34g Solana Seahorse Tank

[The River Reef]

I am going to post my progression in regards to starting my first Seahorse tank. It will be photo based and I will try to track the growth progression, hence placing this in Photography. I will be using my IPad for the pictures, sorry nothing nice here for camera. Here is some basic equipment specs:

• Solana AIO 34g
• JBJ 1/10 Chiller
• Ehiem 3000 Compact return
• 150W Heater
• Ecoxotic Panorama Stock Light
• Stunner Strips (1-UV, 2-Blue) Additional light
• Tunze 9002 w/ Intank cup upgrade
• Intank Media Basket (Foam-top, Chemipure Elie-mid, Fuge-Bottom)

I have around 35lbs of live rock, fine sand, and tried to build natural hitches with dead tonga branch style pieces of rock. Currently there is a CUC and yellow watchman goby pair that was moved over from my last tank. I have a bunch of coral frags and will post info when I fully decide which to mount permanently.
My plan for stock:

• Pair of horses (Barbouri, or similar species)
• Bangai Cardinal
• Yeloow Goby pistol pair
• Pipefish (species?, pair?)
• Mandarin ?

So here are a few of the setup and first few tries at aqua-scaping. I recently had major issues with the JB Weld used all over the rocks and took the entire thing apart and removed most of it. Some wasn't drying fully and staying flexible and also would cloud the water up, like it was melting. Just looked terrible. I will be showing some new ones down the road. I am getting the stunner strips tonight so the first pics are stock light only (very white).

 

[The River Reef]

I installed the 3 stunner strips last night and they add a much need blue tone to the tank.
Here is a FTS with just the stunners on... That is 1 - UV in the center and 2 - Blue Left and Right of the stock modules:




I was taking one of my 2 Tyree Toadstools and the goby was watching in the background

 

[The River Reef]

Okay so first I will show the equipment, starting with a FTS:



Now here are the rear compartments InTank Foam Holder in front of the skimmer - Tunze 9002 w/ InTank upgrade cup [] InTank media basket foam-chemipure-chaeto (not there yet need light still) [] Ehiem return (running into chiller then back)



Here is the light with added stunner strips:

 

[The River Reef]

Now for the corals...

Xmen zoas:



Purple hornets, Red hornets, Blue hornets (all on the same rock) man I can't wait until this grows out! - ohh sorry about the rock star hermit, lol.. he has been owning this rock keeping it clean and sleeping on top of it:



Tyree Toadstool, baby tyree toadstool:



Chalices - Tyree Miami Hurricane - Tyree Original mummy eye (another 2 I can't wait to see grow, I might need to separate them a little more as they grow):



Porities SPS:



I also have a Watermelon Zoa frag still on the plug... haven't decided where it will live. And a frag of sun polyps that hasn't opened yet, not sure he is going to make it?

 

[The River Reef]

I am also as you may have noticed thinking of having a Tyree themed coral stock... We will see how it plays out

 

[beelezebubba]

lookin good.

i didn't know where to put my tank thread either since i'm basically doing a photojournal to track progress, like you. put it in reef talk cuz i figured it got more traffic lol.

that's weird about the water weld. was it an expired tube or something? i've luckily never had any problems with it.

 

[The River Reef]

No all brand new not expired... the welds i let dry fully outside held... it is the ones I submerged wet never dried

 

[beelezebubba]

must have been an off batch or something

mine goes in the water immediately after mixing

 

[wrassefan]

never used the weld stuff....I've always used aquamend

 

[The River Reef]

Here are a few more frags:

Rasta Zoas, already grew 2 new babies -



Sun Coral frag, not doing well hasn't opened for a few weeks. He is rebuilding his skeleton I hope he comes out so I can try and feed him

 

[The River Reef]

Eagle eyes

 

[The River Reef]

Added some new friends... A Duncan, blue star, and my first mandarin... The star is almost double the size expected, might need to relocate him. The mandarin looks great and perked right up after I feed the tank he started hunting pods


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[pallobi]

that hornet rock is gonna be sweet when they grow a little more good job so far on this nano...

 

[The River Reef]

that hornet rock is gonna be sweet when they grow a little more good job so far on this nano...

I can not wait... I already have a few babies growing

 

[The River Reef]

Finally have a sturdy rock pile that I like the look of...
And also a new Duncan. I have some macro, sun coral colony, and sea fans on their way. As well as a few more snails...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Trevor]

Looks great so far

 

[jamesdong009]

Nice looking tank. Keep up the good work!

 

[The River Reef]

Here are some more images, I got an order in from reef2reef. Everything survived and had bunch of freebies in it. Check out the tree sponge, it's huge! And my duncan is 2" across. I have been feeding it. My mandarin is still skinny, I am starting to be concerned. I just added 1k amphipods and have a culture of Thisbe copepods going now...

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[The River Reef]

Forgot to add, the top pic is fire and ice zoa, the snail is called ninja snail (super cool looking) I got 2, and in the front left corner of the FTS there are 3 sea whips, also found the red grape macro the horses like put a stalk to grow out in each back corner.

 

[The River Reef]

Here are few more...
The green mushrooms were free as well as the large cluster of unknown zoas.
The whips are awesome and the xmen zoas can be seen in the background, really healthy and grew 4 new polyps already.
Also forgot to mention the yellow tube coral on the left of the Duncan...

I plan to stop here and let everything grow. My focus will be on this mandarin for the next 2 months. If all goes well the horses will follow


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD