21 gallon seahorse pipefish tank

[iamonlyme]

This is my third tank started with a 30 gallon that I had to tear down when we moved upgraded to a 75 gallon just got that restocked now waiting for growth and now I started a 21 gallon tank for seahorses and pipefish only been wet since 3/24/14 and am currently starting cycle

[Hopkins]

Nice tank. I have always liked pipefish. Is that regular freshwater type aquarium gravel? If so, you might have issues with detritus building up in it. What kinds of pipefish are you going to put in there?

[natalialaloca]

Welcome to Captive Reefs

That's an unorthodox scape, but very pretty colors! Would be interesting to see what colors a seahorse would take on when placed in a tank like that.

What kinds of seahorses are you looking to put in there? Many of the readily available seahorses (e.g. erectus, reidi, kuda) get pretty big. They are also big eaters, so be sure your skimming and filtration are adequate.

A lot of seahorse hobbyists have had problems with pipefish transmitting diseases to seahorses because all pipefish on the market today are wild caught. See this article.

Not sure if you've kept seahorses before, but if you haven't, you can get lots of great info on seahorse care on the forums at FusedJaw.com and seahorse.org.

[iamonlyme]

Thanks and I would really love a Pygmy but not happening anytime soon so I am considering doing the dwarf ones with it being a 21 gallon I could due to pairs. And thanks for the info on the pipefish I liked the contrast but maybe I will have to look into something else. The bottles where caves for the pipefish and then I was going to add live macro algae for the seahorses

[iamonlyme]

The gravel is mixed with black dry sand to help with filtration thought about using a UG on it but changed my mind the sand sifting snails due pretty well in the mix I original wanted banded pipefish with dwarf seahorses and an assortment of snails as CUC
(Used gravel sand mixed in my original 30 due to budget and kids wanted color wasn't up long enough for long term results but the time it was up it did very well)

[SantaMonicaHelp]

...very interesting way to design the tank. What made you choose to use those crystally bottles rather than a traditional "natural" environment? Just curious :]
Would love to see more photos once you get the livestock in.

[iamonlyme]

I had chosen that because I love bright colors and I have three natural reef already lol but Sadly the tank was tore down because the aquatop 21 was a bad purchase first protein skimmer broke no biggie because no live corals but than the internal power head failed so fixed that and than the fans malfunctioned almost causing a fire smh contacted the company they handled it appropriately and returned my money so the seahorse tank is on hold as I go threw a whole new cycle period I will post
Pics as soon as possible

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Wow, that sounds like a nightmare :/
Better luck on your new tank, I hope...