# The Practice Brackish Tank



## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

I'm getting close to the wet part in my 120g beast:









But before I try creating 120g of brackish water for the first time, I figured I'd set up a mini version in this spare 20g tank I had laying around. It's not so bad if I have to dump out 20g of water to start over... not so much with 120g.









I've been slowly accumulating all the bits and pieces I need, so I pretty much have everything laying around, along with a few other spare bits I've accumulated along the way. I plan on getting used to the brackish techniques and trying out some of the livestock I plan on keeping.

Tonight, I placed some of the equipment and base rock:









I also have some sugar argonite. I cleaned some and placed it in the tank:









And finally, water!







(not sure why it's upside down and I can't seem to delete it, I'll post the correct image in a reply)

Since the rock and sand came from existing tanks, I'm going to let it settle over night, check my parameters and then add salt tomorrow. My goal is for a sg of 1.012. I'm going slightly higher end brackish to see what sort of critters I can keep in there.

For this tank, I'm going to try stocking:

- a hand full of bumble bee gobies
- I'm going to see if some of the nerites from my fresh water tank will survive and hopefully hatch some of the eggs they keep laying in my other tank
- I'm going to grow a mangrove out the back of the tank
- I also want to see how blue legged hermit crabs do
- I'm right on the edge for Beadlet anemone, assuming I can find some
- I've come across some other posts of people claiming they can keep copepods and other critters alive in brackish conditions, so once I get things stable I may try some more experimenting!


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

Here's a better copy of the with water image:


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## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

very cool iv'e always thought about doing a brackish tank but it seems like alot of work


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

They have a couple really neat brackish setups at the vancouver aquarium. Good luck with the 120g. Sounds like a cool setup. Can't wait to see some pics


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## Master wilkins (Dec 10, 2012)

Right on! Another brackish enthusiast! What are you going to be maintaining your salinity at? If you ever find any Blue Legged Hermit Crabs or Beadlet anemones, or for that matter any really interesting things that will go in a brackish tank let me know, I will go in on a group order with you.


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

J&l has blue legged hermits. I was going to grab a few and see if they are a brackish subspecies. The beadlets are apparently native to the uk, but I suspect we'll have similar species locally.


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## dssv (Jan 1, 2012)

great looking tank so far. some nice rock pieces you have also.


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

Salt added and the water looks good. It's sitting at 1.012sg. If I get a chance I may head to mr. pets in PoCo to see if they have any bbg's today.

I have to say, the sand looks amazing. I really wish I would have down sand in my FW tank now. Gravel looks so plain to me now.


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## Master wilkins (Dec 10, 2012)

In my own personal experience I had problems maintaining a small brackish aquarium. As soon as I went to a larger tank all my problems disappeared! I implore you to get your 120 up and running as soon as possible.


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

Master wilkins said:


> In my own personal experience I had problems maintaining a small brackish aquarium. As soon as I went to a larger tank all my problems disappeared! I implore you to get your 120 up and running as soon as possible.


Yeah, that's the goal. I've had the tank since December and I've been working on this since November. Due to a whole comedy of errors I need to build a new overflow box. I also need to build a tall canopy with a glass window, but I can probably get the tank cycling before that's done.


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

I picked up 4 bumble bee gobies. They are in the tank starting their turf battles.

























Next step: I need to track down a mangrove pod. I know J&L has them, but they have them in full salt and they already have leaves and roots. I've heard the acclimation process doesn't go well after they sprout leaves. Does anyone know of any one with mangrove pods? Bonus points if they are already in brackish water


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## datfish (Sep 7, 2012)

Well I've taken them from salt to fresh water with many leaves and so far so good. So if you have to you could resort to salt to brackish. I started out with 100% saltwater in a bucket and slowly added freshwater everyday till it was around 80% fresh and then added them to my tank the next day. So for brackish I'm sure it would be much easier.

I'd also suggest trying to get a mangrove crab, they're pretty cool and I _think_ they're brackish.


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

datfish said:


> Well I've taken them from salt to fresh water with many leaves and so far so good. So if you have to you could resort to salt to brackish. I started out with 100% saltwater in a bucket and slowly added freshwater everyday till it was around 80% fresh and then added them to my tank the next day. So for brackish I'm sure it would be much easier.
> 
> I'd also suggest trying to get a mangrove crab, they're pretty cool and I _think_ they're brackish.


How many days did you do the acclimation over?

My 120g tank was originally going to be a mudskipper/archerfish tank, but I had to make too many sacrifices to keep mudskippers. Instead I plan on having archers, orange chromides and monos. This all means no land. I'm wondering if mangrove crabs would climb/use the mangroves as relief from the water instead?


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

So I went to J&L today. The mangroves they had were in 1.014sg, which is so close to my 1.012sg that I just dunked them in. I also picked up 4 blue legged hermit crabs to try.

I also hit up rona and got some half inch PVC and a 1/2"->2" slip adaptor. I plan on cutting the PVC to the length I want and using the slip adaptor as the base to hold them up right:









I'll work on the stands tomorrow. For now I have velcro garden ties holding them onto some of the power cords.

Dripping the new hermits:









The mangrove roots:









And the tops:









Finally the hermits in their new home:









All four of them are moving around. It's only been about 15 minutes, so we'll see how they are in the morning.


