View Full Version : seachem brackish salt
cdawson
02-15-2003, 6:11 PM
How many tablespoons of seachem brackish salt should I use for a 48 gal?
Pufferpunk
02-15-2003, 7:48 PM
Get a hydrometer. What kind of fish are you getting?
cdawson
02-17-2003, 12:55 AM
I've got a coralife deep six hydrometer. I've got a GSP right now in another tank I've had for about 8 months now. I also wanted to add an archer or two and maybe a few sailfin mollies. i'm currently using 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons.
Pufferpunk
02-17-2003, 9:54 AM
If that's what the GSP is in now, transfer the fish into the same water. My GSP is at a SG of 1.016-10. I usually use about a cup of salt/5gal. You have a long way to go for that. Just add an extra tbsp/gal every day until your SG goes up to at least 1.012.
Is the new tank cycled?
cdawson
02-17-2003, 11:52 AM
It's at 1.012 right now, and the new tank is at 1.015 cycling right now. I'm using the decomposing fish meat method.
Shikkapow
02-17-2003, 3:53 PM
Originally posted by cdawson
...cycling right now. I'm using the decomposing fish meat method.
HUH???
throw in a bunch of dead fish meat and you wont get a cycle, just a stinky deadly tank....
Pufferpunk
02-17-2003, 6:41 PM
In 25 years of keeping fish, I've never heard of anything like this. Could you please describe the process?
cdawson
02-17-2003, 8:23 PM
I read that using a piece of fish meat and letting it decompose will cycle the tank over a week. It has to be uncooked and unseasoned. It was on a post in general freshwater I think.
Pufferpunk
02-17-2003, 8:44 PM
Have you ever cycled like this before? Are you testing the water?
Don't panic PP, it is the older SW version of fishless, normally done with shrimp or crab, but also dead fish by some. It does work, but can - as you guessed - stink fiercely.
I'll pass, thanks anyway. But it does have the advantage of feeding the heterotrophs if live sand, etc. have been added. Akin to home curing of live rock, it is something I can do without if posible.
Pufferpunk
02-17-2003, 9:08 PM
I don't get it. Dead fish always caused my tank to crash. It killed off the nitrifying bacteria.
cdawson
02-17-2003, 9:28 PM
dead fish aren't the same as dead shrimp, theres more bacteria involved in dead shrimp. If added some live rock could that work, I've heard of live rock living in high end BW but have heard so many conflicting stories. However in the mono and scat (juveniles) exhibit at the vancouver aquarium theres is some live rock as well as live sand. Being very high on the research department of aquariums I would expect their exhibits to be accurate.
Pufferpunk
02-17-2003, 9:42 PM
Why can't you just fishless cycle with ammonia. It seems so much easier to monitor.
Shikkapow
02-18-2003, 3:54 PM
dead anything in the tanks still doesnt seem like a good idea.. go with fishless cycle, like Puffer punk suggested, and its a sure fire guaranteed way of setting up a good tank
OrionGirl
02-18-2003, 4:53 PM
Organic matter will release the same toxins that are used to cycle. If he can stand the smell, this method works just fine. As RTR said, it's maybe displeasing in smell, but the results are the same. Dead fish don't kill off nitrifying bacteria, they cause an increase in the amount in the system, over and above what the bacteria can process immediately.
Pufferpunk
02-18-2003, 5:02 PM
So why did my tank crash when my husband overfed my puffers (people shrimp) while I was on vacation? Even after cleaning out the extra mouldy food & doing a 50% water change, it cycled all over again.
OrionGirl
02-18-2003, 5:50 PM
Because the levels of ammonia were higher than the existing bacteria bed could handle. It's like juggling. If you have 5 balls in the air, and someone slowly tosses you one more, you can incorporate it into your pattern easily. If someone bombards you with 5 more, you're going to drop them all. The initial bacteria can't handle the increased load, but they don't die.
OG - except when the huge increase in bioload causes a pH crash - not rare - which can damage or kill nitrification bacteria. The huge bioload increase also frequently exhausts the oxygen in the water, meaning arrest up to death for fish and nitrification bacteria. The worst cases I have been called in on were both - pH crash with vanishingly low oxygen in the water. Bad situation. Re-cycling would be expected after that. The worse smells come with scenario also - putrescine and cadavarine are not normal household aromas.