seahorsecrazy Posted January 23, 2008 Report Share Posted January 23, 2008 :bounce: :bounce: My new tank is an AquaOne 830. Cant find it anywhere on the net, but the closest is an 850, holding 150litres. Just started it up yesterday, have external filter (canister?) ViaAqua - which I have put in PhosEx to help keep the algae under control - hopefully before it really starts. Seem to be jumping the gun, but liverock has Green Hair Algae, and want to make sure it doesnt grow. I have to transfer my two(!) liverocks slowly so as the seahorses still have one at a time for their own small tank. Do not have a protein skimmer, but the filter on this thing seems to be very good at circulating the water already. At what stage of the cycle should I put the first liverock in? I have primed the water with 'cycle' and 'prime' to start the cycle, but dont want to kill the inhabitants if the water is not yet safe. Should I also get some noodles for the tank or should the liverock do the job? I know they are small (fist size and then rockmelon size) will they do it? I have noodles in the simple filter of the small tank, just a bit unsure about transferring these as I want to clean all the ornaments I am going to transfer, but these are unable to be cleaned properly arent they? With two halfgrown kudas and one nearly full size kuda in the tank, what clean up crew should I have for that size tank? Tried glass shrimp, but havent gotten past the night of collection without them dying - before I even try to acclimatise them to salt. No sucess there - although I found one with eggs, that I have thrown into my tank with brine eggs hoping they may survive and hatch Anyhow, yellow tang? Lawnmower blenny? Banded shrimp? what do you think? My horses are well adapted to feeding from a bowl now, and hunt the peices that float away, but they now beat me to the bowl and demand. Oh yeah, baby is still going, alot more energy, but still not feeding on her own. Still crashing into things, but at mealtime, she comes to the surface and waits for me to feed her seperately now. Still not taking mysis, but will sit there as I blow baby brine into her mouth with the syringe. I hope I dont have to do this forever, although she has a great personality now and seems to have me wrapped around her little tail! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 At what stage of the cycle should I put the first liverock in? I have primed the water with 'cycle' and 'prime' to start the cycle, but dont want to kill the inhabitants if the water is not yet safe. What stage of the cycle are the rocks? If they are cycled enough that the bacteria in them are eating both the ammonia and nitrite, (no ammonia or nitrite when you test the water), then you can put the rocks straight in. If the rocks are not yet fully cycled let us know where they are up to and we will tell you what to do. Should I also get some noodles for the tank or should the liverock do the job? I know they are small (fist size and then rockmelon size) will they do it? I have noodles in the simple filter of the small tank, just a bit unsure about transferring these as I want to clean all the ornaments I am going to transfer, but these are unable to be cleaned properly arent they? To get good water quality, ie, low nitrate, it is best to let the liverock do the job and not use noodles. However I'm not sure if you have enough liverock I know nothing about seahorses or how much bioload they create. If in doubt you could put in some noodles, as a temporary safeguard, but with a view to slowly removing them once things are stabilized, testing the water as you go, for ammonia and nitrite, to ensure the liverock is handling the bioload. Anyhow, yellow tang? Lawnmower blenny? Banded shrimp? what do you think? My horses are well adapted to feeding from a bowl now, and hunt the peices that float away, but they now beat me to the bowl and demand. These fish will eat any food MUCH faster than your seahorses can. They will not leave anything lying around for the seahorses to pick away at. The shrimp will take longer to feed and will not be such an issue. CB shrimps can be aggressive, there is some debate about this as some people claim their cb shrimp has eaten some of their fish, and other people claim their cb shrimp is not agressive at all. However just in case, a cleaner shrimp or two could be a safer option. Should add that some lawnmower blennies do not eat food we add to the tank if they have not yet figured it out yet, they just eat algae that is growing. So they would not steal the seahorses food. But the problem is that once they have eaten all the algae they will starve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seahorsecrazy Posted January 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 Thanks Wasp, the live rocks have been in my small tank for nearly two months now and have been doing a great job. The only problem I have with them is the GHA that I