Greetings from Amsterdam,
So it looks like you will be getting the H. zosterae in soon. Congratulation on that, you will really enjoy them.
But first be aware of their size. You will see that a lot of people are shock/stun by their size. You will read comment like: I didn’t realize they were that small, I keep losing them in the tank, what was I thinking of & so on.
Tank set up & design.
Now let’s get cracking. Over the years I at one point or another have used some of these set ups for keeping dwarfs. Each system has a pro & con to it. Some are out of date. There are some other designs, but I cannot think of them at the moment. If anyone has experiences with any of these designs, please let us know what you like about it & what you don’t like about it.
To be honest with you, I think some/most of the failures I had with the different setups were lack of knowledge on my part & the school of thought at that time. I started trying to keep them in 79 till the early 90’s. I really didn’t have much success until 2008 when I started keeping them again. Most of my success with them is due to joining the org & listening to the people I thanked on my thread.
The Goldfish bowl: Disco was still King & I was 16 at the time. I order the H. zosterae from the back of a comic book. They lived all of 5 days. Not a good setup.
The sterile tank: Same as the sponge filter tank. This setup was all plastic plants & a layer of crush coral. It was a nice looking system until I needed to clean plastic plant to keep that ***NICE*** clean look. The downfall of this design was because I used an air driven spongefilter on it at the time. Plus at the time, I didn't realize that everytime I cleaned the plants, I was also removing the bacteria needed for the tank.
The bare bottom tank: Same as the sterile tank without the gravel. May it very easy to clean & monitor the dead artemia. Con: Lots more cleaning to keep the bottom algae free. The downfall was the same as above.
The divided tank: This setup was a good one for me at the time. All of the equipment was housed on one side of the tank & the H. zosterae was housed on the other side. I divided the tank by placing a tank divider 1/3 of the way for the equipment & 2/3 as living space for the dwarfs. The artemia flow back & forth through the divider. Equipment use: Sponge filter with a HOB filter & heater. Con: You need to make sure there are no gaps for the dwarfs to swim through. In the end I just didn’t like the look of the tank.
The sponge filter tank with an air pump: This is basic H. zosterae keeping 101. I never liked this system. With the turnover rate needing to be so high, it caused a lot of problem with splashing & salt creep. Plus I ran them on an undersized sponge. You need a sponge rated for a 150 to 300liter tank.
The sponge filter tank with a powerhead: This is my current setup. You can read all about it here: http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=43014 (You need to register to see it I think?) Note all three of the power driven systems works very well to a certain point. Once you get a higher population living in the tank, things starts going wrong. In my case once I hit 100 H. zosterae living in the 40liter tank, I could no longer keep the cyanobacteria in check. My solution is to start splitting them up into 3 other tanks now.
The sponge filter tank with a HOB filter: Same principal as above. You have more option into what you pack into the chamber. If you use floss. Make sure you change the floss weekly. (I try this before, but I think I failed with it due to my lack of knowledge at the time.)
The sponge filter tank with a canister filter: Same principal as above, but you have more option with adding carbon, puirgen & phos remover to it. Make sure you change the floss weekly. (Never try this myself.)
The sponge filter with a builtin UV sterilizer: this is new to me & will repost more on it once I have it up and running.
The UGF tank with an air pump, the UGF tank with a powerhead, the UGF tank with a HOB filter and the UGF tank with a canister filter: These systems I did in the late 80’s early 90’s. I started having problem with all of this kind of setups around the 9 to 12 months mark. The UGF was very efficient at trapping the uneaten food, waste matter, flotsam and jetsam & what not under the plate. It became a nitrates factory no matter how often I cleaned it.
The Tunze Nano filters Pac: I am running the Tunze 9002 nano skimmer on the 40 liter right now. I am very impress by it. I think I will set up the third tank with the complete kit. Con: Big & bulky, high price & a new set up. Not sure if it will work or not yet?
The semi-natural tank: This the way I have it now. Dry base rock, FWD & panacured macroalgae
(Panacur is a dewormer for pets & livestock. Very effective is killing off hydroids.), plastic plants & aragonite based bagged live sand.
