Matt LeBaron

This sounds fun, here I go. How do you have your systems set up? Fairly typical with sump, only difference is that I have a separate refugium connected to the sump. What size tank do you have? 90G DT with 30G sump and 20G Refugium. What kind of lighting do you use? 8 bulb T5 Nova Extreme fixture that I need to replace the bulbs in. What kind of flow do you have in your tank? What type of powerheads do you use? MP40 that I run on lagoon mode near full power and a split return from a 600GPH pump. Which heaters do you prefer? I actually have 3 different types. Two 300 watt, one is a stealth the other is a marineland one. Then I have a 100 watt Rena smart heater in the refugium. I'm a firm believer in redundancy. What other livestock do you have in the tank with your ponies? Let's see, a firefish, 4 red spot cardinal fish, two stientz shrimp goby with their pistol shrimp. Plus some peppermint shrimp, tiny hermits, and snails. Is your system all natural; refugium, deep sandbed, etc? Deep sand bed with seagrass in 3/4's of the tank and rock in the last bit. Refugium is full of LR to make up for the lack of it in the DT. And then I have crazy amounts of cheat in the sump. Do you use a skimmer? Yep rated for 150G forget the brand off the top of my head. What type of seahorses do you have? 4 erectus now our first pair and then just got a new pair a week ago. They're in the QT right now. what modifications have you made to equipment for your seahorses? Just a foam cover for the MP40. What do you feed them? PE mysis soaked in selcon from time to time. I am also trying out plankton some now. They're a tiny bit bigger than PE mysis. Little horsies get hikari mysis. What medications do you keep on hand for your seahorses? Diamox and neomycin are two musts that I have had to use in the past. I keep several others around too. what special equipment so you use for seahorses and why? Repurposed bird feeding dishes. I put magnetic heater holders on the back and a perch of airline tubing for the seahorses to gran when they are eating out of it.

Ah ok, so if it's serious you can feel it. No worries there, I've got my hand in my tank almost every day so I'd noticed. Good information though. I've had heaters die in the freshwater side of things but they've always just stopped working, I've never had a heater go where it shocked the tank.

Father in law asked my wife and I want we wanted to Chirstmas. Our answer? Another pair of seahorses! Upgraded to a 90 gallon about 6 months ago and it has finally settled in and I felt comfortable stocking it up a bit more. Ordered them from Seahorse Source (I wouldn't recommend anyone else, they are simply the best seahorse breeders around) and they arrived yesteday. The female. The Male. And them together in their quarantine tank. They've got about 3-4 weeks in the 10 gallon while I get them trained to each out of a food dish and make sure they're both healthy.

What kind of things can electricity in the tank cause? I've only been on the saltwater side of things for coming up on 2 years now (I've had freshwater for coming up on 20 years now) but I've never heard about any bad experiences with this. I mean it makes sense with salt water being extra conductive vs freshwater but I wouldn't even know to look for a piece of equipment leaking voltage if I saw problems in my tank and I've always kind of questioned the grounding probes I've seen for sale.

On my 90 gallon I have a single MP40 on the opposite side of the tank from my return flow. I split the return into two for the that side of the tank. Not sure what kind of flow you are going for though. I wanted flow around the medium spectrum of things because I have seahorses in the tank. The MP40 on lagoon mode about 75% power and then return flow at around 600GPH meet this well. If you want higher flow maybe an MP40 on one side and an MP10 with your return flow on the other. I agree with hypertech that two MP40s is overkill, having said that though you could make a standing wave with two and you can always adjust them down if you do not mind spending the extra cash. Kind of a preference thing.

I've got one on my 90 gallon, works well so far. Was nice when I was getting the tank set up, told me when the temperature was getting higher and I was able to get a small fan to keep it where I wanted it to be.

Not everyone likes the look of them but Red Spot Cardinelfish are a good schooling choice and totally peaceful. I have a school of 5 in my 90 gallon right now. Tank is still relatively new so once it settles in a bit more I plan on getting another group of 5 from the Divers Den at Live Aquaria the next time some are up for sale.

Looks like a number of people have been using these pellets for a couple of months now. Any longer term observations about whether they may become more standard in the hobby? Coral Magazine has an article on them and similar techniques here. Was an interesting read but I still have some reservations, more or less Chad's second concern since I have seahorses also, but I run a skimmer so first concern is not an issue for me. I've had good luck with my seahorses by playing it safe with them but these pellets do intrigue me.

