at all times, so the RO/DI water they provide should be up to snuff.
Of course, RO/DI water is simply very pure freshwater, and you would have to add an artificial salt mix, and perhaps a good aquarium buffer, to the RO/DI water in order to fill your new marine aquarium with quality saltwater.
You may also want to consider purchasing natural seawater to set up your new aquarium, Sindy. Like RO/DI water, natural seawater can now be purchased at many fish stores for around $1.00 a gallon, depending on where you live. (Petco stores, I believe, often sell natural seawater nowadays.) It sounds expensive, but when you consider the alternative -- paying for artificial salt mix plus RO/DI water and mixing your own saltwater -- then natural seawater from a reliable source is not a bad bargain at all. It has unsurpassed water quality and seahorses thrive in it.
If you do not have access to a good source of reliable RO/DI water or top quality natural seawater, then detoxified tap water will have to suffice for filling your new aquarium. In many areas, the municipal water supply has undesirable levels of amines, silicates, phosphates or nitrates, and in the United States, it is always chlorinated and fluoridated, so be sure to dechlorinate/detoxify the water using one of the many commercially unavailable aquarium products designed for that purpose when you add it to the aquarium.
As for using crabs or snails to help cycle your new aquarium, Sindy, that could be a mistake. As I was recently discussing with JetMech in his "tank prep" thread, invertebrates would be unlikely to survive the ammonia and nitrite spikes that occur when a new aquarium is establishing the biological filtration.
The live sand and live rock you will be using will seed your new 35-gallon aquarium with beneficial bacteria and, of course, you do need to add a source of ammonia to feed that bacteria and help the aquarium to cycle, but I would not use invertebrates for that purpose. You could use hardy, expendable fish, such as damsels or mollies to feed the bacteria with their waste products, but I would recommend the fishless cycling method instead, which involves adding a piece or two of uncooked cocktail shrimp or similar biomass to the aquarium, which will produce abundant ammonia as it decomposes.
There is a detailed discussion of this method for cycling a new aquarium in the discussion thread on this page titled "New Tank -- Please Help," and if you read through that material, it will explain how to cycle your tank step-by-step using this technique. You can look up the discussion online at the following URL:
http://www.seahorse.com/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid,218/func,view/id,4939/catid,2/
Yes, you can certainly keep some hand-picked live corals that are safe for seahorses in your new aquarium, Sindy. However, the hobbyist who wants to keep seahorses with live corals must be willing to make some concessions and modifications to accommodate the special needs of their ponies. For example, the seahorse keeper must be willing to limit himself to corals and invertebrates that meet the following criteria:
1) Avoid any stinging animals with powerful nematocysts. This means fire corals (Millepora spp.) and anemones should be excluded from the seahorse reef, and any corals with polyps that feel sticky to the touch should be used with discretion and only after careful planning. When a seahorse brushes up against them or attempts to perch on them, the nematocysts or stinging cells of these animals can penetrate the seahorse's skin and damage its integument. Needless to say, this causes pain and discomfort and can leave the seahorse vulnerable to secondary bacterial and fungal infections, which may take hold at the site of injury. Short polyped stony (SPS) corals are generally fine, but large polyped stony (LPS) corals should be regarded with caution, as discussed in more detail below.
2) Water movement and circulation must not be too strong or turbulent for the seahorses. Corals that require powerful surge or overly strong water currents could overtax the limited swimming ability of Hippocampus and should be avoided.
3) The corals must be able to withstand being used as hitching posts by the seahorses from time to time; that is, they cannot be so delicate that having a seahorse's grasping tail anchored around them could cause them any harm. For instance, soft corals may retract their polyps when a seahorse perches on them. This can be harmful to their health if it becomes a chronic problem, because many corals rely on their polyps to absorb light and convert it to energy via photosynthesis. Be sure to watch any soft corals and hermatypic corals to make sure they are not closed up for extended periods. Normally, they adjust to the seahorses' presence and unwelcome attention after a while, and remain contracted only briefly after each contact. After repeated exposures to grasping tails, each such incident elicits a weaker response, so they tend to extend their polyps sooner and sooner after being disturbed (Delbeek, Oct. 2001).
4) Avoid Tridacna clams and similar bivalve mollusks. Sooner or later a seahorse will perch on them with its tail between the valves and the clam's powerful adductor muscle will clamp down on it like a vise. At best this will be a very stressful experience for the unfortunate seahorse, since it can be the devil's own business trying to persuade the stubborn mollusk to release its struggling victim! At worst, it can result in serious injury or permanent damage to the seahorses tail (Giwojna, unpublished text).
5) Beware of unwanted hitchhikers that may have come in on your live rock unbeknownst to you and which can harm seahorses, such as fireworms, mantis shrimp, or Aptasia rock anemones. When setting up a reef system for seahorses, it's a wise precaution to pre-treat your live rock with a hypersaline bath to drive out such pests beforehand because they can be very difficult to remove or eradicate once they make themselves at home in your aquarium (Giwojna, unpublished text).