The natural tank: This is my definition of a natural tank: Live rock, macroalgae & sand. Unless you QT the live rock for awhile, things can & will go wrong with it use. There are too many things growing on/in the live rock that is life threatens to the dwarfs. I had a set up like this in the early 90’s. At the time I was working at Russo’s pets in Santa Ana. I even at one point added these cute little jellyfish I founded in the live rock tank at the store. Everything died within 4 months. This was my last setup until recently. Dry base rock from this point for me now.
The last four are ongoing research:
The sump tank: Dan U runs his breeding set up on a sump system. I am looking into this system for myself at the moment. I just need to scale everything down to their size.
The refugium tank: Same principal as above, but with a macroalgae filled sump to increase the pod population.
The Header & sump Tank: This is a combo system. You have a tank above the display tank filled with pods, mysis & macroalgae & a sump below the display tank housing the equipment. The idea is to have the header tank flow into the display tank replenishing the pods population, with the overflow from the display tank going into the sump and the water will be returned back to the header tank & display tanks.
The Calfo tank: I have a Calfo inspired 110 liter tank that I thought would make a good system for them. The tank was divided lengthwise with the idea of housing the equipment in the back part & the dwarfs living in the front part. I thought I had a winning formula here. Stupid me, I did not that into account the way the overflow went. One by one I watched the dwarfs go over the divider into the back part. Out of panic I remove the dwarf into the 40liter tank & added other fishes to the tank. Now I am starting to think it might work out if I reverse the overflow coming from the back into the front. Now I just need to decide what to do with the fishes & if I really want to break the tank down and sterilize it?
I am still learning & I am glad that I am still learning different ways I can improve my chances of keeping them healthy and alive. Just recently I was recommending the use to the bagged live sand. I didn’t take into account the lack of them not wanting to add or having a CUC in tank. This lead to problem with the sand going toxic according to them. A friend emailed the company & received two emails back that helped explain the problem. So I have learned to contact the producers of the products I recommend to find out what went wrong.
Thanks for allowing me to reminisce about the different set up & ideas to get the post going. But it is up to you to research for yourself what you would like your tank to look like. The org is a good foundation for me to research into 10 years of people’s set ups, ideas, feedback & just plain knowledge on the H. zosterae.
Kind Regards,
Tim
So it looks like you will be getting the H. zosterae in soon. Congratulation on that, you will really enjoy them.
But first be aware of their size. You will see that a lot of people are shock/stun by their size. You will read comment like: I didn’t realize they were that small, I keep losing them in the tank, what was I thinking of & so on.
Tank set up & design.
Now let’s get cracking. Over the years I at one point or another have used some of these set ups for keeping dwarfs. Each system has a pro & con to it. Some are out of date. There are some other designs, but I cannot think of them at the moment. If anyone has experiences with any of these designs, please let us know what you like about it & what you don’t like about it.
To be honest with you, I think some/most of the failures I had with the different setups were lack of knowledge on my part & the school of thought at that time. I started trying to keep them in 79 till the early 90’s. I really didn’t have much success until 2008 when I started keeping them again. Most of my success with them is due to joining the org & listening to the people I thanked on my thread.
The Goldfish bowl: Disco was still King & I was 16 at the time. I order the H. zosterae from the back of a comic book. They lived all of 5 days. Not a good setup.
The sterile tank: Same as the sponge filter tank. This setup was all plastic plants & a layer of crush coral. It was a nice looking system until I needed to clean plastic plant to keep that ***NICE*** clean look. The downfall of this design was because I used an air driven spongefilter on it at the time. Plus at the time, I didn't realize that everytime I cleaned the plants, I was also removing the bacteria needed for the tank.
The bare bottom tank: Same as the sterile tank without the gravel. May it very easy to clean & monitor the dead artemia. Con: Lots more cleaning to keep the bottom algae free. The downfall was the same as above.
The divided tank: This setup was a good one for me at the time. All of the equipment was housed on one side of the tank & the H. zosterae was housed on the other side. I divided the tank by placing a tank divider 1/3 of the way for the equipment & 2/3 as living space for the dwarfs. The artemia flow back & forth through the divider. Equipment use: Sponge filter with a HOB filter & heater. Con: You need to make sure there are no gaps for the dwarfs to swim through. In the end I just didn’t like the look of the tank.
