20 Gallon Tall Setup?

[fishgirl]

We're planning to move our goldfish out of the 20 tall that they're currently in, and into the aquarium coffee table that I bought my husband for Christmas. In trying to figure out what to do with empty tank, I got enraptured by the idea of a seahorse tank. Does anyone have any experience/ advice planning a setup for this type of tank?

Our current plan is to put in a deep sand bed, but I've just been reading that we may not have enough surface area to keep it going. We were planning to buy at least 20lbs of live rock (depending on density) and create a tall structure in the center of the tank. Thinking of Tonga branch rock, since it should look good in the tall tank and give hitching posts.

For lighting we're actually thinking of replacing our swag lamp that's immediately over the tank with a metal halide pendant, wattage still to be determined. That should give the tank plenty of light! No decision on corals yet, but we'll probably do some. And macro, for water quality and hitching posts.

We'll be transferring the skimmer from our reef tank (just got a new one). It's a Bak-Pak - don't know the specs though. It's done a good job on our 50 gallon reef, so should be great in the 20. No sump planned, although it would be theoretically possible given the placement of the tank.

I don't want to have to hatch brine shrimp, so I'd be looking for medium/small size horses, but not dwarfs. Captive bred, of course. How many horses could live in a 20 gallon tank? I'm hoping two pairs.

I've ordered a couple books on Seahorses from Amazon, as I know I still have some learning to do, but thought I'd present the original plan and look for feedback.

Thanks!
Tammy

[Bigjohn]

I think you would be fine with 2 pairs of seahorses. You need to be more concerned with the height of the tank more than anything. Just a thought; if you put too much live rock and don't have enough exposed room on the bottom, that the seahorses may not be able to eat their frozen foods. It would just fall in the rocks and they could not get to it. They are slow eaters and you want to make it easy for them to eat their food.

Captive bred is definitely the way to go!

[Airel]

Hi Tammy,

Sounds like you have some nice plans for your Seahorse tank. The bak-pak should work great on your tank. I do think you should rethink the MH lighting. MH lighting is VERY hot and will have your horses boiling in no time :eek1: I would suggest Power Compacts. Choose your lighting according to the corals you may wish to keep. The horses don't care one way or the other about lighting. You should be able to keep 3 pr or 6 horses of small to medium adult size in your tank. That would include H. barbouri and H. kuda that FFE is selling right now and they just happen to be CB;)

Well, hatching brine shrimp just comes with keeping horses. If you keep pairs, you will eventually have fry and you will have to hatch brine shrimp for them. But, the upside to that is they don't eat the bbs for the rest of their lives!! Eventually, you will train them to eat the frozen mysis like their parents.

Best of Luck and HTH,
DeAnne :cool:

[fishgirl]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Just wanted to clarify the metal halide lighting question. We would be replacing a swag lamp that's in our living room with a metal halide pendant, which would then be 1-2 feet above the water. Lots of light, but hopefully no boiling horsies. Part of the reason were were thinking of doing this was a concern about being able to get adequate lighting with such a small hood size. Can you get PCs that will fit that size of hood?

As for the baby brine shrimp - we won't mind hatching for the sake of babies, should we be so lucky as to get them, just don't want to have to do it forever!

The discussion of the 20 gallon in specific may become moot soon anyway, since my husband was eyeing the spot that it's in and commenting that a cube would fit quite nicely there. Anyone have a source for cube aquariums?

Thanks again! Please keep the comments coming!
Tammy

[iloveinn]

w/ the footprint of a 10 gallon, you can use 2 x 36 watt PC retro found at ahsupply.com.

HTH

[Atticus]

I use a CSL 96 watt PowerQuad over my 20 gallon. It works and looks great. Plenty of light for about any coral and cheap price.