I washed it out completely so I don't expect it to cycle at all. Its almost like sterile sand I washed it so much. When I set up a tank using cured live rock from my sumps, it is always an "instant" tank. Not what I recommend for others to do, but it's worked for me since the cured live rock was out of the water for 10 seconds max.

I now have some Purigen in each of my tanks as insurance. Weird, but the only tank that I ever had a cycling issue with was one that was set up and left running empty for a month. My "instant" tanks are done with cured live rock that has usually been in my sump for months and have been out of the water for 10 seconds or less while being transferred 5' across the room.

Of course I don't recommend instant tanks but it's a case of "do as I say, not as I do".:wink:

When I sell any cured live rock, I usually have a bucket of aged sw to fill the bucket or cooler so any mini-cycle will be minimal.

Anthony

Very nice tank. I am thinking of setting up a seahorse tank in the future too, just waiting for a good priced used tank from someone here for sale. What kind of food are you feeding it ? I have read people say if you want to keep your seahorse with a bright color, do not put live rock in your tank because it will change its color to gray to match with its surrounding, is that true ?

Hey Anthony, does she get to ride them? Regards Ken

I usually have all types of macroalgae in any seahorse tank with only one live rock tower, so that way there is lots of open space for the ponies to cruise around. I had one yellow female that turned pink while hanging out on red halimenia all the time. Otherwise, most of my ponies pretty much stayed the same colour that I bought them at.

Of course. Why get your daughter ponies if she can't ride them?:wink::lol:

Stefan (aka TheKid)

Thanks for the RSM. Felicia loves her new seahorse RSM 130.

I would caution you to watch the temperature of the tank.
Being covered over like that may possibly lead to elevated temperatures that can be problematic for seahorses in captivity.
In their natural habitat, bacteria are not contained and ones like the vibriosis don't become a problem. In our tanks though, vibriosis and some others are in a captive, nutrient laden tank that make their numbers increase exponentially with each rising degree, especially above 74°F. Some succeed not too bad up to 78° but it means excessive husbandry, especially when you have to keep the tank cleaner than a reef tank even at lower temperatures.
While most of our other salt fish are able to deal with this, seahorses don't have the same ability.
Dan Underwood of seahorsesource.com explains it best in "A Commentary by Dan Underwood" which is linked to at the bottom of My Thoughts.... page which is also linked in my signature.
As a side note, the only TRUE captive bred seahorses coming into Canada at this time are reidi and comes from Aquamarine International, and dwarfs and erectus coming from Seahorse Corral in Florida.
The remainder are "tank raised" or "net pen raised" in ocean water that has not been sufficiently treated and filtered for pathogens as the ones for the hobby are just a small percentage filtered off from the millions that are being bred for the Asian medicine trade.
True captive bred seahorses are raised in commercial salt water like I.O. or in ocean water that is sufficiently treated to remove the pathogens.