Jake's 50+ gallon seahorse tank

Looks like a million bucks! :thumb_up:

 

Wow very cool.

 

Time for another update!

I have gradually moved away from macro algae... I find them harder to take care of than corals! The problem I have is with hair algae growing on them, so while the macros were surviving and growing, they did not look very good and it was quite a bit of work cleaning off the hair algae multiple times a week. The ones I have had trouble with have been moved to my sump. The ones with "smooth" surfaces are easy to clean and tend to have less hair algae growing on them, so I have kept those ones in the display.

On the bright side, my LFS had a great shipment of gorgs from Florida, so it wasn't hard filling the space!

Lettuce nudibranch... plenty of hair algae in the tank for it to eat.


The results of my small experiment... the seagrass on the right was first grown without Seachem flourish tabs, while the seagrass on the left had them. The results clearly showed that the flourish tablets resulted in larger, greener leaves:

December 19th


As a follow up, I added flourish tabs to the seagrass on the right and found that the seagrass leaves increased in size and became more green, after about 1.5 months.

Feb 2nd


I feel much better about adding the flourish tabs now I think they are a good way to provide nutrients to seagrass. I haven't noticed any ill effects on the corals in my tank while I have used them over the last year.

Cool new gorgonian


Love the snow flake-like polyps.


Seahorse picture #10,000! (roughly!) on a new gorgonian.


Another new gorg. Polyps haven't extended yet as I added it only yesterday.


Today's full tank shot.


And I replaced the Kessil with a GHL Mitras. Took me a long time to save up for it, hopefully it is worth the money. So far, it covers the tank a lot more evenly and brings out every color better.

 

awesome setup!

 

My first reaction upon reading about the macro algae issue was oh no. The tank is even more stunning now though with the additional Gorgonians. You still have plenty of macros to keep it interesting. Congrats on the new light, nice piece of equipment.
How is the live stock holding up?

 

IME, hair algae appeared when nutrient levels were too high. This condition can ALSO cause nasty bacteria levels to increase, possibly affecting seahorse health.
On the topic of seahorse health, I personally think that you need to find a way to boost the nutrition of the seahorse shown in the sixth picture from the top as the sides indicate a lack of nutrition. The sides of that seahorse are concave when they should be convex.
The tank does look beautiful.

 

I really like how polished the system looks. Should be a really fun one to grow out.

 

absolutely beautiful tank! It is so darn CLEAN! Keep up the great work!

 

Absolutely beautiful tank.

 

Looking great, as always