my wierd setup + seahorse tank

[napalms]

Before i begin English isn’t my first language so please excuse my spelling and run on sentences


i currently have 3 aquariums, I will first be discussing my 2 older aquariums (10+ years) and then do a build thread on my newest tank

setup A 71 gallon and a 66 gallon interconnected setup

as this setup is probably a bit unusual i have added a drawing to hopefully better explain what im talking about
tank A is 90x60x50cm and tank B is 100x50x50cm
the yellow stars represent pumps

this is a setup where the main display tank is in the living room and the second tank and the sump is in the basement

first off the living room tank

this is quite a old tank everything you see has probably been in this tank for atleast 8 years
as you can see its mostly a soft tank and has a anemone problem, i probably remove about 10 to 20 and that keeps the population stable

stock list
yellow tang
Chrysiptera Parasema
2x Dascyllus Aruanus
Centropyge Acanthops
a pair of clownfish that spawn regualry
skunk shrimp
Lysmata Debelius
bunch of mix snails and hermit crabs
2 sexy shrimp
small goby spiecies

ill get into tech later

now the basement tank

this tank is a bit of a mess i just keep stuf that has outgrown the main tank just a bunch of big lethers i also somtimes sucsefully breed the tomato clowns that live in it it also has a file fish

now for the tech

lights: home made led lights its a mix of blues and whites with a few reds and greens, it runs of a raspberry pi server that is self coded so i can adjust the lighting form my own website from anywhere in the world throug, it also monitors temp and basement humidity

pumps:
mostly jecod stuff but also just other brands mixed in, unfortunatly my main return pump has started dying and cant pump up strait to the living room so has to make a stop in the basement tank.

heaters: multiple big titanium heaters

auto top off and water change:
this is probably the most unorthodox part, i have measured how much water evaporates, i have a auto doser that doses the correct amount of fresh water. instead i run my skimmer ultra wet (about 20L of skim mate a day) and have the ato setup to top of the saltwater. this may seem insane but it hasn’t caused any problems so far.

skimmer: not Shure

all in all its a healty well established tank its very stable and the fish get along well.

i like being honest so I’m also gonna list its issues, most of these are being addressed.

Issues:
aptesia in the main tank has gotten quite bad and has killed all my lps

i need to add more lights to the led boards preferably blues

if you put you hand in the sump of basement tank you get quite a bad shock, this has been a issue for years but has recently gotten worse

it needs random flow

the tomato clownfish is super aggressive towards humans

can’t keep sps, very low lighting

need to redo scape lots of dead spots



now the build thread on my newest aquarium a 52 gallon seahose tank

i have always wanted a seahorse tank and now i work from home im finally able to

the aquarium needed to fit in a 40cm wide and 100 cm long shelving unit so i was limited on options but i eventually found this 85x65x40 it used to bee a cichlid tank so it required some mods

i added a simple built in sump on 1 side and also found a small leak which needed fixing

the rock scape is made from dry base rock.

for tech I added:

a simple jecod 2500L/H return pump

a 1st gen Philips coral care light (way to powerful for what i need but i wanted to keep my options open in case i want to change what i keep in it)

and a deltech i400 skimmer

i still need to add a ato and a flow pump but will probably go for a system from tunze for ato and a small jecod pump

and the sand i chose is the CaribSea ARAG-ALIVE Fiji Pink - 0.5 – 1.5mm

i decided to sick mostly to gorgonians with regards to corals but also added some buttons, mushrooms, lethers and Caulerpa algae but the algae isn’t doing to well

currently it only has a Lysmata debelius shrimp and some snails but its fully cycled so i plan to add more soon


its doing quite well currently, temp is 25c and salt specific gravity is 1,024 it gets weekly water changes and gets fed powdered coral food and hatched Artemia

it has some issues but those are mostly external like:

the skimmer makes a awful amount of noise (its worse then the skimmer in my basement that is way bigger and hasn’t been cleaned in years, im not Shure what the issue is I selected this skimmer because I heard online that its quiet)

the evaporation makes my room very humid which is bad because I’m a taxidermist and that needs a very dry room. oops....

I’m not Shure if I want seahorses anymore because I’m indecisive.


feedback, tips and critisism welcome

 

[Randomwhiteguy89]

As for the first 2 tanks I would invest in a new pump that only flows to the upstairs tank and let it overflow to the basement tank and that overflows to the sump less to worry about that way, and as for the new tank it’s looking good to help with evaporation I would raise the light up a little more or get a new light and add a glass lid doesn’t need to cover the whole tank to make a difference also if the protein skimmer noise bothers you that much just remove it a tank that size with regular water changes and minimal fish and coral it will be fine and that will also slow the evaporation

 

[napalms]

I followed your advice an bought a pump that strong enough to pump straight to the floor above again (and immediately noticed lower Nitrates and phosphates in the upper tank) also seahorse tank now has a glass lid and room humidity has been fixed.

The seahorses have arrived and are all doing well and eating although a new issue has popped up, the seahorses are getting stuck to the overflow, i think the issue is the flow is to high, when setting up i kept reading that seahorses actually like high flow and that low flow is outdated info so i got a 2500lph return pump and set it to 30% (its lowest setting) but seeing them currently it feels like its to high probably because they are still quite young (6 months) and also haven't learned the flow pattern yet. So im getting a jecod dcs 1200 to see if thats better.

 

[Randomwhiteguy89]

I’m glad to hear the advice helped and Seahorse’s should only be kept in medium to low flow it’s not a matter of them liking it or not they just have small fins and are naturally weak swimmers