wanting to turn tank brackish
- Thread starter Aquatics
- Start date
Aquarium salt won't work too well. You need to get a saltwater mix (I use Instant Ocean for example).
To be brackish, you need the SG to be higher than FW (anything above 1.000) and below SW (anything below 1.020)
When I did brackish water, I found that it works best at about 1.012-1.014 or so; but you want to acclimate your fish to those levels pretty slowly to not stress them out. Not too slow though, I found that a rate of about 1.001-2 a day works pretty well. DO NOT DO WATER CHANGES until you've reached the SG you want.
You also might want to raise the salinity a little slower for more delicate species of brackish fish, but never any faster than what I previously stated.
If you're adding new fish from FW to your brackish tank, drip acclimate for a few hours.
The fish can acclimate rather fast normally, but you want to do it slower when making the whole tank brackish to allow bacterial colonies to slowly die, regrow, and adjust to the new salinity.
Also, test kits will not work on brackish water, so you must take extra care and precaution when doing anything at all with the tank.
If you use SW sand, use half the amount you would in a SW tank.
UV light, trust me.
Replace evaporated water with freshwater; same goes for SW.
If you have to add medication, bring the SG down to about 1.005, do a water change once its over, and then slowly bring the levels back up to normal again.
Other than that, brackish water isn't too hard. Just a mixture of FW and SW. But you may want to go full marine first to get a taste of what you're dealing with. It's more expensive, but not as tricky as brackish water can be.
Goodluck
To be brackish, you need the SG to be higher than FW (anything above 1.000) and below SW (anything below 1.020)
When I did brackish water, I found that it works best at about 1.012-1.014 or so; but you want to acclimate your fish to those levels pretty slowly to not stress them out. Not too slow though, I found that a rate of about 1.001-2 a day works pretty well. DO NOT DO WATER CHANGES until you've reached the SG you want.
You also might want to raise the salinity a little slower for more delicate species of brackish fish, but never any faster than what I previously stated.
If you're adding new fish from FW to your brackish tank, drip acclimate for a few hours.
The fish can acclimate rather fast normally, but you want to do it slower when making the whole tank brackish to allow bacterial colonies to slowly die, regrow, and adjust to the new salinity.
Also, test kits will not work on brackish water, so you must take extra care and precaution when doing anything at all with the tank.
If you use SW sand, use half the amount you would in a SW tank.
UV light, trust me.
Replace evaporated water with freshwater; same goes for SW.
If you have to add medication, bring the SG down to about 1.005, do a water change once its over, and then slowly bring the levels back up to normal again.
Other than that, brackish water isn't too hard. Just a mixture of FW and SW. But you may want to go full marine first to get a taste of what you're dealing with. It's more expensive, but not as tricky as brackish water can be.
Goodluck
brackish very pretty similar to fresh water. the only major hassle is that you have to pre-mix your water in a bucket. do not add salt directly to your aquarium. it is said to be harmful to fish when it dissolves
Forgot to mention that... lol
It'll cause gill-burn, literally meaning it will burn your fishes gills; which can lead to multiple bad things happening.
Inflammation, gill curl, gill infection, and death are just a few examples of what can happen.
So always mix up your brackish or saltwater in a bucket or container, and do not add it until the salt is completely dissolved and the water is clear.
ya yesterday night i took out all my gravel and decor and started to take 50% of the water out and then add 37 tbs of instant ocean and stirred for like 10 min and then waited til it was clear dumped it in the tank and kept addind water to filled i have pump on and everything all i need is sand and a hydrometer and should be able to put fish in tank i wont get the rest of the stuff til next week so that will be enough time to cycle thru everything
Every time you add salt, it has to re-cycle again; as if it were a newly set-up tank. When the salinity changes, all the bacterial colonies you've created die off, and new ones need time to grow. Thus why I stated earlier that you want to very very slowly bring the SG up to the levels you want; even if that means one grain of salt every day (exaggeration)