Starting a Tank - Suggestions Welcomed

[IllusionaryDreams]

Greetings everyone, I was recently given a 27 gallon hex tank. The tank is approx. 24" high and 18" from each side to the side opposite it. The tank is currently set up with a Deep Sand Bed with 1.5 inches of CaribSea Florida Crushed Coral topped with .5-1 inch of CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand. Topped with a light layer of GARF Grunge. I also have about 10-15 lbs of red lava rock (from an old reef system) and a few small pieces of branch live rock. Current Inhabitants include one feather duster, 6 red tipped hermit crabs, 2 blue legged hermit crabs, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 small green chromis, and a small frag of star polyps. Is there anything in the the tank that should be removed before getting any seahorses? My plan was to remove the chromis and instead add a goby, pipefish, and maybe a pair of mandarins with 3-4 small-medium seahorses. I also plan on adding some sea whip, shrooms, calupa, and polyps. Good idea? Last question would be how much flow in addition to the filter should I use? I have a zoomed rotating head pump that does 45-125 gallons an hour and a powerhead 201 and a rio 180 NO not all in the tank. Just curious which one or combination I should use and the best placements.

Thanks In Advance

[Oze Reefer]

keeping mandarins happy and healthy is hard they have to have a large pod population and or regular feeding of BBS many times a day.......so i would steer clear of them..............no idea about the filtration

[DgenR8]

IllusionaryDreams,
First,
[welcome]

Second, you don't have a functunal DSB. To be worthwhile, a DSB should be a minimum of 4" deep, and should be comprised of sugar grain sized grains.
There are doubts as to the functionality of a DSB in a tank with a small footprint as well. Read here:

http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1999/june/features/1/default.asp

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog/r_shimek_090698.html


I agree that Manderins are not a solid choice. They will compete for pods with Seahorses, even without horses will probably deplete any pod population in that tank in short order, leaving them to starve. I've seen only a very few reports of MAnderins eating things other than pods, and I don't believe all that I've seen.

I don't have a lot of answers where Seahorses are concerned, but I know that they don't like strong current. I'm sure someone will chime in on the filtration issue.

[Will]

Originally posted by IllusionaryDreams
Last question would be how much flow in addition to the filter should I use? I have a zoomed rotating head pump that does 45-125 gallons an hour and a powerhead 201 and a rio 180 NO not all in the tank. Just curious which one or combination I should use and the best placements.

thanks for answering most of that oze and dgenr8! :D you really don't need any added water movement other than the filter for the seahorses in particular, but adding a small powerhead would help the health of the whole tank by getting rid of most stagnant spots. in my 20H, i've got the outflow from my tetratec150 filter and my cpr bakpak2, along with a maxijet 400 aimed at the surface. the maxi doesn't have a ton of current; it's really just to agitate the surface for oxygen exchange and to enhance the ripples created by my MH lights. so, you might try aiming at the surface to avoid any brisk currents around the tank.. also, i would avoid using a sweeping or rotating powerhead with seahorses.
fourhand2

[David P]

I hope IllusDreams doesnt mind me tagging along in this thread, I am planing on setting up a Horsie tank for my girlfriend. I am also quite interested in large refugiums, so I was thinking about a 20g (maybe larger)display tank with another 20g sump/refugium below with a pump pushing the water up into another 20g refugium on top and let the critters flow back into the display to assist feeding. I realize seahorses arent the best swimmers so I shouldnt have the same flow rate as in my reef, but I was curious how well they fair with internal overflow boxes? would I be better moding an overflow so it has a smaller suction line? What turnover rate is considered optimum for a horse tank 5X? Besides LR, what should be in place for the horses to "tether(?)" to?

[Will]

tether = hitch :D

horses ought to be fine with a traditional overflow as long as it's got a some kind of shield/surface skimmer. i've seen many tanks with them. also, these boxes don't have a direct source of suction, per se.. with powerheads, there is a specific spot where water is sucked in and shot back out. the overflow boxes distribute the suction and really don't cause a ton of water movement. turnover is really a judgement thing.. i dont have any sumps/refugiums so i dont have to deal with that sort of thing and i really don't have an answer for you :rolleyes:.. sorry hehe.. for hitching, really anything. caulerpa is very nice. softies and sps corals are great. mine hitch to the acros all the time. they're really their favorite things in the tank. gorgonians are often recommended, but they're difficult to care for and i think should be left for experts. many people have success with them, but they need lots of current, which usually is not available in seahorse tanks. out of three that i've attempted, i've only been able to keep one alive. to top it off, that one is only about 1" high ;) it's nonphotosynthetic so i keep it completely out of light to combat nuisance algaes. those algaes are what have gotten my other two, which were both photosynthetic.. so, good luck and ask anythign else you need to!
fourhand2