Jestersix

Felicia's 30 Gallon Seahorse Tank - Seahorses have arrived!!!

First chamber for fuge is good since your "floating food particles fall in to feed your fuge.

But then your pods never make into your main tank because of your mechanical filters in your media basket.

Skimmer in first chamber could work since it does have a constant water level since your media basket right now "cascades over" so will set the water height in the first chamber.
 
zeroinverse said:
First chamber for fuge is good since your "floating food particles fall in to feed your fuge.

But then your pods never make into your main tank because of your mechanical filters in your media basket.

Skimmer in first chamber could work since it does have a constant water level since your media basket right now "cascades over" so will set the water height in the first chamber.
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Ok, so I'm thinking I'll leave it like my original drawing and if I decide to get a skimmer, I will put it in with the heater. I can use one of the small skimmers for AIO tanks, so the dimensions would only be 3" x 3.5" and there would still be room for the heater in that first chamber. There's a ton of extra room in with the heater anyway because of the overflow width. I just hope the fuge will get enough food this way.
 
I have my heater and media in the same chamber. You could consolidate a bit and get some extra room that way or just put the heater in the display side. Just a thought
 
tr1gger said:
I have my heater and media in the same chamber. You could consolidate a bit and get some extra room that way or just put the heater in the display side. Just a thought
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Unfortunately, the heater can't go in the display side because the seahorses would hitch to it and burn their tails. Heaters in seahorse tanks have to either be out of the display tank in a sump or AIO chamber, or protected with a guard. The issue with guards is that they block a lot of water flow to the heater, so its hard to get decent heat distribution.
 
Ok, so here's another option. I'm really liking this one. Now the fuge will get nutrients and then the water will go through the media basket after the fuge. It doesn't make anything tighter, just rearranged a bit. If I decide I need a skimmer, it can fit into the first chamber with the heater no problem. Ron said that chamber should keep a constant water level and I've seen that most people put the skimmers in that chamber on the Biocube 29's, so that should work. I'm thinking this is the way to go. What do you guys think?

 
tr1gger said:
Oh wow that makes so much sense. Good research!
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Thanks! I didn't think of that either until I was reading about seahorse care. That fact was what got me inspired to add the back chambers. Otherwise I was going to stick an AC70 on there and put a heater down in the tank and call it a day, haha!
 
Ok, so here we go on another baffle design.

Considerations
1) It was pointed out to me that I may want a skimmer because seahorses need such stable water quality. The new CADlights nano skimmer looks awesome, so I may get one of those. I hate skimmers, so it would be one of those things I'd only get if I decide I need it after a month or so before I add the seahorses. So basically, I need somewhere to put it if I decide to add it. The skimmer also has to be in a chamber with steady water level, so either 1 or 2. 3 will be able to fluctuate and is where the ATO float switch will go.

2) Media rack: If there is a skimmer, it needs to come after the skimmer for the floss to remove any micro bubbles since bubbles can cause a disease in seahorses. I was told that I would want the media after the fuge so the fuge gets enough nutrients, but then I realized that the pods would all get filtered by the media and wouldn't make it out into the tank. I think there should still be enough nutrients in the water for some chaeto after going through the media (I hope). The media rack also needs to be placed so that water flows down through it to collect detritus. Also, it needs to be in the first chamber to prevent detritus from settling on the bottom of the first chamber.

Based on all this, here is my latest design. The only bad thing with it is that the skimmer will have to be lifted out to get to the media rack (if there is a skimmer). That wouldn't be too awful with one of these nano skimmers though. Just lift it out once a week to change the media and then stick it back in. Alternately, the skimmer could go in the fuge section since it has a constant water level and plenty of space. That would make the first chamber media and the heater. So basically, the design would be this, but if I decide to get a skimmer it could be easily placed in either chamber 1 or chamber 2. The heater will be in whichever chamber the skimmer isn't in.



Thoughts?
 
I was always under the assumption that filter floss should go before the refugium so that detritus would get caught there and not in the Chaeto.


What are you planning on having in your refugium?
I was running into a similar problem with my all-in-one tank too. I ended up making a rack out of egg crate with floss on top and Chaeto below in the first chamber. Middle chamber has another rack for carbon / chemi pure. And the third chamber has heater and return pump. I opted for a hob skimmer.
 
monkeybiz said:
I was always under the assumption that filter floss should go before the refugium so that detritus would get caught there and not in the Chaeto.


What are you planning on having in your refugium?
I was running into a similar problem with my all-in-one tank too. I ended up making a rack out of egg crate with floss on top and Chaeto below in the first chamber. Middle chamber has another rack for carbon / chemi pure. And the third chamber has heater and return pump. I opted for a hob skimmer.
Click to expand...

Yeah, filter floss seems to really need to go in the first chamber for detritus. I'm worried about putting the media (chemipure and purigen) after the refugium because I think it will trap pods and they won't make it back into the tank. That's why I ended up putting all the media in the first chamber on this new design. I really don't want to do a HOB skimmer because they're very bulky. I'd prefer to just slide one down into one of the chambers.

I plan to keep a combination of chaeto and blue ochtodes in the refugium since the pods seem to love both of those. Maybe I'll throw in a bit of rubble rock as well.
 
Here is a photo of it

SANY0102.jpg
 
tr1gger said:
This is the skimmer I had in my cadlights 22g. Worked REALLY well, good footprint. Might be a good option for you considering the size of the chamber.
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Yeah, I looked at that one too, but its a bit more expensive. It might fit in the first chamber but it would definitely be a squeeze. Its listed as 4.9" wide and that chamber will be 5" wide based on the current design. I could shift it a tad bit though and just take a 1/4" off of the fuge section. That would work fine. Just trying to keep this tank on a tight budget.

Looks nice and clean/sleek in the photo.
 
FeliciaLynn said:
Yeah, I looked at that one too, but its a bit more expensive. It might fit in the first chamber but it would definitely be a squeeze. Its listed as 4.9" wide and that chamber will be 5" wide based on the current design. I could shift it a tad bit though and just take a 1/4" off of the fuge section. That would work fine. Just trying to keep this tank on a tight budget.

Looks nice and clean/sleek in the photo.
Click to expand...


Totally feel you on the budget. I have seen them on RC at times used for about $50. Was just a thought ;)
 
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