overskimmering

[Deanobeano]

now i know that skimmering is not needed some people say with seahorse, however i'm a firm beliver in skimming seening the amount of waste it pulls out, i now only keep 5 seahorse, various inverts and a cleaner wrasse (due to go to a new big tank soon)plus corals sps and few zoos and mushrooms in an aquaone ar 620t tank about 130 litres with a fair amount of live sand and 25kgs of live rock and a good helping of caupluea (different species), been keeping my 5 seahorses now for a good month or so very well feeding a frozen mysis one cube in morning and one cube at night , normally in a reef tank this would be far to much food for one day in that size tank so skimming wud be nesscary, seeing that "seahorses are harder" to keep then makes sense to skim as long as the bubbles on the return form the skimmer are taken away. this would also help with mantaining the water parameters as i'm doing weekly water changes to keep on top of this.

so my question to you good people is this, i have a deltec apf 600 wud this overskim the tank or is this just what i need to cope with the amount of food that is beening placed in the tank? and to help the sps corals?

would it be worth running any other kinda reactors if i had a sump like kalk and caulium and rowa due to keeping sps corals in the tank as well? or would these all effect the seahorse?


asking on seahorse.org aswell bt having troble logging on to the site.


deano

[tomd82]

i like my skimmer, MCE 600, best thing since sliced bread. I would never switch it off like you say becuse it takes so much crap out the water, it would seem silly turning it off.

[Deanobeano]

if it was a reef tank or fish only then i would wack a skimmer on straight away.

just with the seahorse tho and the bubbles that would be returned into the main tank where the seahorses are as there is no sump if there was a sump i would have no 2nd thought about putting the skimmer on.

so looking at other methods and possiblitys which seem to have pros and cons

1 leave tank as it is doing weekly water changes and adding supplements.

2 skim the tank via a hang on skimmer do water changes every 2 weeks.

3 use an eco system hang on filter.

4 get an overflow and make a sump for skimming and dsb and retun.


if i choose 1 i am concerned that the water levels will be never turely be spot on and that the fact i am changing water every week is not letting the water mature more and that my corals and seahorses will suffer in the long run.

if i choose 2 the water will be in better nick as there willl be a skimmer pulling the crap out and water changes down to every 2 weeks and probally less water % change. this will benfit my seahorses and corals esp the sps corals i plan to have (only got the one at the minute), however the major drawn back is the bubble return going into the tank for the 5 seahorses.

if i choose 3 not really sure how the micrale mud system work as i have never used it b4 and not sure i trust this method but does have the benfits that i can get rid of the filter in the tank and not worry about the skimmer effect with bubbles as there is no skimmer and means my bedroom is quieter and not having to use ear plugs at night to get to sleep.

if i choose 4 means buying an overflow (which i have heard dogdy things about) or getting the tank drilled and then making a sump and putting everything in the sump and making the tank turn into plug city! and shelling out more money. however if i was to do this all i really need do tempoary tranfer stock into other tank for a few days and put water in a container heated and then get it drilled or use an over flow as i have an or2500 to feed the skimmer and skimmer and have an or3500 for the return back to the main tank put a ball valve on the pipe back to the tank to control the speed of the water return so not to create to much movement for the seahorse and the same on the weir or overflow, or maybe do like someone else did with their aqua medic chromis and have pipe work going round the whole tank so that water comes out in different areas for flow.



what would other people do?


deano

[Reefworks]

Skimming will not cause any harm to your inhabitants and will help to keep nitrates down. Overall, do what is necessary to maintain water quality as close to NSW as you can.
I am more concerned about your feeding regieme for your Seahorses. Is your mysis enriched? If it is gamma radiated it has a very poor nutritional profile, even if it is not gamma radiated it is not that good. Make sure that you enrich the feeds appropriately to prevent imunosupression and long term health problems.

[Deanobeano]

gotta set a skimmer away i think maybe with a sump,




as for feeding what i did b4 i added the seahorse to the tank was to buy large amount of rotifers, copepods, mysis shrimp, amphipods and marine mud shrimpi added these to the tank so that there was live food in the tank and the number would increase as well so that there was something there to hunt for the seahorse (trying te recreat the wild for them and live food is a better source of food then frozen even if enriched),

i bought another large amount of rotifers, copepods, mysis shrimp, amphipods and marine mud shrimp and put them in the tank at the side of the seahorse tank with a very large amount caupleua agale and live sand and mineral mud and some live rock, as they is only a decrocter crab in this tank the number of pods has shot up.

when i'm feeding the frozen foodto the seahorse its not a case of just getting it out and whacking it in, small amout of tank water is took out and placed in 2 plastic glasses, i then add my enrichment product (kent chromaplex sometimes add some little bit of cyclop-eeze or even a little kent zooplex) i then add my frozen cube so that it will soak in all the enrichment products, once the cube has thawed i mix it up and place in the frige overnight or though the day , once it has been in the fridge i then stain the feed thr a net and then place back into a fresh plastic glass that has a little fresh tank water and i suck it up in a turkey blaster and then place in fornt of the powerhead in the tank and some other areas where the smaller seahorse are so they get feed.

i have a box in the tank with caupluea agale form my tank at the side and i change that agale every 3 days so that there is a new supply of pods in the tank for the seahorse. so that they are having live food aswell as the enriched.


deano

[Reefworks]

Good work, although I would use New Era or Zoolife enrichments instead of Kent every time.
hth

[Deanobeano]

never heard of New Era or Zoolife? can you tell me a little more about these please and do you know any other way of feeding? just i have been told adding some much supplements is bad in the long run to the matuirty of the water ?

do you keep/sell seahorse? different species etc


deano