new brackish tank

[catsmakemebark]

It's not brackish yet, but I'll add the ocean salt after I get the fish because the local pet stores keep them in FW.
I'm pretty good with FW tanks so I'm off to explore brackish and marine.
I've already done quite a bit of research but I'd like direct answers for a few questions.
Any specific filter I need?

I was think of knight gobies or bumble bees.

Any other suggestions for the inhabitance? It's a ten gallon tank.

Also, what does the salinity need to be for the gobies(and anyother fish that you may suggest).

How much salt would I need to put in to achieve that salinity.

Here's a picture. It's a bit sparse right now, but I'll fill it out in a while. A few of the plants won't be able to handle the salt so they'll go before I add the salt. I've got a ghost shrimp and a large snail in it right now, but they can also be relocated.

It's already cycled.

[OrionGirl]

It won't stay cycled--the bacteria are different from FW ones, so they will die off as the salinity rises.

Emg has a thread about her bumble bees--and her's spawn all the time, so she's a great resource.

Oh, and welcome to AB!

[catsmakemebark]

I figured the bacteria would die off.

I've pretty much read every thread on the brackish forum. I'm trying to soak up as much info as possible. It's all very helpful.

Thank!

[OrionGirl]

Hopefully you'll have more people chiming in. I've never ran brackish, but considered it for some puffers so did a ton of research.

There are some snails and plants that will be options--java fern and java moss, and some types of crypts. I think nerite snails will handle brackish.

[joephys]

I haven't kept brakish either, but I have both fresh and salt water aquariums. I would suggest getting the salt in before you get the fish. Not only because of what OG mentioned about cycling, but its just easier to deal with. Acclimation should just be done very slowly, over the course of 3-4 hours to get them addapted to the saltier water.

[reiverix]

When I cycled my brackish tank at an SG of 1.005 I attempted to kickstart it with media from one of my FW tanks. It didn't work. So in my wisdom I tried adding live sand from the SW tank. Didn't work either. In the end I just used ammonia.

If you are buying fish that are in FW from your LFS then I would cycle the tank as a FW tank (which it looks like you have done) and then after you add the livestock, slowly raise the SG to the desired level over the course of five weeks. Now, the reason I say five weeks is because that is about the standard time for a fishless cycle so it will give the tank time to adjust. Someone who has actually made the FW->BW transition this way may have a different view.

I think a 10g might be a bit small for knight gobies but bumblebees would love it in there. Some rockwork would give them some security and hiding spots.

For a cleaup crew, olive nerite snails would be fine in brackish and do actually need brackish water to reproduce. For plants, I can grow java fern and jungle val at the lower end at around 1.004 but the vals definitely do better as salinity gets higher.

[RTR]

If the BW fish are in FW at the LFS, start the tank FW and adjust after the fish are in, as earlier projected. If you increase salinity by no more than +0.002 specific gravity per week, the bacteria will adjust without issue. If you hold that to no more than 0.002 sp.gr. per two weeks you will never detect any ammonia or nitrite at all. The FW nitrification bacteria are good to 1.008 - 1.010, but will die if moved up too fast. The bacteria are far more fragile than the fish. Even if the water is going to high BW, doing the 0.002 per two weeks will give development time for the real SW bacteria to develop.

Bumblebee gobies will do fine in hard alkaline FW or in low BW (1.005 +/- 0.002). I would not take them any higher than that, and in fact would likely keep them near the bottom of that range or just hard alkaline FW. There is lots of discussion about where they really belong.

[catsmakemebark]

Thank you all for your replies.

When I add the salt in the tank will the hydrometer read the SG immediatly or does it need time to dissolve in the water? How would I know how much to put in?
So, knight gobies are out of the picture then. Would 2 or 3 bumblebees be a compatible number for the tank?
I'm also attracted to dwarf puffers so I'll probably make another thread on the puffer forum.

Are nerite snails hermaphrodites? I'm not really up to having a bunch of snails in my tank unless I get a puffer.

[OrionGirl]

You'll want to add salt to the water you use for a water chnage, and get it fully dissolved outside the tank.

Dwarf puffers are not brackish--they are fully FW.

[catsmakemebark]

So how much salt would that be for a ten gallon with bumblebees?

As for the puffers, I'm still contemplating over a brackish tank or a couple dwarf puffers. It would be lovely if I could have a brackish puffer, unfortunatly my tank is a bit small.

[Emg]

I started my bbgobies in fw......and then increased the salinity with each weekly water change. Like OG said...don't try to mix the salt in the water that the fish are in....do that in a seperate bucket.

I keep my gobies at an sg of 1.004, I use redsea marine salt...no particular reason, it's just what they had at the store when I was looking....I add 2 teasp of the salt per 1 gallon of water for an sg of 1.004. I would start with 1/2 teasp and add that amount more to the mix each wc until you get it up to the right sg.

I have my gobies in a 5 gallon tank...each week I top off the tank with fw before I do the wc......syphon out 2gallons from the tank and have 2 gallons of mixed bw on hand to replace what I took out.

They need small caves of some type because that is what they will breed in. Ideally I would like some small clusters of barnicles, but am using whale eye shells atm...because I have plenty of those on hand for shelldwellers. The shells are easier to remove though when they use them for breeding..if you want to try and raise the fry. I have not yet had success in doing this, but...I havn't really made any serious attempts......when I get some vinegar eels I'll give it another go and see how I do.

Enjoy ! and...I think the bbgobies would be a better choice over the knight goby for the size tank that you have......nice as those knight gobies are, I think a 10 isn't quite enough room for them.