2.5 gallon dwarf seahorse tank

[twiggy]

Inspired by the design of Denverbc29 on rc, I decided to do some false walls like him on my tank too. I first started off by buying the tank with a Marineland LED light and Marineland Maxi Jet 400 from petsmart, then went next door to Office Max and bought a couple of acrylic paper holders and broke them up to make the false walls

I used loctite gel glue to hold the walls in place, then I siliconed them up, horribly I may add

The small wall is to keep the pump in back from sliding around everywhere.

 

[twiggy]

The next step after the walls was painting the outside. I used Rustoleum with a texture to it, then gave it a flat clear coat made by Krylon. The strip on the side is to see the water level and make sure everything is going ok back there, thanks to Denverbc29 for that one too

With the lights on

I'm thinking of just putting a small rock pile for shrooms or zoas, and the rest of the space open for some macro and either a gorg or dead sea fan for hitching posts.

 

[Krish]

Very cool!! Nice DIY!! Looking forward to seeing it stocked with the dwarf horses!

 

[rainydave]

Great work.

 

[twiggy]

Thanks krish and rainydave, I can't wait to see the ponies either. I gotta level up my bbs decapping and hatching first. I can hatch eggs fine, but decapping is new to me. Once that's mastered and the tank is mice and cycled, then I'll order some zots.

 

[TJL]

Great work Twiggy, will follow along to see the progression. I vote for Purple Bush Gorgonian for the mini-ponies, a perfect little coral for Seahorses and if you lived closer I'd give you some starts off mine.

Cheers, Todd

 

[twiggy]

Thanks TJL, I'll have to order some of that. Not too much room so we'll see what I can do.

 

[IPisces]

Oh, thats soooo cool...I cant wait to see the little ponies in there either. Your inspiring me.

 

[llovsbarbie]

Looks really cool so far! Will be tagging along on this one

 

[twiggy]

Aww you guys are making me blush Thanks for all the nice comments and anticipation. I'm super stoked!

 

[Peppie]

It is refreshing to see a simple clean DIY on a small tank. Alot of people want to add a sump and skimmer yada yada yada.
Looking forward to seeing it alive.

 

[twiggy]

Just put water in it this morning. I'm going to see what the temp reaches when I get home tonight then decide what to do if it's too high. It's already digging a hole in the sand at the far end so I know I'll have to slow down the flow. Tomorrow I'll try decapsulating brine shrimp eggs.

 

[SaltwaterNoobs]

This is so very cool!!! I may have to give it a shot myself I have a 2.5 gallon sitting empty, staring at me...

Tagging along to see your progress

 

[twiggy]

Thanks, it's my first DIY. I'm pretty proud of it. The temp was 75.6 when I left at 9:30, starting temp was at 73 at 7:45. Hoping it'll stay under 77, but it's hard to say.

 

[twiggy]

I just got back home with a new pump, mini jet 404, and snapped a few pics of the different flow coming out of them. The baffles combined with the new pump, which has a built in flow control, is perfect with a little bit of surface agitation and no more sand dunes. I'd like to hear from someone if 80 is too hot for dwarves.

without baffles

with baffles

 

[rayjay]

While 80° can work for some people and some seahorses, dwarf and standard, there are many more that have perished in the attempts to do so. There is no way to say for sure that they will do OK in your tank as it depends on too many variables.
The problem is that you have to keep the tank a lot cleaner, and with rock piled, it will especially be important because detritus accumulates in any nook and cranny or dead flow area of sand bed providing the ideal breading ground for the bacteria that cause the problems with the seahorses.

 

[twiggy]

So do you think perhaps taking the rock pile out and just having some macros and a gorg would be better? If not, how would I go about keeping this tank running cool?

 

[rayjay]

I think you would get more response to that question on your thread on the "org" were there are a lot of dwarf keepers.
For me, I have only a little live rock in my 5g dwarf tank and no powerheads, just two open ended airlines to disturb the surface water for proper gas exchange.
I have the few pieces of rock spread out, and, I have bare bottom so for me, it's easy to just nudge a piece of rock aside to siphon out the gunk each day or so with a partial water change.
As for your 404 power head, I use one of those in each of my standard seahorse tanks because I turn off the Hagen 802's while I feed and the 404's keep the food in motion decently so the seahorses eat more of it and I have less to remove after.
For keeping cool, I have the AC on so that tank never gets above 23°C. (I can't stand hotter temperatures and find it difficult to breath)

 

[littleangel_dawn]

Can't wait to see the dwarf sea horses in this little tank!!

 

[twiggy]

It's cooled down since I put a little fan on it. It was holding steady for the past week between 73 and 75, but this morning was at 69. I think it's because it cooled off outside quite a bit and my ac was still on. I'll have to see how the transition of summer to fall will be on this little tank. I put the little rock pile in the fuge instead. Put a piece of frozen krill in there to help the cycle start. Once levels settle in I'll order some macro and a gorg to let those take root before I get the ponies.