58 into a seahorse tank?

[docmal]

what does everyone think of turning my old Oceanic 58 gallon reef ready tank into a seahorse tank? I think the depth is 20 inches or so. I think that should be eough. I was thinking of haveing 2 or three kinds of horses totaling maybe 14 - 16 by the end. (At least this is what seahorse.org recomends. Anyway, I was wondering if I should go with a deep sand bed or just used larger grain and due syphon maintanence. I have a dsb in my reef but Im not sure I want to take 5 inches of hight away from my horses. This system will have an overflow, a sump and a nice skimmer.

[dwarfatize]

Hi docmal,
Your tank must be 3x the height of your horse so I would recommend getting small horses. The number of horses that seahorse.org recommends is a max and would require tons of water changes. I would cut down on your sand bed, and do the manual changes. Other wise you setup sounds very nice.
Dane

[docmal]

what do you think would be good horses in a setup like this? And how many? And what kind of filtration do you use? Does the water fowl quickly with seahorses for some reason?

[Airel]

Hi docmal,

You tank sounds like a nice set up and would work fine. 3X the horse adult height is optimal but certainly nothing is written in stone. There are very successful keeps with much, much less. I've seen them breed in a 10gal hospital tank!!!!

14-16 horses is a good number in your tank. Monthly water changes will be fine in an aged tank. From the sound of your post, you are an experienced aquarist and I think will be a very successful Seahorse keeper!!

Welcome to the fascinating world of Seahorses!!!!!!!

HTH,
DeAnne:D