75G Marine Planted Pony Playground

I sold out my reef tanks and most of my gear to put this together. I love this tank. No more dosing, no more monitoring, no more expensive reef salts and 2 part mixes, just monthly water changes of 20% using what ever mix is on sale at the time. I prune it weekly and if there is enough of the more desired algae I've found that selling it is easier than selling frags.


The tanks history:
It sat in my dining room dry for over a year with just sand and rock in it. When I decided to leave the reef game I move this tank and stand to the spot where the 75G reef stood. Once it was scaped, filled and running I added a bottle of NutraFin Cycle per instructions and began ghost feeding the system one cube of frozen mysis every third day.
After 3 weeks I ordered the first of the algae along with 2 pouches of Algagen Reef Pods. Once the algae was in the tank and showing signs of establishment I put in an order to John M. for the CUC.
With the snails in the tank I upped the number of mysis cubes to 3 twice a week. The caulerpa went nuts so I fired up the skimmer. I waited a week and put in the second order of algae along with two purple whip gorgs and another pack of pods. Nearly two and one half months had gone passed by this time.
By the end of the fourth month I was seeing bugs, bugs, bugs and knew it was time to order the ponies. Unfortunately for me I can not save money at all and had spent most of what was left from the reef sales and was only able to order one pair instead of the desired 2 pairs. I ordered a captive bred male and female H. erectus from Beth Privett. They arrived healthy and ate their fill of frozen mysis within an hour of being introduced to the system.


I've been reading up on what to do when the first batch of fry comes along.

Info:
Tank- 75G AGA with center overflow and split 3/4" LocLine returns
In-tank flow is provided by one MP40wES and one MP10wES. Both pumps run 50% on nutrient export all of the time.
Lighting-DIY LED/CoraLife dual 150W MH w/ Phoenix 14k. Halides only come on for 1.5 hours daily.
Sump- The 40B DIY from the old reef
Return pump- Danner Mag 12
Skimmer- AquaC EV180 with throttled Mag 9. I picked the body up free and basically rebuilt this skimmer. New injector, cup and gate valve.
UV- Green Killing Machine 24W
BRS Media Reactor w/ Carbon

Livestock:
CUC; 75 nass. vibex (no need to remove uneaten food), 20 Florida Cerith, 15 nerite, 80+ dwarf cerith
Fish: One pair of captive bred Hippocampus erectus

Algae:
C. prolifera
C. mexicana
C. sertulariodes
Cladophora
Ulva sp.
Acetabularia sp.
shoal grass
mermaids fan
shaving brush
Dictoya
Sargassum
A. spicifera
Gracilaria sp.
Gracilaria hayi
Bryothamnion
Blue Ochtodes

Since I could only afford one pair I plan on adding at least one other pair in the future. This time I'll more than likely order from Dan Underwood.

 

Very nice tank!

 

Agreed, beautiful tank!

 

very cool transition to SH tank! Congrats! Sounds like you're very happy with the switch!

 

Reefmonkey,

That's an AWFUL lot of different macro and plant species, and typically, that many species in such close proximity tends to fail, as what will probably happen is that the really aggressive growers will prevail and the others will wither away or will actually wage war via alleopathy.

Also, besides macro, you have some true vascular plants (shoal grass, Penicillus, to name a couple of them). Plants with vascular systems/roots generally require at least 4" of substrate and a LOT of light. The Penicillus will likely appear to die back to the substrate, but leave it, as they tend to do this when moved...they go way shocky, but tend to return.

SH do love live macro and plants, however...the setup's gonna be really nice. Beth has always had nice-looking erectus (I actually thought she quit breeding them unless she's still just keeping her hand into them).

 

Beautiful tank Mike, good luck with breeding and saving for another pair.

 

Thank you all for compliments.

Thanks for your advice Greg but I'm not new to this. I will say that I forgot to mention the SB goes from 4" to 2" left to right. The shoal grass is on the left side (cut off in the pic).
Maybe you missed it or just skimmed my original post but I do prune weekly. Most of the macro is highly adaptable to any environment and the only very aggressive species is the c. prolifera and c. sertulariodes. The brushes and fans reproduce regularly and all of the hayi you see in the photo came from one 2" bunch.
Remember that this isn't a tank I set up and threw a bunch of plants into. It's been up and running coming on the 6 month mark now. I don't see failure in it's future.
Beth never quit breeding. I've been planning this tank for 2 years and have been in contact with her and Dan Underwood for just as long. I chose to order from fat and happy aquatics because of price. I love the ponies but they came in smaller than I'd like. I wanted them at sexual maturity. They are good looking animals but just too small. I panic when I can't find them.

 

Very cool tank. I have a similar style seahorse tank myself dominated by seagrass, macro algae, a few softies/LPS (acans, xenia etc), and gorgonians. Like you, I have found the tank immensely enjoyable simply because it is so easy to maintain.

A few questions:
- What temp do you keep the tank at?
- Have you ever had problems with the seahorses and the MP40? I also have one in my tank, but can't set it above the minimum setting without causing problems.
- Do you feel the UV is critical to the system? I have been considering one myself as they may prevent bacterial infections in the seahorses.

 

Thanks

Cool.

The tank is kept at 74-75.5 degrees with an 8" clip on fan pointed directly at the surface of the return section in the sump. The highest I've seen temp climb is just over 76 degrees F. Tank temp at the the sand is usually 4* lower than ambient. Evaporation is a bear though and I've been filling the ATO reserve on almost a daily basis.

I don't have problems with them and the mp40. The wet side is cloaked in nylon stocking. I've seen both ponies swim against the current from both pumps.

The UV was put in to take care of a bacterial bloom that occurred right after the addition of the first macros. I've left it because the flow from it's pump is so slow that I feel it's doing more good than harm.

 

Ah...gotcha RM...I'm glad you have a handle on the macro and plants, and I did miss that somehow...mea culpa.

That's great that Beth is still breeding...she kinda "went dark" after she announced it on "the org"...her erectus were always REALLY pretty. We've known Dan back when he was first figuring out the best way to crank up production. He even wrote a nice article about a scalable breeding method. I guess we've known him close to 20 years.

Can't wait to see the tank when it "grows-in"!