10 gallon Want to go brackish, is this correct?

[Vampire fish]

Trying to start off my 10 gallon as a brackish tank. What I want to know is how to get the water brackish? I have a hydrometer and I have some marine salt from the ocean. Do I need actual ocean water? I have heard you just pour in some marine salt at a certain amount into the freshwater.

 

[Vampire fish]

I didnt understand about marine salt before, but I do now and have another question.

Everyone says for salt tanks you need a specific substrate because it will keep the pH where you want it (crushed coral etc.). But if salt water or adding marine salt into the water raises the pH anyway whats the issue? I want to use pea gravel from home depot that I'v always used on my freshwater tanks.

I re ask this question in general salt as I feel I will get a better answer so mods/staff can delete this post

 

[Cu554]

The salt should have instructions on it. I use instant ocean and it is one cup for 2 gallons, I think. Use gravel if you want, it is a personal preference. I don't test my PH but I do keep crushed coral in a media bag on my wet/dry to help buffer the PH. I am not sure about the legality of it but collecting sand off the beach will be a good idea if legal. Get the sand that is in the ocean and not on the beach. This will seed your tank with diffrent organisms.

If you live near the ocean you can use ocean water. 10 gallons isn't that large where you will be carrying excessive amounts of water.

Make sure you top your tank off with freshwater. As water evaporates you want to replace it with freshwater.

 

[Vampire fish]

The salt should have instructions on it. I use instant ocean and it is one cup for 2 gallons, I think. Use gravel if you want, it is a personal preference. I don't test my PH but I do keep crushed coral in a media bag on my wet/dry to help buffer the PH. I am not sure about the legality of it but collecting sand off the beach will be a good idea if legal. Get the sand that is in the ocean and not on the beach. This will seed your tank with diffrent organisms.

If you live near the ocean you can use ocean water. 10 gallons isn't that large where you will be carrying excessive amounts of water.

Make sure you top your tank off with freshwater. As water evaporates you want to replace it with freshwater.

thanks dude

 

[ichthyogeek]

The problem with water that has a high pH, is that it is easily neutralized by the organic functions of the tank. The fish in your tank will produce various acids, from carbonic acid (due to cellular respiration), to other acids that I'm not familiar with. The gist of it, is that when you have organisms in your tank, the pH will go down overtime if you don't do water changes. People use calcium carbonate substrates (usually aragonite based) nowadays, because when the pH starts to go down, the acids dissolve the calcium carbonate which makes the pH go back up again and buffers the water from pH swings.