The sponge filter tank with an air pump: This is basic H. zosterae keeping 101. I never liked this system. With the turnover rate needing to be so high, it caused a lot of problem with splashing & salt creep. Plus I ran them on an undersized sponge. You need a sponge rated for a 150 to 300liter tank.
The sponge filter tank with a powerhead: This is my current setup. You can read all about it here: http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=43014 (You need to register to see it I think?) Note all three of the power driven systems works very well to a certain point. Once you get a higher population living in the tank, things starts going wrong. In my case once I hit 100 H. zosterae living in the 40liter tank, I could no longer keep the cyanobacteria in check. My solution is to start splitting them up into 3 other tanks now.
The sponge filter tank with a HOB filter: Same principal as above. You have more option into what you pack into the chamber. If you use floss. Make sure you change the floss weekly. (I try this before, but I think I failed with it due to my lack of knowledge at the time.)
The sponge filter tank with a canister filter: Same principal as above, but you have more option with adding carbon, puirgen & phos remover to it. Make sure you change the floss weekly. (Never try this myself.)
The sponge filter with a builtin UV sterilizer: this is new to me & will repost more on it once I have it up and running.
The UGF tank with an air pump, the UGF tank with a powerhead, the UGF tank with a HOB filter and the UGF tank with a canister filter: These systems I did in the late 80’s early 90’s. I started having problem with all of this kind of setups around the 9 to 12 months mark. The UGF was very efficient at trapping the uneaten food, waste matter, flotsam and jetsam & what not under the plate. It became a nitrates factory no matter how often I cleaned it.
The Tunze Nano filters Pac: I am running the Tunze 9002 nano skimmer on the 40 liter right now. I am very impress by it. I think I will set up the third tank with the complete kit. Con: Big & bulky, high price & a new set up. Not sure if it will work or not yet?
The semi-natural tank: This the way I have it now. Dry base rock, FWD & panacured macroalgae
(Panacur is a dewormer for pets & livestock. Very effective is killing off hydroids.), plastic plants & aragonite based bagged live sand.
The natural tank: This is my definition of a natural tank: Live rock, macroalgae & sand. Unless you QT the live rock for awhile, things can & will go wrong with it use. There are too many things growing on/in the live rock that is life threatens to the dwarfs. I had a set up like this in the early 90’s. At the time I was working at Russo’s pets in Santa Ana. I even at one point added these cute little jellyfish I founded in the live rock tank at the store. Everything died within 4 months. This was my last setup until recently. Dry base rock from this point for me now.
The last four are ongoing research:
The sump tank: Dan U runs his breeding set up on a sump system. I am looking into this system for myself at the moment. I just need to scale everything down to their size.
The refugium tank: Same principal as above, but with a macroalgae filled sump to increase the pod population.
The Header & sump Tank: This is a combo system. You have a tank above the display tank filled with pods, mysis & macroalgae & a sump below the display tank housing the equipment. The idea is to have the header tank flow into the display tank replenishing the pods population, with the overflow from the display tank going into the sump and the water will be returned back to the header tank & display tanks.
The Calfo tank: I have a Calfo inspired 110 liter tank that I thought would make a good system for them. The tank was divided lengthwise with the idea of housing the equipment in the back part & the dwarfs living in the front part. I thought I had a winning formula here. Stupid me, I did not that into account the way the overflow went. One by one I watched the dwarfs go over the divider into the back part. Out of panic I remove the dwarf into the 40liter tank & added other fishes to the tank. Now I am starting to think it might work out if I reverse the overflow coming from the back into the front. Now I just need to decide what to do with the fishes & if I really want to break the tank down and sterilize it?
I am still learning & I am glad that I am still learning different ways I can improve my chances of keeping them healthy and alive. Just recently I was recommending the use to the bagged live sand. I didn’t take into account the lack of them not wanting to add or having a CUC in tank. This lead to problem with the sand going toxic according to them. A friend emailed the company & received two emails back that helped explain the problem. So I have learned to contact the producers of the products I recommend to find out what went wrong.
Thanks for allowing me to reminisce about the different set up & ideas to get the post going. But it is up to you to research for yourself what you would like your tank to look like. The org is a good foundation for me to research into 10 years of people’s set ups, ideas, feedback & just plain knowledge on the H. zosterae.
Kind Regards,
Tim
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