Jake's 50+ gallon seahorse tank

Thanks Maxter!

In order for quarantining fish to be effective, you have to put carefully maintain the quarantine tank, which is unfortunately something I wouldn't be good at, at the moment!

 

Tank looks sweet!

 

AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING! Great sea horse build. ;D

 

yes, this tank is amazing!

 

I haven't been able to update for a while due to school and my camera battery also died. I'll give a picture update next week when I get a replacement, but for now I just wanted to post this video as I was pretty excited about it!

The video is of two red scooter dragonettes I introduced last week. I think I got lucky as they ate mysis right away, and are now also eating spirulina enriched brine shrimp, krill, and cyclopeeze. The video is of (what I think is) courtship behaviour a couple of nights ago. Click on the picture for the video.

 

Looks like it to me, I do not think it they could be up to anything else. Just google Mandarins spawing, it looks exactly the same.

How is the tank and the macro algae going?

 

SOOO cool! they were definitely bonding - thank you for sharing!

 

Things are going as usual. I added a few new macro algae species, but no new corals. I gave up on trying to get the Halymenia to come back (it died when I moved). The Halimeda has come back very well. Using an automatic doser for two-part has made a big difference. It has maintained calcium right at 400 ppm and alk at about 8 dKH perfectly. The biggest issue is that my cat keeps laying on top of the tank under the light (probably because it is warm). Thanks for asking!

 

Finally a real update! Sitting at the airport waiting for a delayed flight home for the holidays, so I have some time to kill. I don't have my algae ID books with me, so unfortunately I can't ID my new species of macro.

I removed the colt coral as it continued to cause problems with nearby corals. I am hoping to replace it with a mixture of macroalgaes. The Halimeda is steadily filling in the gap. I also have another species in the colt corals place that I forgot to add to this post, but will upload a photo of it this weekend.





These two pictures are from the day or day after I got the seahorses... they have grown up so much!




The male dragonette. There is also a female.




This gorg has come back nicely from the move. It took about a month to re-extend its polyps, but now it is looking as nice as ever.


I thought I had lost almost all of my Halimeda, but it has also come back. It is amazing how quickly it grows... this bushel is only a few weeks old. It is growing far better than in the old tank, probably because I automatically dose two-part now with a doser. I was a terrible manual doser (inconsistent).


This algae was added just before I moved (the one with the "vesicles"). It was quickly eaten by my ring cowries. I have since moved the cowries to my refugium and the algae has rebounded.


Another red macro... this one has grown quite well, but unfortunately is a magnet for epiphytic algae.


Added this one a couple of weeks ago. The jury is still out on it. No growth that I have noticed.


New acrylic cover to keep the cat out and to prevent the dragonettes from jumping out. It unfortunately warped pretty quickly. Might replace it with a glass lid.


Never posted a picture of this before... the refugium... all sorts of nasty algae and dinos in it, but it does keep the pH in my tank very steady at about 8.2 as it is illuminated on a reverse schedule to the display tank. There is another species of Halimeda up front with smaller "leaves". I may transfer it to the display tank.


Today's full tank shot


I have been doing a basic experiment with seagrass and Seachem flourish tabs over the last few months and have had some pretty interesting results! I will post some pictures of it this weekend.

I had been using Fauna Marin's gorgonian food system, but stopped after a few weeks. It really increased the nutrient load of the tank and I wasn't noticing a major benefit in terms of polyp expansion or growth. Perhaps my system isn't fit for it... it is brightly illuminated so pest algae became a problem while I was using it.

 

I am pretty sure I just witnessed perfection in its finest form...

Beautiful