As long as the specimens you are considering for your seahorse tank satisfy these requirements, anything goes! Some of the good and bad candidates for such a reef system are discussed below:
Seahorse-Safe Corals
Soft corals have very little stinging ability and generally make good choices for a modified mini reef that will include seahorses (Delbeek, Oct. 2001). This includes most mushroom anemones (corallimorpharians). However, as Charles Delbeek cautions, "One notable exception is the elephant ear mushroom anemone (Amplexidiscus fenestrafer). This animal is an active feeder on small fish and will envelope them whole with its mantle then slowly digest them by extruding its digestive filaments into the space created. No small fish are safe with these animals in the tank (Delbeek, Oct. 2001).".
Hippocampus also does very well with zooanthids and colonial polyps in general. But the hobbyist must be sure to observe a couple of precautions when handling the zoanthids and placing them in your aquarium.
First and foremost, many of the commonly available Zooanthus (button polyps) and Palythoa (sea mats) species contain a very toxic substance in their mucous coat known as palytoxin, which is one of the most poisonous marine toxins ever discovered (Fatherree, 2004). Palytoxin can affect the heart, muscles, and nerves, resulting in paralysis or possibly even death, and many hobbyists have reported numbness, nausea and/or hallucinations after merely touching these corals (Fatherree, 2004). When you handle zoanthids and palythoans, you cannot help picking up some of their protective slime on your fingers, and so much as rubbing your eye, picking your nose, or a small cut on your finger can be enough to land you in the hospital. When handling Zooanthus are Palythoa species, it's very important to wear disposable latex gloves, avoid touching your mouth or eyes, and carefully dispose of the gloves immediately afterwards (Fatherree, 2004).
Secondly, zoanthids and other soft corals such as mushrooms may wage border battles if you place them in close proximity to each other (and the zoanthids almost always lose out to the mushrooms in these skirmishes). So be sure to allow adequate space between the colonies. Some rapidly growing Zooanthus colonies can be aggressive to soft and stony corals alike as they rapidly spread over the rockwork, but in general they are quite peaceful, and you can always slow down their rate of growth by reducing the nutrient loading in the aquarium.
Other low light corals that should be suitable for a seahorse reef include genera such as Cynarina, Scolymia and Trachyphyllia, as well as non-photosynthetic gorgonians such as Subergorgia and Didogorgia, and perhaps wire corals such as Cirripathes spp. (Delbeek, Nov. 2001).. However, supplemental feedings of zooplankton may be required to maintain these corals in good health.
The hard or stony corals fall into two categories depending on the size of their polyps. The small polyped stony (SPS) corals have tiny polyps that extend out of minute openings in the stony skeleton, and generally have weak stings that should not pose a threat to seahorses. Depending on conditions in the tank, SPS corals such as Acropora, Montipora, Pocillipora, Porities, Seriatopora and Stylophora can be tried freely at your discretion (Delbeek, Oct. 2001).
The large polyped stony (LPS) corals, however, are generally best avoided altogether. These include genera such as Catalaphyllia, Cynarina, Euphyllia and Trachyphyllia that have large fleshy polyps which often have tentacles equipped with powerful stinging cells. The Euphyllia and Catalaphyllia have the most powerful nematocysts among the LPS corals, and can deliver stings that are stronger than most anemones (Delbeek, Oct. 2001).
Some of the soft corals and stony corals that generally do well with seahorses in a modified reef tank are listed below. (By no means is this intended to be a comprehensive list, but rather just a few examples of suitable corals to serve as general guidelines when stocking a reef tank that will house seahorses):
Finger Leather Coral (Lobophyton sp.)
Flower Tree Coral - Red / Orange, (Scleronephthya spp.)
aka: Scleronephthya Strawberry Coral, or Pink or Orange Cauliflower Coral
Christmas Tree Coral (Sphaerella spp.)
aka: the Medusa Coral, Snake Locks Coral, or French Tickler
Cauliflower Colt Coral (Cladiella sp.)
aka: Colt Coral, Soft Finger Leather Coral, Seaman's Hands or Blushing Coral.
Toadstool Mushroom Leather Coral (Sarcophyton sp.)
aka: Sarcophyton Coral, Mushroom, Leather, or Trough Corals.
Bullseye Mushroom Coral (Rhodactis inchoata)
aka: Tonga Blue Mushroom, Small Elephant Ear Mushroom (rarely)
Clove Polyps (Clavularia sp.)
Stick Polyp (Parazoanthus swiftii)
Green Daisy Polyps (Clavularia sp.), Indonesia
Orange & Green Colony Button Polyps (Zooanthus sp.), Fiji
Pulsing Corals (Xenia spp.)
Red Ricordea (Ricordea sp.), Indonesia, occasionally Solomon Islands
Lavender Hairy Mushroom (Actinodiscus sp.), Tonga
Pimpled Mushroom (Discosoma sp.), Indonesia
Purple Gorgonians
Aside from corals, other good inverts for seahorses include decorative cleaner shrimp like those listed below:
Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)
Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp or Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
Fire Shrimp (Lysmata debelius)
Harlequin Shrimp (Hymenocerus elegans and H. picta) - predatory on sea stars;
Assorted Feather Dusters (Sabellastatre magnifica, Sabella sp.) whose colorful crowns resemble gaily-colored parasols.
For additional information regarding seahorse-safe corals and invertebrates, please see Will Wooten's guide to tankmates for seahorses at the following URL:
http://www.seahorse.org/library/articles/tankmates.shtml
Best of luck with your new 35-gallon seahorse tank, Sindy!
Respectfully,
Pete Giwojna
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