I have also had good luck using bird feeding and watering stations as food dishes for my seahorses. They usually have a perch that the seahorses can attach to and I just place the mysis shrimp into the dish with a clear plastic tube. My seahorses know what the tube means and come over to the dish to eat when I feed. Attach some suction cups to the feeder and you can place it wherever you would like in the tank.

Trying to find somewhere locally that stocks Nutramar Ova frozen food. I live up in Baltimore county so I usually go to the House of Tropicals but they do not stock it. I called up to Exotic Aquatics in Parksville also without any luck. Does anyone know of any stores in Frederick that stock it? I am willing to travel farther if need be but somewhere in Frederick would be the least amount of travelling for me. Trying to avoid having to pay an arm and a leg for shipping. Was lucky enough to come by some Red Spot Cardinelfish and one of the foods fed to them during holding was the Nutramar Ova food so I am trying to keep their diet as stable as possible since they arrived in such good health. Thanks,

Very interesting read, thanks for sharing with us. Have you had any problems with the male dropping the clutch when moving him to a breeding tank once you see that his mouth is full of eggs? I've heard or some people having that problem and I was curious if you had encountered it and how you went about moving the male around. I just ordered a school of Red Spot Cardinal fish and I would like to eventually breed them so since you've had so much success I'm hoping to learn from it. As to in breeding, I don't know about Saltwater fish but I've gone a lot of breeding with freshwater gouramis over the years and I currently have a 4th generation inbred Paradise fish that is fine, ironically he's the most brightly colored one I've ever seen. He keeps doing a mating dance for his mother/aunt so I may get to see what happens after 5 generations. I've gotten to 3rd generation inbreeding with other gourmais without any problems also. Generally I doubt there will be any problems until you get many generations in with inbreeding if even then.

I have been using Rena Smartheaters for years in both Fresh and salt water tanks and have never had any problems and have been impressed with their performance. They were especially nice in my 55 gallon where I had the heater in the display tank because I did not have to worry about my seahorses burning themselves.

Their midweek madness coupon is around just about every month that they aren't doing some other huge sale. Just get on their mailing list and you'll get a copy each month. Been thinking of driving up during the week sometime soon and using the coupon on a Vortech MP40.

I took my seahorse to Feathers, Scales, and Tails Veterinary Hospital up in Westminster, not sure if that is to far but Dr. Heather Bowles took good care of Stevie my seahorse. I think she normally deals with Koi but she was really knew her stuff about seahorses so I think she might be able to help if you can't find anywhere else.

A behind the scene tour would be great. The seahorse display they have there is what got my fiance and I into the saltwater side of things with our seahorse tank. We really love the Baltimore aquarium.

Been thinking of getting an MP40 and an MP10 for the 90 gallon I am getting ready to set up. Costly but they do look cool and the lack of heat transfer is a bonus to those of us that need to maintain a lower tank temperature.

This is a serious tragedy. Sometimes it upsets me about how easily people forgot about the Valdez, that spill happened in about the BEST imaginable way and it was still horrible. We should have seen how bad that truely could have been and spent the last 20 years making sure anything dealing with oil was as safe as it could possibly, regardless of cost. If it costs to much to make it as safe as we can, well the oil or gas can just stay where it is until it is affordable to drill safely. Praying that the cap they are lowering down this weekend works, otherwise... Our tanks with animals, algae, snails, etc we have in our tanks from the caribbean, gulf of mexico, and florida areas could very well become important conservation efforts to keep life from that part of the ocean in existance.

Just wanted to update that I found a Vet that would see my seahorse Stevie. Took him into Feathers, Scales, and Tails Veterinary Hospital up in Westminster. Dr. Heather Bowles took care of little Stevie, concured that he had a minor case of gas bubble disease and prescribed some Diamox. Instead of a tablet that I would have to crush up and mix with tank water and dose in his hospital tank she had the pharmacy make up a liquid form of it that I can inject into his mysis shrimp for a direct dosage, she even had the pharmacy make the diamox seafood flavor. Picking it up today. I cannot say enough good things about this place. Nice, professional, and the doctor really knew her stuff. I know we do not make use of vets all that often in our hobby but if anyone ever needs one check out Feathers, Scales, and Tails. If people have Koi or really just about any type of animal and needs a vet they can treat them, they seem to specialize in the odd, they had pictures of some of the animals they had treated on cork board, they have treated vultures, a bald eagle, a tortoise, lion cub, tiger cub, and lynx to just name a few.

