If you will be going with a reef, I'd recommend you go with the live rock rather than a wet/dry. People do make reef tanks work with wet/dry filters, but they are in the minority. If the goal is to keep seahorses, then a wet/dry is fine.
One thing I cannot emphasize enough is that this will be a months-long project to get the tank set up, cycled, matured and ready. There is time to catch your breath, do some reading, set priorities, and change things around if you want. There are several logs of people setting up marine tanks (see
here,
here,
here,
here,
here for a few examples). If you haven't looked them over yet, it might be worth getting an idea of what people are doing and how long the process can take.
You have a lot of options, so it's worth thinking about what gives you the combination of aesthetics, ease and economy that you want. It could be very cool, and not too hard, to keep the horses in the main tank, with moderate lighting and a collection of easy corals and macroalgae for them to hitch on. You could set up the 10 gallon on the same sump, and the plumbing wouldn't be that hard, but you will be limited to dwarfs. Setting up a 29 gallon with some live rock and macroalgae for a pair of seahorses is another possibility.
laurabolyard said:
wondering about all this live rock vs. wet/dry stuff. Is this cause for concern, WILL I end up with too much nitrate? I dont have much live rock yet, do I need to make a decision about one or the other? BTW, thinking about a seperate tank for SH. Maybe live rock and a canister in a smaller tank? My son really loves the dragonettes, maybe Ill put him in the big tank!
