Seahorse And Power Head

[zendarx2]

I have a 29 US gal tank, Im going to have two seahorses in it. Right now I have a 200gph power head, Does anyone know if this would be to much for the seahorses?

 

[The-Raven]

I don't know much about seahorses besides that they are very delicate... 200gph in a 29 would create somewhat of a turbulent environment for any fish, so I would assume it would be quite a ride for a seahorse.


But I'm sure you could make it work if you deflected it toward a wall or something of that sort so that it didn't have a direct influence on the water.

 

[zendarx2]

Thanks The-Raven, so what do you think if I had it up at the top so it only moved around the top of the water? I have had it this way and about 5 inch below. But my fish had no trubble with the turbulent water infact they loved trying to swim up the flow. Anyway thanks a ton

 

[The-Raven]

Thanks The-Raven, so what do you think if I had it up at the top so it only moved around the top of the water? I have had it this way and about 5 inch below. But my fish had no trubble with the turbulent water infact they loved trying to swim up the flow. Anyway thanks a ton

I have a pretty powerful one for my cichlid 29gallon and they get alone fine... they're also pretty hearty and big fish though. I remember when I had smaller tropicals - danios, tetras, etc. - they had some trouble with it. Seahorses, as I understand it, need a pretty stagnant water flow. But, you can aim it down and against the glass to kinda deflect the water from having a direct impact on the horses themselves - did that with my tropicals and it was fine. The only problem then is that you tend to get a lot of algae on the glass.

And yes, near the top is better in my opinion

 

[zendarx2]

great! ya they kinda just float and bob most of the time (seahorses that is). So this algae, even if I have the powerhead hiting rocks then the algae will just grow on the rocks? darn

 

[superman]

great! ya they kinda just float and bob most of the time (seahorses that is). So this algae, even if I have the powerhead hiting rocks then the algae will just grow on the rocks? darn

Water flow is the last and least important component of growing algae, so I would not worry about growing algae, unless you are not keeping water quality optimal, in which case you shouldn't be keeping seahorses anyways. I would do more than one power head, but very small ones. Maxijet makes some very small ones that push less than 100GPH. You can also help diffuse the overall velocity of the powerheads used by cutting the nozzle off of them thus opening the output and reducing overall velocity while retaining the gph.

 

[Dragonscales]

I would personally aim for a turn over of around 3 times an hour for a seahorse tank as a general rule of thumb. A bit more wouldn't hurt as long as it's directed in such a way as to not blow the poor buggers halfway across the tank or pin them against rocks, etc. Also, make sure there is no way for the seahorses to get sucked into the powerhead. Covering the intakes with a seawater safe sieve, etc is a good idea.

 

[zendarx2]

Oh I Will have a safe cover over the power head. I turned off the power head in my FW tank and last night when I moved them to a new tank I just left the power head out. It has a so called “Safe cover” on it with a large intake so the suction is not very strong yet some how one of my “new” apple snails climbed up on the intake….put his whole foot over it (big foot) and I guess he was stuck there all night he was not like that when I checked on them and went to bed but in the morning he was I guess he tried to close his shell door but only broke part of it off and ended up dieing then next day , poor thing I miss him and darn I really wanted to breed the blue apple snails now I have only one blue and one golden.

But its good that I learned my lesson now with a $2.39 I still feel bad but I would rather feel bad and be out $2.39 then to feel bad and be out $150.
Do you guys think it would work better if I made a home made cover that had a fine mesh net wrapped around a 3 inch long PVC pipe with a bunch of wholes drilled into the pipe? Do you think that would work better and cut down on the suction?

 

[JJ1234567]

I picked up some "micro" jet 450's for my ten gallon clown aquarium. They are adjustable rate powerheads, with the lowest setting being 47 gph, might be just what your looking for.