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

Looks like the hermits survived the night. Two of them are active and running about. A third one has relocated a few times without me noticing. I haven't seen the 4th move yet today, but I think I see his antenna twittering about.

The gobies appear to be settling in and are a little less jumpy when I walk past the tank.


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

A few days in, hermits are still moving around. I don't know if they are thriving, but they are definitely still alive.

I also build my mangrove supports:









That's the smallest PVC I could find (1/2"). It works well, but definitely unsightly. Something clear or thinner would be ideal, especially considering it's going to take a long time for the mangroves to grow 20ish inches of roots in the 120g tank. Maybe clear acrylic rods would be better? Then I could burry the PVC fittings in the sand. Any suggestions on where to find acrylic rods?

Here's a shot with the roots sticking out of the water:









I have to say the bumblebee gobies are the most entertaining fish in the house. Watching them ambush bloodworms is entertaining. They stalk prey like a cat. I sure hope the archerfish I'm planning are more exciting to watch


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## datfish (Sep 7, 2012)

GaryR said:


> How many days did you do the acclimation over?
> 
> My 120g tank was originally going to be a mudskipper/archerfish tank, but I had to make too many sacrifices to keep mudskippers. Instead I plan on having archers, orange chromides and monos. This all means no land. I'm wondering if mangrove crabs would climb/use the mangroves as relief from the water instead?


About a week, I believe. And once the mangroves make a nice root system the crab could would use the mangroves as relief, but you'd have to sure it couldn't escape up the trunk.


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

I found a dead hermit in the back corner of the tank this morning a few cms from his last shell. I'm not jumping to any conclusions about the sg yet as the other 3 are still scuttling around doing their hermit crab thing.


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

I haven't lost any more hermits! The tank is going really well and it looks like the cycle is nearly done.. No ammonia, nitrites dropping. Nitrates are still a bit high.

The BBG's are getting used to me. One of them even comes up to me during feeding time. I should take another pic soon to see if the mangroves are growing at all. It looks like one is sprouting a bunch of roots.

Does anyone have any macro algae they'd be interested in donating to the tank? I want to see if I can get the nitrates under control. I don't know too much about macros, but a little bit of googling suggests Caulerpa may survive in brackish.


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

i got some caulerpa you can have if you want some ona rock5 bucks the free floating stuff is free tho


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

Another update: I lost another hermit yesterday. Still not too worried about it. If I lose the other two I'll try again with a slightly higher SG.

I did my first parameter check in a couple of days and it looks like I'm completely cycled: low nitrates and no nitrites! I thought the hermit loses might have been due to the tank cycling.

I've also noticed the algae start to appear on some of the services. I think it might be time to get some nerites in there and see how they do. Last time I was at IPU they didn't have any and I don't want to pull any of the hard workers out of my FW tank.

I also have noticed some root growth on the mangroves:

















I do have some white floaty crap on the surface though. I'm guessing it's the type of thing having a skimmer/overflow would clean up. Is it some sort of protein or bacterial buildup?


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

scott tang said:


> i got some caulerpa you can have if you want some ona rock5 bucks the free floating stuff is free tho


Will free floating attach itself to rocks/something else?


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

This is odd: I bought 4 hermits, I've removed 2 dead ones and I have three scurrying around the tank right now.

I suspect the hermit I pulled out yesterday was just a molt. 

Sadly, I can only find 3 of my bbg's right now and I don't see a corpse anywhere. I checked the surrounding area for a jumper, too. 

I'm secretly hoping it's guarding eggs in a cave I can't see, but that's probably a long shot.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

The invertebrates are pretty sensitive to ammonia\nitrite, so the deaths could very well have been related. I would have added them after the cycle, that's what I was advised to do with my first sw tank.

I missed this thread, didn't realize a few weeks passed by already. It's looking good!


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

effox said:


> The invertebrates are pretty sensitive to ammonia\nitrite, so the deaths could very well have been related. I would have added them after the cycle, that's what I was advised to do with my first sw tank.


I knew I should have waited until after the cycle. I'm pretty sure I only lost one since I still have 3 in the tank.

I was pretty excited to try it out though, so I was easily swayed into adding them early. Bumble bee gobies only eat things that move. If the bloodworms I'm feeding don't get eaten before they hit a current dead spot, they just sit there. I figured it would be smart idea to add in a cleanup crew early to clean up the mess. The excess bloodworms started disappearing after I added them in.


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## Master wilkins (Dec 10, 2012)

The surface buildup is easily taken care of with a bubbler or your filter outspout pointed towards the surface. I get that in my brackish if i dont have enough surface agitation


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

Been a while since I've updated this one.

The surface buildup is gone. I did wiggle my powerhead, but it may have also been part of the tank cycling.

I was getting a lot of brown algae. I moved one of my zebra nerites from the FW tank and it's been going to town. I've got too many things going on to do a compare picture, but in a few days, one of the PVC pipes I'm using for a mangrove stand is white again.

I've added a couple of mono argentus. I don't think they are a good match for the BBGs, since they don't really let them eat.

I'm pleased to report that I will be shutting this tank down within a few days though! I'll put the rest of the updates in http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/tank-journals-16/brackish-tidal-tank-33688/


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