Pete Giwojna
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Re:Getting Ready to upgrade to a 56gal - 2008/05/13 22:44
Dear Estefano:
Overall, I am very impressed with the ELOS aquarium systems with external filtration. They have come up with a nice, clean design with all of the equipment safely contained in the built-in sump. It doesn't appear as if there is anything in the aquarium for a curious seahorse to hitch onto, so your renegade female Mustang and all of the others would make full use of the hand-picked hitching posts you have carefully provided for them instead of adopting some piece of apparatus as their favorite perch.
It sounds like it would provide very efficient mechanical and biological filtration, and you could certainly equip the sump with any form of chemical filtration you please. It has an efficient protein skimmer and I really like the Osmocontroller II system for automatically topping off the tank and maintaining the water level in the aquarium. The optional features such as the calcium reactor are also a real nice bonus to have available.
But what really makes this aquarium system special is the built-in sump, and that's a wonderful feature. As you know, there are many advantages to adding a sump to your seahorse setup. For starters, it increases the overall water volume of your system with all the benefits that implies. A good-sized sump can easily double your carrying capacity, increasing your safety margin accordingly. It makes an ideal place to put a protein skimmer, heater(s), air stones, and other equipment so they don't have to be hidden in the display tank. (A well-designed sump does a great job of trapping and eliminating the microbubbles emitted from skimmers and preventing them from entering the aquarium, and provides an excellent way of increasing the aeration/oxygenation, which is so important for a seahorse setup.) It's the perfect place to perform additional mechanical and chemical filtration, tailoring the filter media to meet ones exact needs, or to add a calcium or nitrate reactor or even a Deep Live Sand Bed (DLS to your seahorse setup. Because the sump is a large body of water separated from the aquarium itself, it facilitates water changes, dosing supplements, adding top-off water to the tank and other maintenance tasks, all of which can be carried out in the sump without disturbing the main tank or stressing its inhabitants. Entire sections of the mechanical filtration can be cleaned at one time without affecting your primary biofilter, and water changes can be performed gradually without causing stress to the fish or invertebrates. A sump/refugium can also be used to grow a lush bed of macroalgae using a reverse lighting cycle to stabilize the pH and absorb wastes.
To take advantage of these benefits, I suggest partitioning the sump to divided into two or more separate chambers. This can be accomplished by installing perforated tank dividers across the width of the sump, thereby separating it into two or more isolated compartments. One of the compartments can accommodate all of your equipment (in-sump skimmer, return pump, heaters, titanium grounding probe, UV sterilizer, etc.) while another of the compartments can be used to establish a deep live sand bed (DLS with plenty of macroalgae. The DLSB/macroalgae side serves as a refugium and will soon become populated with countless critters (copepods, Gammarus and other amphipods, larval crustaceans, etc.). With the macros acting as an algal filter and the anaerobic layers of DLSB providing denitrification, the aquarist never need be concerned about nitrates or nuisance algae with this type of sump/refugium.
In addition, the biological refugium/sump can be maintained on an opposite light cycle to the main tank to offset the daily fluctuations in pH, photosynthesis, dissolved oxygen/carbon dioxide, and redox levels that otherwise occur in the aquarium. Daily variances in chemical, physical and biological phenomena are a fact of life in aquaria, linked to the light and dark cycles and the diurnal rhythms of captive aquatic systems. As one example, the pH of aquarium water typically peaks after the lights have been on all day at a maximum of perhaps 8.4, only to drop to low of below 8.0 overnight. This is related to photosynthesis and the fact that zooanthellae and green plants consume CO2 and produce O2 when there is adequate light, but in essence reverse that process in the dark, consuming O2 and giving off CO2. Redox levels, available calcium and other water quality parameters are affected in similar ways. Needless to say, these variations are far greater is a small, closed-system aquarium than they are in the ocean, so it's beneficial to minimize such fluctuations by reversing the photoperiod in the main display and the sump/refugium. This is easily accomplished by timing the lighting in the sump so that the bed of macroalgae is illuminated after dark when the lights on the display tank are off, and vice versa. Just use alternating timers on the main tank and the refugium tank so that when one is on, the other is off. (Other macroalgae require a period of darkness in order to thrive, but if you will be using Caulerpa, it can even be illuminated 24 hours a day around the clock in order to accomplish the same thing.) Voila! Just like that the roller coaster ride is over: no more daily fluctuations in pH or highs and lows in calcium levels, oxygen minima, or peaks and valleys in redox potential.
