Seahorses, Clown Fish, and Nems!

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dkm

Member
I always wanted to have Seahorses and Clowns in the same tank, this was the only safe solution I could think of. I got this idea from Jonny's waterfall build, just made it some slight modifications after reading about some of problems he faced and made it a tad bigger.

Custom Tanks:
20x20x20" Seahorse
40x20x12" Clowns and Nems
50 gallon stock tank(sump)


This system will consists of 2 display tanks and 1 sump. The display tank will be side to side and connected one way from the seahorse to the clown fish tank. The seahorse tank will be drilled at the lower back end of the tank to avoid build up of detritus on the substrate, to avoid overflowing, it will be plumbed to a height of 16" where it will be drained into the clown tank. Three returns will regulate the flows to the tank, by having multiple returns set on both tank this will allow us to set a slower flow on the seahorse tank, while maintaining a greater flow for the clown fish tank.

Here is a crude rendering of my future build.

Any thoughts?
 
anarchy

anarchy

Active member
I run a similar setup for 2 nano reefs. Everything looks good but how low are you going to drill the seahorse tank for the detrius? If it's too low and the power goes out there could be an overflow in the sump and bye bye seahorses

After looking at the picture it looks like the bottom drain actually goes up and over to the clown tank. If that's how it is then there should be no problems
 
madjoe

madjoe

Premium member
I actually keep clown fish with my redi seahorses for 4 yrs but couldnt have a nem lol i did buy em a rubber one they hosted. But your idea is cooler now get er done
 
maazreef

maazreef

Member
This thing is going to be massive. Do you have an idea of species you will be keeping in there yet? I had a pair of crypsis many years back on my Pico and had no issues with them. I sold them to a buddy of mine and he kept them alive for 1 year after that.
 
D

dkm

Member
I do have a slight idea of what I would eventually like to see in the tanks. I've been lurking the forums for the last couple years, but this will be first attempt in actually implementing my plans into reality.

The two tanks combine to equal around 70 gallons, the seahorse tank is 34.6 and the clownfish tanks is 41.6. I have decided on a pair of H. Erectus, a rbta, and a pair of clowns. Originally it was the occ, but now I've been leaning towards the onyx or black photon morphs.

This is what I would love to see happen at the final stage
Tank 1: pairs of H. Erectus and Green Mandarin dragonet, macro algae, seahares, and zoas
Tank 2: pairs of clowns and blue dot jawfish, rbta, lemon drop btas, sps, maxima
 
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dkm

Member
Just to warn you, progress on this build will be slow to ensure every precautions are met. Any feedback will be gladly welcome especially in the earlier phase.
 
S

sullyman

Member
I thought ponies needed cooler water than fish, is that not true? I've always wanted to keep a sea horse tank but didn't want a chiller running all the time, lol.
 
ColaAddict

ColaAddict

New member
sullyman said:
I thought ponies needed cooler water than fish, is that not true? I've always wanted to keep a sea horse tank but didn't want a chiller running all the time, lol.
Click to expand...
Thats what I read too. Would help to keep in basement to keep cool.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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dkm

Member
Certain seahorses requires cooler temperature, the erectus and kuda have around the same water parameters as the clownfish. Which is I believe around 72-78 degrees. So if that was stopping you from starting a seahorse tank, you can start one now. The new tanks are otw, and I've started adding some rocks to some empty tanks I have laying around. The only problem is my ro/di unit produce at such a slow rate, it will take all day to fill the tank. I wonder how much water waste my unit create.
 
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dkm

Member
I found a treasure trove of antiques in my garage, couple hundred lbs of dry rock, seaclone skimmer, some hygrometers. I'll probably cherry pick through the dryrock and buy some epoxy to add some intriguing shapes. My seaclone has about 1 day of use, I set it aside when I realize it wasn't doing anything, its leakining now, but I can use the maxijet to recirculate the water. I was going to skip the skimmer for this build until I start adding corals.

Anyone know where I may find a large stock tank, those farm&fleet are quite a distance from me and I'm looking to find some in 150-300 gallon.
 
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