Vibrations

[Treed]

What would be a good material to put under pumps to help cut back on vibrations in the tank? I have a 75 gallon SH tank and I think the vibrations from the pumps are stressing them out they are eating well but they are still keeping a dark color to them. I got them on Friday so im not sure if they are still settling in or what. They are H. Kuda.

[rayjay]

What pumps are you using inside a tank? Normally one would only use power heads in a tank and a pump would be in the sump where it shouldn't affect the seahorses.
Unless there is something wrong with your pump it shouldn't be vibrating enough to affect the seahorses.
Colour of the seahorses depends on many variables that only they will determine what colour they will be at any given time.
Some seahorses almost always are dark, while others may almost always be light in colour. Of course, there are lots of other extremes as well.

[NarnyTheGreat]

Seahorses colors vary greatly. The are sometimes brown red yellow orange etc. Just because they are brown/black doesnt mean they are unhappy. Though I am new to the whole seahorse keeping world.

Where did you get them?

[Treed]

I got them from seahorse source and im using a hydrive 2200 gph pump as return, then my skimmer pump.

[rayjay]

Unless there is something wrong with one or both of your pipes, the normal vibration produced by pumps will not cause a seahorse to be stressed.
If you are REALLY concerned about it then try putting zip lock bags of the tank water under the pumps so that they sit basically on water.
If you don't seal the bags properly they will bleed down so the pump again sits on the bottom.

[NarnyTheGreat]

Originally Posted by rayjay

Unless there is something wrong with one or both of your pipes, the normal vibration produced by pumps will not cause a seahorse to be stressed.
If you are REALLY concerned about it then try putting zip lock bags of the tank water under the pumps so that they sit basically on water.
If you don't seal the bags properly they will bleed down so the pump again sits on the bottom.

Thats a really good idea! Normally people send you looking for some kind of rubber.

[rayjay]

Just to add to it, make sure no air is in the bag, and if you want to make sure the bag doesn't expel all the water from the weight of the pump, put a bunch of scrunched up fish bags in it to help keep the pump off the bottom.
This may be advisable anyway because a lot of times you have stress from return line for instance, that would tilt the pump if it was just sitting on a bag of water. With scrunched up bags inside it would help maintain the pump closer to level position.

[namxas]

IME, pump vibrations CAN indeed stress fish out. However, I'm one of the guys who would recommend getting some sorbothane pads, feet, etc.

I had a P. volitans that just wouldn't settle down after a move to a new system, and realized that the main return pump was causing vibrations in the tank. I put some sorbothane hemispheres beneath its mounting board, and it stopped the vibration, and the fish calmed right down.

[TamiW]

There was just a study done on seahorses at the Florida Aquarium Center for Conservancy on vibrations and stress and yes, vibrations from pumps do in fact cause long term stress in seahorses. The long term effect is still unknown, but it was clear that seahorses never truly get used to it. There are a few things you can do to dampen the sound, which fortunately most of us do to some extent. Sand bottoms help; as do wood stands. Having the pump external to the aquarium. Making a sound loop which helps bleed off vibrations helps as well.

That being said, the dark colors you're seeing probably have nothing to do with sound stress. Chances are they're either still settling in, or a darker color helps them match something in their surroundings they want to match.

As an anecdote, I just had a batch of 20+ erectus go from light grey, yellow, and green to most of them black when I added a black heater and a black internal filter. I did not remove any of their hitching posts, and they don't even hitch to the black equipment. But I guess they are seeing enough of it they prefer to be black. Another brood that is in the same tank but with a divider continues to be grey, white and yellow.