Brackish Tanks.

[Mettle]

How many here have done brackish set-ups? I've been wanting to do one since forever ago and then some. But have never found the right fish and such to fully pull me into it. Figure 8 puffers almost did it. And green spotted puffers had me thinking about it, but they need marine when older.

But I am now thinking once again about attempting this. I'm thinking I might either try it out in a 10 gallon tank first (see how it goes) or launch right into a larger set-up (putting my 40 gallon tank sitting in the basement to use). OR. Once I clear up my issues with the ich (which is going good now thanks to highly jacked temps, lotsa salt, plenty of high protein food, a uv sterilizer and daily water changes) I might sell off my fish and convert my existing tank into a brackish display tank.

I've also been toying with the idea of buying a brand new tank - but making sure it's tall, so I could do some type of land/water mangrove set-up. I think that would be ideal.

So in the end, I guess I'm just looking for a little bit of inspiration. Any experiences, good or bad, amazing types of fish, interesting fish, set-ups, etc. Anything at all that members might have to offer I'd be interested in taking a look at.

[Nelson]

I've recently tried my hand at brackish.  I have one 42 gal that's doing very well and just finished a 5 week cycling exercise for my second - a 36 gal.  It's a bit of a pain maintaining the salt levels when I perform water changes and the lack of fish availability is also a problem.  Having said that, I like the extra experience I'm gaining with brackish tanks since I know that my hobby will evolve to S/W tanks at some point.  

LFS's don't carry more than two or three brackish tanks and they're usually monos or puffers.  Al's is the best source but fish can be ordered.  I prepared my 36 gal exclusively for a scorpion fish which I introduced recently and it sure hasn't disappointed me -great fish!!

[kennyman]

Stephan: I have had a brackish 10g running for about six months. My 37g cube is almost complete and I will transfer stuff out my 10g to it. There are a couple of different approaches you can take with Brackish. A good page that outlines the main BW ecosystems can be found here. http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html

Another of the big variences in BW is the salinity. There are three bands of slainity you can shoot for that I'd have to look the names up for. High salinity,  middle and low . Low salinity allows you to run alot of plants that occure in ecosystems where salt water only makes its presence felt durring high tides. somewhere around 25% seawater. The middle range is more a seagrass area (50/50)and the high salinity is basicly ocean that gets about 25% or so FW flowing into it. I change my salinity slightly by altering the salt in my bucket.  2tbs/g one week - 1tbs/g the next. This changes the over all tank not to much.  

I found the term Eurohaline usefull in understanding my BW setup. It applies to the fish species and is worth getting an understanding of.

Nelson did you get that stonefish over at BA's on Terryfox? I looked at it and man "Was it ever ugly"! lol thats one wicked fish dude!!

[Nelson]

Yes, the Stone Fish comes from BA West and it is definitely ugly.  I noticed in my research on the fish that it is also called a Grunting Stone Fish.  Last night I found out why...I put a 2" feeder gold fish in the tank and when it ventured into the cave, there was a loud grunt from the Stone Fish and the feeder was no more :shock:

[Julie]

Nelson, get your fish under control.  

Julie

[Nelson]

OK-OK :lol: