starting a brackish tank!

ric maniac

ric maniac

Active Member
i am thinking of starting a brackish tank so i have all three main types of aquariums (fw,sw and soon brackish) i need all of the info anyone can supply. if/when i get it up and running im might even post pictures too. thanks!

-Dirk
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
its fairly easy, you want your salinity about 1/3 to half that of the ocean . then its pretty much like fresh water. one thing I have noticed about brackish is it almost never gets any diseases. your more limited on fish but there are some really cool ones like archer fish and scats, monoes bumblebee gogies, fiddler crabs, heck you can even put it mollys guppies and swordtails. and they last better than they do in FW.
 
pontius

pontius

Active Member
a lfs owner told me one time that brackish was the hardest of all. don't know for sure though because I don't have any interest in it myself.
 
laxplaya

laxplaya

Member
i had brackish cichlids for my entire life. So colorful!!! At your lfs they should have rocks that have salt in them and release them, they help control salinity and provide shelter. Cichlids are the way to go. I dont no any ph, ammonia, nitrate lvls etc but if you get cichlids they need lots of rockwork. Easy to maintain. I used a HOB filter for 110 gallons on my 4 foot 55 gallon. You will need a siphon hose to clean the fish droppings from gravel. These work by hooking it to a hose and using hose water to create a siphon. It vacuums out the poo. It will probably suck up sand tho, so if u use sand i cant help you there. ON your HOB make sure you keep good carbon. I fed the fish once a day. Cichlids breed a lot and if hey have babies get them quick or they will get eaten!!! Put them in a separate tank or breeder tank, if you catch the mom pregnant then put in seperate tank and remover her after birth or she will eat them. Its hard to find a pregnant mother because they hid in the rock work when they are pregnant. Cichlids are your best bet. They are at every LFS, not too expensive, and their colors are phenomenal. Do not get albino ones tho, every LFS wanted me to buy them all the time and when i did they hardly ate, did not really swim, and died after a couple months. They arent that good looking anyway. I hope i was some help.
 
laxplaya

laxplaya

Member
Originally Posted by Pontius
a lfs owner told me one time that brackish was the hardest of all. don't know for sure though because I don't have any interest in it myself.
they are no hard to maintain at all. I was a little kid at age 8 when i got mine (7 years ago) and i did all the testings and adding salts if neccesary. After looking at all this salt water stuff (i am new to sw world) brackish seems like a piece of cake.
 
laxplaya

laxplaya

Member
Originally Posted by reefkprZ
your more limited on fish but there are some really cool ones like archer fish and scats, monoes bumblebee gogies, fiddler crabs, heck you can even put it mollys guppies and swordtails. and they last better than they do in FW.
I tried mollies and they didnt work out so well, better in freshwater. Bumble bee gobies are cool but a lot of other fish will harm them (cichlids), but cichlids are aggressive to other species (not themselves) so maybe its jsut them. I havnt had the other fish you listed.
 
laxplaya

laxplaya

Member
for lighting just use 2 flourescent bulbs. Works fine. Keep the tank clean tho, the flourescents really grow that algae. You can get those algae suckers too but they didnt really impress me. You can use chemical

[hr]
for algae but after i used them my fish didnt look so happy and hid in the caaves more for about a week or so. IMO use a brush.
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
Originally Posted by LAXplaya
I tried mollies and they didnt work out so well, better in freshwater. Bumble bee gobies are cool but a lot of other fish will harm them (cichlids), but cichlids are aggressive to other species (not themselves) so maybe its jsut them. I havnt had the other fish you listed.
cichlids are usually hard water fish. (high pH). I have never heard of any rock that releases salt to controll salinity. I think you may be a bit confused. chromides are brackish cichlids, but most cichlids will only tolerate brackish not thrive.
 
ric maniac

ric maniac

Active Member
thanks for the info guys! can you use live sand and live rock with a brackish tank? is sand better than gravel with a brackish tank? any info on figure 8 puffers or archers is greatly appreciated. and the only prob with a chiclid tank is i already have one :happyfish:
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
no point in spending the money on LR buy tufa or rainbow or baserock anything like that if you want rock most brackish species arent nearly as intolerant to Iron and such, as pure marine species are. regular gravel will work fine but I prefer the look of aragonite sand. (you will have to gravel siphon it). you can also use a skimmer if you want to they arent as efficient as in maine but they do work for brackish water)
 
ric maniac

ric maniac

Active Member
ok so does river rock that has been washed off? and i prefer the look of the sand too but was thinking of branching out for a different look
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
Originally Posted by ric maniac
ok so does river rock that has been washed off? and i prefer the look of the sand too but was thinking of branching out for a different look
that will work to just dont use granite as it can leech arsenic into the tank killing everything.
 
ric maniac

ric maniac

Active Member
ok thanks for the heads up and i will e mail you when i get home cause we r gonna go to dinner now so ill b back in a bit.
 
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