Catherine's 55 Gallon Build Thread

YEAH, I picked up a 55 gallon tank from my LFS today. Here it is getting a leak check:



So many decisions! I hope to have it in it's permanent place and filled by my birthday October, 26th.

I'm painting the back tomorrow and I'll put it in my piano room for now. I want to get it full of salt water and get my aragonite rocks in there and hopefully figure out what kind of bottom material I want. Don't know if I want to do the plenum (like GARF says) or gravel. I really like the pretty white sugary sand so I'll have to look into that.

This tank will probably be for my ponies. If I do that I can get two more pairs. It would be nice if I could figure out how to section off a portion to float a pod mat for pod breeding and then let the pods swim out into the tank. Maybe a HOB refugium placed inside the tank? I've got lots of time because I'm going to spend forever on my sandbed community.

This will be a really slow thread!

C.

Woohoo! Good luck!

Cool!!

CPR makes an in-tank refugium, but it's not very big.
CPR AQUATIC, INC - CITR In-Tank Refugium

You could install a baffle in the tank. Set it to overflow 1" below the tank rim. Behind the baffle is the refugium. Use a powerhead to pump water out of the tank and into the refugium. It doesn't have to be a hose, you could simply drill al hole anywhere in the baffle and hook the powerhead outlet to the hole. This would fill the fefugium from the tank and when it gets to the top of the baffle it'll overflow into the tank. Run the tank water level 1.5" or 2" below the top rim.

I remember reading a good way to breed pods in a tank was to build a section of rock with small crevices that are about 4" deep, and allow them to breed at the bottom of this rock work. I guess you use a series of rubble and thin stick/branch rock. The crevices allow the pods to find their way out of the "nest" but gives them good protection from flow and predators.

Congrats on the new tank, C. I am really interested in Seahorses and have thought of turning my Red Sea Max into a tank for horses. How long have you kept them?

Hey Catherine, you could do what I did, I bought one of those plastic fish holding containers that lfs's use to place fish in before bagging them, the one with the lip to hang on the tank, and drilled holes on all four sides...then I placed some rock rubble and a lot of cheato inside it...and pointed a powerhead at it. Now, I have an endless supply of pods and worms in it...I also have a place where my baby snails hung out until they were big enough to survive in the d/t, now I have hundreds of them.

I knew it wouldnt take long for you to go bigger:D
Congratulations Catherine.

dcantucson said:

Congrats on the new tank, C. I am really interested in Seahorses and have thought of turning my Red Sea Max into a tank for horses. How long have you kept them?

Click to expand...

David,

I got my first pair of ponies in March and I absolutely adore them. They are pretty easy to keep as long as you understand their needs! Horses like low flow, they aren't good swimmers and their body structure tends to catch currents easily and knock them around. They like to hitch on to stuff and fish, crawl around in my seaweed (and fish), and grab onto my rocks (and fish). If you want a tank where you look in and see your animals moving around then they probably aren't for you. I got my second pair of horses about a month ago. I've trained most of my horses to take mysis shrimp and I feed them twice a day with a long, long eyedropper thing. They have figured this out and they like to dance around the tank and beg whenever they see me hanging around. I really don't have to do the feeding but I like to. If I'm busy, I can just throw a chunk of frozen mysis in and they will feed from it. I'm actually surprised that these animals are still alive in our oceans because they are horrible feeders. The food practically has to swim in their snouts for them to eat it! They are very slow. Because of this you really can't have anything in your tank that will out compete with them for food or that has a claw that would pinch. My 26 gallon tank has 4 horses, 2 peppermint shrimp and a janitor crew. Horses are herd animals and prefer to be in groups so I definitely want to add more but I can't due to my tank size. Lastly, you've got to get rid of all corals that have prickles or a sting. I keep softies only in my horse corral. The horses are happy only when their tail is wrapped around something so whatever you've got that might pinch, sting or cut their delicate tails needs to go. I know this sounds difficult but if you give them their own tanks that consider these needs they are incredibly easy to keep. Why do it? They are very personable. If my hand is in the tank, they come and grab on to my fingers. They dance for me, they get themselves into the most comical positions like "hitching" onto each other's snouts or hanging upside down to fish. I think they are just beautiful and I could watch them for hours. If you are interested in learning more about them I strongly suggest you take the FREE course offered by Ocean Rider, Seahorse.com - Seahorse, Sea Life, Marine Life, Aquafarm Sales, Feeds and Accessories - Home. It is 10 or 15 lessons that they email you. The guy is so knowledgeable and willing to share information. When you finish the class you get a certificate. I have purchased a vitamin supplements "Vibrance" from them. I soak my mysis in this stuff before I feed. I haven't purchased any horses from them but I'm thinking about trying some of their pixie horses. If you have any questions or want more info let me know! As you can tell, I'm so in love with my babies!

