Brackish Water Questions
- Thread starter xspainx69
- Start date
Yes I think the bacteria will still be there, but if you're relying on them, then you have to raise the SG slowly, so you don't kill off all the BB and have to cycle the tank again. About 1.001 per week should be OK.
The only true brackish cichlids are Orange Chromides. The common cichlids sold in most pet stores are from Lake Tanganyika in East Africa and these fish are certainly not inhabitants from any of the known brackish zones.
Ok well I just wanna thank everyone for being so helpful!
So once I get all my stuff together Im gonna do this slowly, once I set up the tank Im gonna raise the SG to 1.001 then the following week I'll raise it 1.002 until I reach about what ? 1.005 or 1.010? Which is a good and safe range for the Figure eight puffer?
So once I reached my SG level I will go out and buy some little figure eight puffers (if theres any available at the lfs) and bring them home and acclimate them buy drip method.
So once I get all my stuff together Im gonna do this slowly, once I set up the tank Im gonna raise the SG to 1.001 then the following week I'll raise it 1.002 until I reach about what ? 1.005 or 1.010? Which is a good and safe range for the Figure eight puffer?
So once I reached my SG level I will go out and buy some little figure eight puffers (if theres any available at the lfs) and bring them home and acclimate them buy drip method.
F8s do best at a SG of 1,005. as far as how many you can have: 15g for the 1st puffer & 10g for each more you add to the tank. Where is this established filter coming from?
i assume you dont have your tank yet....
("i used to have a 30g...would like to try again in the near future...")
...so you have 2 choices...
set up your tank with salt in. like pufferpunk said a SG of around 1.005 is best for figure 8 puffers. leave it to cycle for a good few weeks.
then go and buy your fish. aclimatise them in a bucket using the drip method. when the SG is the same in the bucket as it is in the tank, then add your fish.
i left mine for 6 weeks when i first added salt. and then raised it from 1.005 to 1.010 over a few weeks. but you obviously wouldnt need too raise it further.
this way you will give your benificial bacteria a chance to colonise.
alternatively, you could set up your tank as freshwater, and raise the fish in the tank slowly up to 1.005, over a few weeks. but you will still need to leave your tank to cycle anyway. so dont think thas way will be quicker
dont raise the salt too quick though, or most of the bacteria in the tank will die, and so will your fish.
("i used to have a 30g...would like to try again in the near future...")
...so you have 2 choices...
set up your tank with salt in. like pufferpunk said a SG of around 1.005 is best for figure 8 puffers. leave it to cycle for a good few weeks.
then go and buy your fish. aclimatise them in a bucket using the drip method. when the SG is the same in the bucket as it is in the tank, then add your fish.
i left mine for 6 weeks when i first added salt. and then raised it from 1.005 to 1.010 over a few weeks. but you obviously wouldnt need too raise it further.
this way you will give your benificial bacteria a chance to colonise.
alternatively, you could set up your tank as freshwater, and raise the fish in the tank slowly up to 1.005, over a few weeks. but you will still need to leave your tank to cycle anyway. so dont think thas way will be quicker
dont raise the salt too quick though, or most of the bacteria in the tank will die, and so will your fish.
I called a good LFS in Long Island called "Aquarium Adventure" they seem to know what they are doing so I asked the lady about the brackish water setup. She said that I can keep my current filter and use it in the new setup. But she said that since Im switching from freshwater to brackish water that most of the BB will probably die off. So she said that a fishless cycle is pretty slow and it wont go anywhere. She said to just fill the tank up with water and put in the marine salt and raise the tank level to about 1.005 and then let it be. She said wait a few days and buy a strong brackish fish like the puffer and drip acclimate him and leave him in the tank by himself for a few weeks so that his feces can work with the BB and start up the cycle. Oh yeah! She said to also add Bio-Spira while Im cycling to help speed it up.
Do you guys think this is a good plan?
Do you guys think this is a good plan?
Pufferpunk;2036164; said:
isnt there a method of cycling a tank with no fish? using prawn or other items of food?
its supposed to let the food rot and cause a 'population boom' in amonia, which is then converted into nitrite, and finially into nitrate. put the food in a pair of tights though or a similar material. it makes it easier to remove the bad food every week without it decintergrating into your water.
id think buying a puffer and using it for cycling, is a bad move. as i always thought they needed good quallity, mature water. and if the puffer dies, i know that i personally wouldnt be able to find another for a good while, as no one stocks or can order one in my area. it took me a few months to find my archers. still, i enjoy them more as i had to earn them...
but then again, i didnt have to use fishless cycling as such. as i had an already established tank. and slowly added salt over a period of 3 weeks. then left it to sit for another 6 weeks at 1.005. then aclimatised my archers. and have again raised it to around 1.010 in the past month.
anyhoo heres some info on fishless cycling, incase you decide to go down the fishless cycling route.
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/show_article.php?article_id=113
rock on
I wanna try it with a fish...Well I guess maybe not with a Puffer , but with some sort of stupid fish I really dont care too much about..Maybe like a few Danios or some sort of cheap fish that can tolerate many different water conditions....