Thanks Brian I sent him a message this morning. I also sent an e-mail to the vet my dog and cat go to. If I don't hear anything by this evening I may try a 24/7 emergency vet near me that I know deals with lizards, may not be fish but at least they deal with animals out of the normal dog/cat realm so maybe they can help.

My seahorse developed a gas bubble on his tail today and to treat it I need to get some Diamox. It's prescription only though so I need to find a local vet that treats fish so that they would understand the problem that my seahorse has and would write me prescription for him. I live up near Baltimore so a vet near me would be best but I'm willing to drive.

Sorry to hear that, always stinks when you lose a fish.

Interesting thought, you I would think that you would need to have some type of metal tube for inside of the fridge because I don't think plastic tubing would transfer enough cold to the water running through it. Unfortunately I don't know what if any type of metal tubing would be saltwater safe, lacking that the thinnest plastic tubing you could find would be best. Got me thinking though, wonder if I can find a cheap mini fridge somewhere...

Do you have any pictures of your tank? Do you have a lot of live rock that blocks some flow and what is the GPH on your return pump for your sump? This is what really concerns me, I'm willing to spend $400 on a single MP40 but not $800 for two, plus I've seen videos of two running in sync, way more flow than what I want. Wondering if maybe two MP10's might be better or just keep using Koralia's and get a wave controller for them.

I'll check out Blue Ribbon Koi and Marine Scene, they're not to far from each other so I may make a day of it and go to both rock hunting. Yeah I'll have to get the sponge cover for the Vortech, the horses getting stuck to it is not a huge concern, when they were babies my two horses would sometimes get stuck to the Korilia nanos I have right now, they just kind of army crawl their way to the end of it and then get blown off. Scared the heck out of me the first time they did it but they seemed to enjoy it because they used to do it over and over again before they got to big for it. If I ever get more juvenile horses or my current two actually manage to successfully transfer a brood of eggs (two failed attempts so far) I may have to build some type of larger cage around it but at least initially that won't be a problem.

Not exactly new to the hobby but thought this would be the appropriate place to post this. I currently have a 55G tank that in about 2-3 weeks I will be upgrading to a 90 gallon. Right now I just have two seahorses (Erectus) and a Firefish in the 55G, it was my first tank and I wanted to keep it very lightly stocked because of that and due to the pristine water quality that you need for seahorses. Everything went well but I made several newbie mistakes that I hope to correct with my 90 gallon. (Placed the rock so that it was leaning on the rear glass of the tank making cleaning hard and no sump) I've got about 80 pounds of live rock in my 55g and since I'm not planning on stocking my 90 gallon quickly I figured I would just get some dry rock for the 90 gallon to bring my poundage of live rock up to a better level for my 90 I figured it would save me some money and I could find some more interesting pieces without paying out the nose for them. Joke turned out to be on me, I was hoping to find some shelf like and branch dry rock but I cannot find them anywhere. The only two places that I have found any that *could* be for sale are marcorocks.com and bulkreefsupply.com but both are sold out of their respective dry rock. Anyone know where I could get those types of rocks online or in the local area? At this point I've even be willing to pay for live rock of those types if I could find it locally so I could take a look at it first. I had good experiences buying my initial live rock online but I didn't really care what it looked like then, I do now. Second question I have is about the Vortech pumps from Ecotech. Considering purchasing them for my new 90 gallon but I'm not sure what would be the best setup. I would probably run it on lagoon mode with because of my seahorses but I'm a bit concerned as to whether one MP40 would be enough for the 90 gallon (48x25x18) or whether getting like two MP10's or MP20's would be a better way to go. I would not be happy if I dropped $400 on an MP40 only to find that it wasn't enough and that I had to drop another $200 or worse another $400 to make it work out. Does anyone out there have a Vortech pump that can give some advice or tell me of their experience with one? Thanks,