Catherine

Hey catherine, I was really considering getting seahorses, but I've also read that they need cooler water, in my eclipse system, the temp doesn't go below 80*, will that be warm for a tropical species like the fuscus, reidi, or erectus?

I keep my tank at 78*. I've got 2 erectus and they are pretty hardy. The erectus originate from the Gulf of Mexico so I would imagine they would be tolerant of warmer temps. The reidi are Brazilian so I would think the same applies. Don't know about the fuscus. Reidi have a beautiful reddish color to them but I've read that the horses tend to take on the color of their surroundings. My erectus started black and stayed that way. My other two are barbori. They started yellow and are now kind of a muddy yellowish black. The back of my tank is black so maybe that's true. The erectus are supposed to be the easiest. They like groups so my advice is to get a pair and be sure they are captive bred and trained young to eat frozen mysis!

Catherine

Oh, I forgot, horses like vertical. If you give them enough height they will breed. This 55 gallon tank is really too short for them but I'm not ready for breeding so I think it will be ok for now!

Catherine

Thanks Catherine. I am going to try them at some point. It's really why I got into SW in the first place. I had Dwarf Seahorses when I was young (and of course they didn't last long) and have always loved them.

Well, I finally got my 55 gallon up on my work table and was going to tape it down so I could paint the back and I noticed that it is horribly scratched. I got the tank used for 40.00. It housed a lizard for a couple months. I looked at it in the shop and noticed one scratch in the tank which I figured I would put in the back. Now that I have it up with a light behind it I'm noticing bunches of scratches. I've been on the fence about using this tank for my horses. Sooooo, my build is on hold until I decide if I want to ignore these scratches and move on or if I want to find a different tank. Sigh. Bummer.

You could always house dart frogs like Winy :mrgreen:

KidJ57 said:

You could always house dart frogs like Winy :mrgreen:

Click to expand...

My cats would LOVE that!:mrgreen:

C

Cool...congrats on the new tank. It's always fun starting a new one. Can't to see how your horsies do in there.

I spent about an hour last night with a flashlight, a marker and my tank. I circled all the scratches that were unacceptable. Most of them were on one side and I could put that side to the back. I have a glass polisher that I use with my stained glass so I'm going to work on some of those scratches (the ones I would put in the back) to see if I can polish out the scratches without causing distortion. I want to shoot my tank and scratches/ distortion would diminish my ability to do that. I'll start this experiment tonight.

Meanwhile, I was researching how to build a tank and found this video.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWknp5iXCMU&NR=1&feature=fvwp]YouTube - UPSIDE DOWN SINGAPORE FISH TANK[/ame]

Since my horses like vertical this might be a way I can give them their vert space and still stay in a budget/ weight limit. Something to think about.

C

Interesting idea indeed. It took me a minute to figure out what it was actually.

I understand the physics of the design.... to a point. I understand how the water stays up there but I don't understand how he's got bubbles going in the vertical part. You get the water up using a vacuum. It would stay up there as long as the vacuum is maintained but the bubbles would displace the water, right? I don't see anything sucking the air out of the top so how's he doing that? Maybe he's got a magic wand?

C

i'm wondering the same thing, and i'm willing to bet that there is a pump of sorts connected to the top and that pulls out the air when there is some and just pumps it into the lower open section, that way its allways pulled up to the top, and if it pulls out air,then it just bubbles out in the lower section

the rest of the time when there isnt any air in the vert area, then its pulling water off the top and pumping it down into the open area...

thats my theory anyway...

ok, after a bit of research, i was pretty close...
the romaurie-effect
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laRbP4UI4cw[/ame]