Planted Brackish Setup

[EB Red Devil]

I am interested in having a planted brackish setup, as I think a majority of the family would like that better than what I have right now. Here is a design that I would like to use (no, I can't take credit for the artistic abilities - they're not mine):

http://members.spinn.net/~roger/challenge_tank.jpg

The wood on the left would run from the surface of the water down to the substrate. It would create a series of darkened hiding places in the back left corner of the aquarium. In the back right corner would be Vallisneria gigantea, allowed to grow to the water line and sweep across the surface a bit. Java moss is what would be in front of the wood and in the back center. Cryptocoryne wendtii is the broad-leafed plant that would be placed in the "focal point" of the aquarium (in the back towards the left side). Java fern would be attached to small, horizontal pieces of wood, growing in front of the V. gigantea from the back to the front right corner. As far as a substrate goes, I was thinking about 1-1.5" of Flourite (for the plants) on the bottom, topped off w/ the existing gravel that I have in the aquarium already. Maybe some kind of fine sand over the top of that to give it a more natural brackish look...

As far as I know, all of these plants tolerate a brackish system fairly well. If you see anything that won't work, let me know and I'll try to mess with things a bit.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated. This will be my first attempts at both brackish and planted, so I want it to be very successful. I'm sure you all understand.

PS - Fish included will be figure eight puffers, mollies and bumblebee gobies. I have another thread in the brackish forum asking about this as well, but more focused on the fish aspect.

[thom336]

all looking good, except possibly the following:
- im no expert on crypts, but im not sure all the crypt species are brackish water tolerent, so i would check up on that.
- the bumble bee gobie is often found difficult to keep. research into this has shown that it fairs better in a speicies only tank, but some do do ok in community situations.

Finally, congrats on recognising the requirements of the molly - so many people forget or just ignore the fact that many of the molly speicies are brackish. of course, there are those mollies that are freshwater. the sailfin molly is brackish, as is the black molly - but due to breeding, there are now freshwater black mollies - do they do it just to confuse us??

Looks like your gonna have a fine tank there - what lighting and filtration were you considering? and do you know what sg you are looking at? or, if not, i'll check it for you.

[EB Red Devil]

Right now the aquarium's running a wet/dry filter with a 14 gallon sump for biological filtration (6.5 of it is for media, the other portion is for overflow prevention/water return/heaters/etc). It's also running a Magnum 350 Pro (the kind that's both canister and biowheels) for some additional bio filtration (probably not needed, but I just haven't taken the wheels of yet), and all of the mechanical filtration. Once I get around to taking off the biowheels, and switching it over to purely a mechanical filter, I'll probably have room for one more canister for additional mechanical filtration - which is probably needed anyway. I added the wet/dry after I already had the established biowheels on there, but kept the biowheels on there so I didn't have to re-cycle the entire thing...

Anyway - as far as lighting and specific gravity go, I'm not quite sure. Brackish is around 1.005 or so minimum, if I've done my research correctly, but how much higher can I go with these plants? All of the plants that I have picked out don't have very high light requirements at all (according to Tropica, very low or higher is fine). Do I need additional lighting beyond my regular aquarium lights? Or, should I just replace the light I have right now with something that would be better suited for plant growth? I don't exactly want a zillion lighting hoods on top of my aquarium... What would you recommend in this department, since it's my first walk down both planting and brackish lane?

Thanks for your helpful reply!

Oh yeah... I'm pretty sure the species of C. wendtii that I'm looking at acclimates very well to a bracksih setup. From what I've read anyway... I've read the same thing about gobies as well, but I've heard that people have had success with larger (5 or more) groups of gobies in community tanks, so I'd go with at least that many - most likely 7 or 8.

[thom336]

that sg sounds good, and it looks like you know what your doing with those gobies. i wouldnt worry about replacing your current lighting, those plants dont need high lighting as you stated. the fish you have chosen dont need a very high sg, and the plants shouldnt be pushed to the limit with the salt, so i would go for that 1.005. good luck with the tank!

heres an interesting fact:
did you know that mollies can be acclimatised to full marine conditions without any sideaffects? but i wouldnt try it....its better to provide the fish with the best conditions for them, without pushing them to their limits, which can adversly cause stress and the death of fish if it all goes wrong, or even slightly wrong.

[tyler]

i've seen that picture before. i bet those guys could help you out quite a bit as well.

[EB Red Devil]

LoL - I figured someone might frequent that sight as well who's in this forum. They just did a great job with that drawing. Once I picked my brackish plants, I realized that they were pretty much exactly the same plants that they had in this setup. Why mess with a good thing?

I'm sure they could help too, but that board seems to be a little more dead compared to this one. Maybe I'll post there as well...

- Eric