KMS 120 gal

[Coral reefer]

Drilling glass is fun!

 

[Darkxerox]

This tank has reached the end as a reef.
Taking out a lot of rock, all corals except maybe toadstools, and installed an external overflow box from my old frag tank. Now that’s reusing, even better than recycling!
Up next I’ll get the sump setup with a top off and work on a refrigerated autofeeder.
Will be ordering some seahorses from ocean rider soon unless some has a better captive bred option for me.

Saw a really cool seahorse community tank at Disney World where they kept a mix of pretty different species like Hippocampus kuda, some jawfish, razorfish, crinoids, and chocolate chip starfish. Might be something to inspire your plans for this tank.

 

[Coral reefer]

Saw a really cool seahorse community tank at Disney World where they kept a mix of pretty different species like Hippocampus kuda, some jawfish, razorfish, crinoids, and chocolate chip starfish. Might be something to inspire your plans for this tank.

View attachment 47133

Thanks! I’d like to get a pair of mandarins maybe, might try a pipe fish or two as well. Starting with the seahorses. Not sure species yet.

 

[dochou]

@Coral reefer, what inspired you change the tank from a reef tank to a seahorse tank? Did the kids want seahorses?

 

[Coral reefer]

@Coral reefer, what inspired you change the tank from a reef tank to a seahorse tank? Did the kids want seahorses?

Felt like it pretty much. We still have a 40 gal reef to observe and learn about. This gives another thing to study and enjoy

 

[Coral reefer]

We have a seahorse that’s been eating and doing well for like 3-4 weeks now. Got the mini fridge and parts to set up automatic feeding of mysis feast multiple times a day. Just need to drill a couple holes in the fridge and fit it under the stand!
Then more seahorses!
Think I’m going to replace the current top off 10 gal tank with a bucket and squeeze the fridge in front of that hopefully
Still not sure if I go with the seperate pump fessing water through the fridge and injecting food into that stream, or use two dosing pumps where one feeds and the other flushes the line after it feeds each time with rodi

 

[Coral reefer]

Today during aquarium time we explored the idea of the automatic fridge feeder a bit more now that the kids could see the actual parts involved and expanded to food webs and ecosystems.
We have been investigating what is involved in culturing phytoplankton and copepods, and will be trying our hands at that soon. Hoping to give all the kids a chance to take home and grow some phyto and if we have success with that some copepods after in order to keep supplying the tank with additional pods and maybe feed live phyto with the mini fridge to the tank to support the pods hopefully living in the tank.
At the end we talked about why the ocean is important to each of us and the kids came up with the following.

 

[Baykes]

At the end we talked about why the ocean is important to each of us and the kids came up with the following.

Mermaids

Love this project, so cool to introduce this hobby to these kids!

 

[MolaMola]

You could also consider phyto + brine shrimp. I had students set up little nannochloropsis and shrimp ecosystems at their homes during distance learning and at least three are still going - since March 2021.
Pods would be awesome and entertaining for kids!

 

[Coral reefer]

I’m more interested in phyto and pods for now as a hands on teaching experience and positive outcome of feeding seahorses, but with a longer term goal of breeding shrimp like peppermint cleaner and fire. Pods should be ideal for the larvae I believe. Should be a fun process for kids to watch if I can get it to work. We have a pair of cleaners in the seahorse tank now so I may try to catch the larvae sometime once they start carrying eggs if I can get the phyto and copepod cultures going well and make space in my garage for the larvae

 

[Coral reefer]

3 New ocean rider additions. At least one was eating frozen mysis this morning pretty well

 

[Coral reefer]

Finally got the mini fridge autofeeder working with aqua forest liquid mysis

 

[CaseyP]

Nice. They're eating the AF liquid mysis consistently now?

 

[Coral reefer]

Nice. They're eating the AF liquid mysis consistently now?

They liked it from the get go. Way more than mysis feast. Just took me a bit to get things running. Feeding 3x per day and also feeding once most days with frozen pe mysis. Going to order more seahorses soon now that it’s running.

 

[L/B Block]

am
Finally got the mini fridge autofeeder working with aqua forest liquid mysis

Glad to see it up and running and good to know about the af mysis.
Think I recognize that fridge!
Word to the wise -make sure any holes that the cables are running through are really well sealed - otherwise ice starts growing in there as it overcompensates.

 

[Coral reefer]

We have phyto going! First attempt. Fingers crossed…one at the school and one at home

 

[PjFish]

Any headway on the shrimp breeding project?

 

[Coral reefer]

Any headway on the shrimp breeding project?

This is kinda step one on that path

 

[Coral reefer]

Home phyto in 1 week
About to go check on the batch at school…

 

[Coral reefer]

Next step is ordering some pods to culture from @Coral Hub (Nathan)