New brackish tank

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Industrial

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Oct 29, 2009
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Buffalo, NY
I already had a thread asking for suggestions for stocking a 33 long brackish tank.

Now I want to make one showing it from start to finish.

My plan right now is two dragon gobys, couple glassfish, some moscow black guppies and I will see what else looks interesting later on.

I already have a dragon goby (he is almost 8 inches) and an indian glassfish in one of my tanks. My other glassfish couldn't keep up with the competativeness of my other fish so I put him in a tank with a baby whale and a pleco. He will go in the brackish tank as well. And I plan on buying a couple more. I might also acclimate a few of my moscow blacks to brackish water in the future.

I am planning on filling the 33 gallon tank with a little over half of the original water from the 29 gallon and under half of it dechlorinated tap water. I will fill it over two days and refill the 29 gallon tank when I am finished for the night.
 

Industrial

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Oct 29, 2009
473
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Buffalo, NY
Yesterday I bought the tank. It was around 121 dollars after taxes for the tank and the hood. I wanted something with the same surface area but less gallons then a 55. It ended up either getting a 33 for 121 dollars, a 40 long for 190 dollars or a 55 for 100 dollars. I wanted the 40 the most but not for 70 more dollars. And the 55 would have been too heavy for a buffet table IMO and I would have to do larger water changes (I only have a 2 gallon bucket and 1 gallon jug) so that wasn't going to happen. Plus I figure a shallower tank would allow for increased oxygenation on the bottom.

Today I mixed a bucket of crushed coral I had left over from a tank I bought on CL and mixed it with a 50 LB bag of playsand (3 dollars). 50 LBs was way too much and the bed was 3" deep which I did not want to do in a tank that is only 12" high. I used maybe 10 gallons from my 29 gallon tank and another 2 gallons dechlorinated tap water.

I think I will add an aerator and be finished for the night.

BILD2226.JPG BILD2227.JPG BILD2230.JPG BILD2231.JPG BILD2233.JPG
 

bazil323

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May 1, 2008
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Hey, that bucket/siphon method to fill your tank is pretty cool!
 

Industrial

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Oct 29, 2009
473
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Buffalo, NY
I finished filling the tank last night and I put on an aquaclear 300 (40-70 gallons) and a aquaclear 30 to help filter the new tank faster and ensure it is in as close as possible conditions as the previous tank.

Today I bought almost 10 lbs of some kind of heavy volcanic looking rock from a fish store and made a little cave, hiding spot big enough for the 8" dragon goby when he goes in there and I bought a new 150 watt heater. I plugged in the new heater and set it to 79/80 degrees and I also plugged in an old 200 watt heater and set it to 86 degrees to help heat up the water faster for fine adjustments to the one I am going to use.

I am hoping that by tomorrow afternoon I will be able to put the two glassfish in the tank. I kept the water filtered and aerated so the bacteria from the other tanks did not die. I would think this would make it the equivalent of an upgrade.

Before I can put the fish in, I just want to make sure that the crushed coral, sand or rocks did not mess with the PH of the water, so I will check that in the morning and make sure the two tanks are as close to identical as possible.

BILD2246.JPG
 

Industrial

AC Members
Oct 29, 2009
473
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Buffalo, NY
Hey, that bucket/siphon method to fill your tank is pretty cool!
Thanks! I remembered that when I fill up my tanks that have gravel with water that the water pushes around the gravel. I didn't want this to mess up the sand so I just used the siphon.

The bucket was actually filled with all the excess sand and crushed coral that I had in the tank and I was setting up a 1 gallon water jug on the tank and just siphoning it into the tank.

I am so glad that is done. I think I will just use the excess sand and coral for when I try to make a 10g glassfish breeding tank.
 

Lycanthropic

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Jun 29, 2009
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Alberta
Hey Industrial. I figured you may want to know, that tank is not going to be able to permanently home the dragon goby. I would suggest a 90 gall. minimum as when they do get older, they get BIG. For my two I had a 135 6 ft long tank for their permanent home and even then they occassionally scrapped with one another. PM me if you want more info!
 

Industrial

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Oct 29, 2009
473
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Buffalo, NY
I would much rather do a 75 if the gobys get bigger because a 90 gallon is just a taller 75 gallon. Or maybe I would make a custom tank that is the same floor dimensions as a 75, just 15" tall or so.

For bottom dwelling fish I would much rather stick with the shallow design as I always thought that they were more visually appealing and they are a lot easier to clean.

If the goby(s) do get too big for the tank, I will likely move them into a larger and preferably custom tank.

By scraped with eachother you mean fought?
 

Lycanthropic

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Jun 29, 2009
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Alberta
Yeah. My oldest one, came into the cave of the other one. He would hit himself against the little baby, gaping his mouth open at him and slamming the baby into the slate rock when he can. He will also force the little one into another cave quite often. It doesn't happen anymore luckily, but it can be a bit worrysome
 

Industrial

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Oct 29, 2009
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Buffalo, NY
Wow, I was planning on getting a baby one from petsmart too!

Maybe I should just pay the extra couple dollars and get a bigger one from the LFS. I don't think fish are as aggressive towards larger fish. Mine is bigger than I have seen at any other stores and he is a big baby so hopefully I won't have any conflict when I get a second one.
 

Industrial

AC Members
Oct 29, 2009
473
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Buffalo, NY
Today I did a test of the new water and the hardness was at 300ppm (very hard). The other tank is slightly below 175 (closer to hard than soft).

I am thinking maybe the sand threw it off since I used mostly water from the other fish tank and a little bit of dechlorinated tap water (which I always use during water changes). I am not sure how I am going to go about fixing this.
 
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