Initial Setup

I've kept marine for over 12 years now and had the large tank, the small nano tank, the inbetween tank while mostly keeping soft corals. After the unfortunate death of my zebra (dwarf) lionfish who became quite tame, I lost interest in the mushroom corals and associated fish.

Having a 80lt nano now devoid of coral, rock and fish but with fully cycled rock in the filter chambers, I decided to research fish that are captive bred, enhance a hobby that doesn't rob the oceans of wildlife. Hippocampus Kudo, or Asian Seahorses are captive bred in Western Australia and therefore an industry I'll support. They are already accustomed to frozen Brime and Mysis shrimps, and are available in a variety of colours.

Hippocampus Kudo, Asian Seahorse

My tank looks so empty after selling about 20 different coloured mushroom corals, my banded shrimp, tomato clown pair (with anemone), one electric blue damsel and one hawkfish. I have left the snails in there to help with the algae on the glass.

The initial start with fresh rock and sand,

I have added fresh sand for buffering, and purchased new live rock that has substantial coraline growth. The algae is from a friends sump, though more aesthetic than functional but with power fluros may not last. Height is more important than width for seahorses so this seemed the perfect tank.

I will also be adding at least 6 Camel shrimp, as distinct from Peppermint shrimp. Camel shrimp, or Humpback, Dancing shrimp are red with white stripes and dots.

Camel Shrimp or Dancing Shrimp: Rhynchocinetes uritai

Peppermint Shrimp

The shrimp will assist with cleaning up any uneaten food from the sand bed and I hope to also get a few red starfish for the same purpose if I can find any captive bred species.

Adding driftwood that looks like coral for the seahorses to anchor to.

I will now let this system settle for at least 2 weeks, the new rock needs time to cycle, and then check that ammonia and nitrite are zero before adding any stock.