Starting a seahorse tank

Hey, guys. I was making my usual kijiji check for saltwater fish/aquariums and actually found something! It's a 10 gallon half-circle tank that comes with LED light, heater, filter, salt water starter book, net, and water chemicals. I won't be needing all of that, but I thought taking an interestingly shaped tank and LEDs would be a cool new set up. Here are the pictures that the seller posted. (Note: the tank looks dirty because the owner had started a SW tank but stopped because it's "too much to get started up". The stuff at the bottom is just a bit of sand)





Should I go for it? I don't even know what I'd want to put in the tank, but I think having a small tank of that shape in my room would be pretty cool. But if I go for it, I want to get something I can't really get in my 90 (for example: something poisonous, jellyfish, seahorses, etc). I know that I'd be limiting my choices with such a small tank, but I'm still willing to try something with this..

What do you guys think?

 

I think it would be cool if you did a thin pillar up the middle of the tank and put some NPS that are easy to take care of. It should be easy to do water changes after feedings with a tank that small. You'll also be doing quite a few top offs with that size tank

 

It might be good for dwarf seahorses but they require a lot of maintenance.

 

Yeah, I'm definitely going to do a dwarf seahorse tank ! I think I'll get it custom made. A thin and tall one, if I can, so that I can put it on the desk in my room. Do they need a lot of depth and width to swim? Or is a tall and wide tank okay? If I can't do that, I was thinking of trying something else.. It's hard to explain, and I'm not home, but I'll draw something up on paint when I get home

 

I won't be getting the tank I showed in the main post.. I was reminded that I don't have the money right now. But when I do do it, I'm going to make sure everything is perfect for the ponies! I was thinking either 40" wide, 6" deep, and maybe 22" tall. This is the shape of my dresser, and what I just described would look like.



Or I would want to have a squared-off C-shaped tank.



Are these viable options for seahorses?

 

Are we talking acrylic? I hade a small rectangular tank priced out (46"x 8"x15") for a sump and it was quoted at $500.

 

No, I was hoping to have this made out of glass

 

I'm not expert by any means on seahorses but I'm thinking you may want more depth.....

 

GL with the sea horses, wish i had the guts to start one.

 

How many zots are you planning on stocking in a tank like that? The reason I ask is that one of the issues with zots (H. zosterae) is they're lazy little SH that move around very little (generally speaking). What this means to you, the SH keeper (nobody who knows SH calls them "ponies", BTW) is that to feed them, you have to have a certain density of small live food (namely BBS) available that will simply swim up to the SH to be eaten (think snowstorm of food).

Also, zots are TINY little SH (< 2"), so you need quite a few of them to actually see them without searching for them (you can easily keep 20 of them in a std. 10 gal tank).

Additionally, most folks who keep zots begin with "sterile" systems (very clean dead rock) and fake or "known clean" live macro algae. While hydroids really have no effect on adult "large species" SH (erectus, reidi, kuda, barbouri, etc), they will indeed kill even adult zots, so avoid them at all costs. Since zots only feed on live foods, they have a tendency to bloom in non-sterile setups.

Finally, you read where I mentioned "small live foods", which means that you MUST hatch out BBS pretty much daily, and/or have a good culture of copepods running constantly. SH must be fed daily...MUST be fed, so vacations may be an issue as well.

Oh, a final note...tropical species SH should be kept between 70*F and 74*F to reduce the chances of bacterial infections.

I'm not trying to dissuade you, but you should go into SH keeping with both eyes open.

HTH