dwarfs

[jamesh]

hi i have managed to con my mother into letting me setup another tank and i wanted dwarfs so now i am looking into tanks but i have no idea how to decorate them as they always seem to be in horrid little plastic tanks with a bit of gravel and a plastic plant with a sponge filter in it. so i am planning another tank i know its going to take ages to cycle because of the lack of live rock so i have decided to do it now while i have money. i have decided that i want arround about 15-25L for a pair filtered by a hang on filter(i have a spare one in the shed that never got used), i know its going to be about 5-8 weeks to cycle but i will be putting sand from my other tank in and will put a little lump of live rock in the sponge to get it going. but as far as decor goes i dont want a tacky goldfish bowl style tank with ugly bright plastic plants.
so can i see some peoples tanks please so i can nick some ideas please?

p.s. i have got the other seahorse tank sorted with 2 rocks of live rock in the tank one in each corner with macro on the left and soft coral on the right:D

[Sailfin]

Hya mate

The dwarf seahorse tanks look like that for a reason! I would strongly advise against putting any form of live rock/live sand in a dwarf seahorse tank. If you have any of the 'normal' decor all sorts of nasties can get in. Hydroids can kill dwarfs. If macro algae crashes it will, without doubt kill the dwarfs. Some of the plastic plants you can get now aren't quite so bad. I set mine up the good old fashioned fw way - filled it with new water/sand/plants etc then lobbed brineshrimp in there for 8 weeks and let them either live or die (I did dose the tank with phyto). You will be taking a huge gamble if you try and set up a dwarf tank to look like a 'normal' marine tank.

I think all successful dwarf tanks look a bit naff tbh but not sure how else you would keep them successfully. Also if you want them to breed I would also strongly advise not to put any substrate in at all.

Mine are in with a sponge filter, plastic plants etc - its the best for them therefore I just got used to it.

Will try and post a pic tomorrow

[jamesh]

i conned her by saying that i needed a tank set up so that i could keep the babys in it and i could keep a few dwarf seahorse in it to keep the filter alive but in actual fact i will be putting two sponge filters in the dwarf tank and just putting one in another tank when i have babys :thumbsup: and i have decided that i want to use some plastics with pebbles on the bottom in a tall thin thank that i will be getting shortly its 18.5Litres.
i have decided that i will follow what another aquarist did and put a dead prawn in the tank to start the cycle and use an off the shelf filter aid. i think i will keep the tank in the garage while its cycling as i can imagine it will stink.