Introduction, brackish questions

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firefly

AC Members
Jun 6, 2005
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Iowa
HI all. I haven't seen a generic introduction folder, so I"ll introduce myself here. I have been keeping aquariums on and off for a while now, and currently am running a 20g, 29g and 38g, all fresh water. I am considering heading into brackish water though. I just got four new aquariums which I need to set up. (two 65g and two 50g). I am wanting to use one of the 50g (36"X18"X??"high) for a brackish tank, but so far all I know I want in there are some black and silver mollies and some zebra nerite snails. THe nerites are the only real bracksih snails and most nerites will tolerate anything from full fresh to full salt, usually requiring brackish to breed. So with my current choices I could do anything from full fresh to full salt (I plan on having the sailfin mollies). I was looking for one more fish for a splash of color in an otherwise black and white themed tank. Since the water isn't fresh, I can't really do live plants, so I've got some black and white plastic ones, and I've got black and white sand, and If my water isn't hard enough I was going to put some crushed coral in the filter box to raise the hardness and ph etc. I'm looking for black slate and white quartz for more decoration, but the only place I've found it so far is at an LFS for about $4 a pound. I'm going to be calling around to see if I can find it cheaper from a garden store or a building supply place, maybe even get some odds and ends left over from projects for very cheap.

I haven't yet decided on what my other fish will be. I'm looking for some input I guess. I know that monos, scats and puffers are out. They'll either be too big, or eat the snails and/or fish. I could do bumble bee gobies, but I'm not sure I want to have to feed frozen daily for them... (I currently feed it about three times a week). IF I were to go with gobies, I'd be inclined to go full salt and get something more colorful. (I dislike violet gobies, not very interesting, just big, and sleeper gobies are too aggressive). Are there any brackish gobies other than violets, bumble bees or sleepers? I've not really found anything. I am considering the orange chromide, and have heard mention of a blue and a silver one through google, but not much info available, or they are synonomous with the orange?!? Green chromides are out--too big and aggressive. I was also looking into brackish rainbows or killies, but I'm not seeing great color in the celebes rainbows, and I"ve had problems figuring out which killies need brackish water. At anyrate, My SG can be entirely determined by the needs of whatever color fish I pick.

Also, do you reccomend a protein skimmer on a brackish tank? I read that it is not useful if the SG is only light brackish around 1.005, but at high brackish (and definitely salt) it is a good idea. If I would need one for higher brackish, I may hold off and aim for a low sg of 1.005 or less. I'm thinking of running an emperror 400 for my filtration, or perhaps a fluval 304. Do you think either of these are adequate, or would you do something else? And, lastly, I prefer fishless cycling (adding ammonia daily at a dose that originally produced 3ppm, then halving the dose when Nitrites appear, adding that dose until Nitrates form, and there are no readings for ammonia or nitrites and then doing a water change to get rid of the nitrates), does this work for brackish as well as fresh? I know that low brackish uses the same bacterias as fresh, so I"d guess it would work for that, but what about higher end brackish or salt? I've not read much about fishless cycling a salt tank....

With my other new tanks, I'm going to have one 65g planted tank (lights CO2 the works) with angel fish, one 65g african cichlid tank (the only other one besides my brackish with no live plants), and the other 50g will be FW community and house more of my apple snails. (I have p. bridgesii in many colors of the rainbow, they are breeding for me now. These are the only apple snail that doesn't eat plants!).

THanks for any input on the brackish you would care to provide. I've read the faq, and I know the basics of tank keeping (maybe a bit more), so I'm just looking for some fish ideas and such. I dont' want to totally over stock the tank, I do have to keep reminding myself it's only 50g.... It's so easy to get carried away!!

Emily
 
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