am trying to get rid of. The smaller rock isnt too bad, I was going to put it in first and then clean the larger rock once I had transferred the horses and could use smaller amounts of water around that rock to keep it clean until i was satisfied to put that also in with the horses in their new tank. They dont produce much waste, probably one or two poos a day and I only have three. The only real waste is if they leave food. I pretty much have the food quantity sorted although they do manage to call my bluff of occasion. Paula Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wasp Posted January 24, 2008 Report Share Posted January 24, 2008 OK well the rocks should be fully cycled & you can put them in. As to the hair algae this is a lot harder to solve. Of course the simple answer is it is nutrient related but getting rid of the nutrients is more complex, and can cost money. It is good you are not overfeeding, it's basically about getting out of the tank as much as you put in, so not overfeeding in the first place means you have the first part of the equation solved. Are you using tap water for top up? This can be a problem, even if it is filtered. Many people cannot beat algae problems till they use deionised water. Plus, not having a protein skimmer will make things almost impossible. Not sure if you can do it but keeping the rocks in a dark area may help. One way to kill the hair algae will be to put them in a plastic container with a little sea water. Over a couple of days add 3 times as much dechlorinated fresh water, so the salt concentration is only 1/4 normal. Do this slowly so as not to kill the bacteria, and hold at this level with a powerhead for watermovement, for a week. The low salt concentration will kill the hair algae but be enough to keep the salt loving bacteria alive. Then over a couple of days wind salt concentration back up to the level of your tank. This is a quick fix, but be aware the algae will eventually return if the nutrient levels are not fixed. Algae can be hard, I have had an algae free tank for years and thought I had it sussed, then about 6 months ago I started to get a bryopsis algae outbreak. Very discouraging plus I couldn't get rid of it. I've finally realised it was caused by nutrients coming from some concrete rocks I made which failed and dissolved all over the tank. I am sucking this sandy muck out as I can and the bryopsis is finally starting to receed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seahorsemad Posted January 25, 2008 Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 Glad to hear that you have got a new tank and your baby is getting better. Try mixing in a few pieces of mysis shrimp when you feed with brine shrimp. You have trained your little one on good food and it might take a little while to switch back. She will go back to mysis eventually, but she knows she is on to a good thing I had a blue tang in with my Kudas and had to seperate them as even at a small size the blue tang was picking on the seahorses and i would stay away from shrimps as they will move faster than the seahorses and will hunt them down. Its really best to keep the seahorses seperate from fish. The seahorses have no defense against the fish and cant get away from them in an aquarium like they would be able to in the wild. You might be able to get away with a small goby or mandarin fish, but nothing fast moving or large. I would look at getting some more live rock to help your tank fight ammonia and nitrite. Also if you have any sponges in your new filter i would look at taking them out. I had a friend who trained her seahorses to eat out of the net. That way you dont get the food all over the tank and it might help with the algae problems. I have trained my Pot bellied seahorses to do that aswell. Seahorses dont have stomachs so when they eat food it goes straight through there digestive systems hence the need to feed them a couple of times a day if you can. it is a fine line between not underfeeding your seahorses and not polluting your tank with food they dont eat. Good luck with your new tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camnbron Posted January 25, 2008 Report Share Posted January 25, 2008 Hiya, great to hear you have a larger tank, seems to always happen to us all - I started with a 90L tropical freshwater and now I have a 450L tropical marine reef system. I agree the bits of live rock you have will probably be insufficient for your new tank once you add extra inhabitants. I would suggest getting a few more pieces You could contact someone like this person: Trademe Link Removed!!!!!!!!!! Who is selling a tank that is no longer running as they could have excess coral rock they may be willing to part with. It doesn't have to be live like the ones from my tank as it will be 'seeded' by whats already in your tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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