teach me Oh Great Ones

[SirDudeness]

Hello everyone
I have had a love for seahorses for as long as I can remember,
I would stop off at my LFS everyday on my way home from school
and stick my nose to the glass and just get lost..................
why am I telling you this ...cause I need your help to get started on my first SeaHorse tank and dont have a clue how to start.and it would just kill me to hurt on of these creatures
I have been doing a F/O tank for over a year now and have done very well and have learned alot,but need to learn more
could you post some of the mistakes you have made when first starting with seahorses?
could you name a few books that have help you ??
what type of lighting do seahorses need ?
thanks for any help-James:bigeyes:

[SeaNemesis]

I would start off getting some tank raised seahorses. www.oceanrider.com or www.ffexpress.com sells these. You will want a tank at least 18 " high, with seahorses you need horizontal space. Vertical is less important. Live rock, cleanup crew and some macro are also important as well as a good protein skimmer. Lightening is more of a personal choice, I don't use high lighting because seahorses are very sedate. They will grow algae. You can keep some coral, low light type is best. As far as fish, there are some that you can keep, but starting I would get settled just with seahorses. The tank raised are trained to eat frozen mysis, which is a wonderful thing, but you do need a good cleanup crew. I would carefully read the archives from here as well as www.seahorse.org, you will find this will answer most of your questions. Ohh they are very addictive:eek1:

[SirDudeness]

thanks
I printed a few things off of Seahorses.org this morning,I'm thinking of using my 46 gal bowfront for my horse tank,I have a 96x2 pc over that tank now,do you feel that would be to much lighting over horses ?and one more thing,what about water turn over....how much water movement does one want in a horse tank ?I was getting ready to put a sump under this tank to help increase my water turns,but I'm not sure if I would then have to much for horses ?
thanks-James :beer:

[Airel]

Hi James,

Your 46 bow will make a GORGEOUS Seahorse tank :D You can keep up to 6 pair or 12 horses in this tank. I think your lighting is just fine. Choose your lighting according to the corals you want to keep with them. I have lower lighting over my horse tank. Mainly because it is hex shaped and a PAIN to make anything fit!!!

Water turnover shoud be 3X-5X.

As far as books, there isn't one Seahorse "bible". I enjoy Amanda Vincent's ID book. Tracy Warland recently wrote a care guide book that is available at Flying Fish Express. It has EXCELLENT information about the species that she is breeding.

Mistakes???? HUMMMMMMMMMMMM...... My biggest regret is not using sand for my substrate. In my Seahorse beginings I was given some very BAD advice regarding sand as substrate and I used crushed coral. One day, I'll tackle changing my substrate to sand.

HTH,
DeAnne :)

[SirDudeness]

thank you DeAnne
ya I still kick myself over my CC,I'll be changing mine out to a DSB in a few weeks,oh for joy:bounce3: wanna help:lol2:
I was thinking that ya didnt want alot of water turns,I mean I would hate to see the poor fella's bouncing off the sides of my tank:wildone:
anyhow I'll check out those books
as for corals in my tank,just one sun coral-just really getting started one the coral thing,the tank has been F/O for a year
so now I really can build to suit for my horses:D any ideas ?
thanks-James