Multi-and inexpensive fluorescent light fixture from the hardware store in the cabinet for the sump should be more than sufficient for such a refugium/algae filter, and if you operate it 24/7 that will produce several beneficial effects. One big advantage is that it will encourage vigorous algal growth and subsequently harvesting some of the macroalgae regularly regularly will export large amounts of excess nutrients from your tank. This will work wonders for preventing nuisance algae from ever getting a toehold in the new tank. Continuous photosynthesis will assure that the algae consumes CO2 and releases O2 around the clock. Finally, operating the lighting in your sump nonstop will help offset the daily fluctuations in pH, photosynthesis, dissolved oxygen/carbon dioxide, and redox levels that otherwise occur in the aquarium.
Continuously operating an efficient fluorescent tube or two shouldn't cost much and will help prevent even the fastest growing Caulerpa from going sexual. Aside from assorted Caulerpa, Chaetomorpha and various species of Gracilaria or Ogo are other macros that would grow well in such a sump, although they would need a period of darkness to thrive and should therefore be maintained on a reverse photoperiod to the main tank.
Because it is separate from the main system yet shares the same water, the sump/refugium can also be used as a nifty acclimation tank for new arrivals or a handy isolation tank for separating incompatible specimens. For seahorse keepers, the refugium compartment of a divided sump or dual chamber sump makes an ideal grow-out tank for juvenile seahorses that have outgrown their nurseries but are still too small to be kept in the main tank. A dual-chamber sump is a very versatile design that lends itself to multiple purposes. Use your imagination.
As you know, Estefano, I usually recommend aquariums that are at least 20 inches high for seahorses. But in this case, there is not a significant difference between an aquarium that's 20 inches tall and the ELOS System 70 that's 19.7 inches high. I should think that having a sump in this aquarium system would more than make up for a few extra inches of height.
Yes, sir, with a main tank of 55 gallons, the ELOS System 70 could certainly support four pairs of seahorses. The recommended stocking density for H. erectus and H. reidi in an aquarium with an efficient filtration system is one pair per 10 gallons, so this particular tank could support up to five pairs of seahorses.
I am less certain about mating the ELOS System 70 aquarium to the Suncolor 150 HQI lighting system, Estefano. As we have discussed before, I have reservations regarding the use of metal halides for seahorses. My primary concerns are the issue of overheating and the fact that high intensity lighting systems will encourage the seahorses to produce excess melanin, which means that bright colored seahorses such as Sunbursts or Hippocampus reidi in their yellow, orange, or red color phases may darken and lose their vivid coloration under metal halides. Elevating the metal halides 24-36 inches above the aquarium is a good way to reduce the intensity of the lighting and will help dissipate the heat from the lamps, but I can't say if that's going to be sufficient to keep the seahorses from darkening.
If you can avoid overheating and provide some well-shaded areas in the aquarium for the seahorses so they can move in and out of the light and find their own comfort level as they please, you could try the Suncolor 150 HQI lights, but I think the optional T5 lighting system offered for this aquarium would really be a better choice for a seahorse setup.
At any rate, upgrading to an ELOS System 70 aquarium is a fine idea if you can swing it, and if you use live rock and partition the sump so it can be equipped with an algal filter/refugium and a DLSB, the result would be an aquarium system that provides both outstanding nitrification and denitrification. With the possible exception of the lighting system you are planning, I would expect the larger species of seahorses to thrive in such an aquarium system.
Best of luck with your new seahorses and the new aquarium system you are considering, Estefano!
Happy Trails!
Pete Giwojna
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