38 Gallon Brackish Build

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CinnamonPearl

Professional Whovian
May 19, 2013
232
2
18
Long Island, NY
As of today, I am starting my 38gal build for a brackish community aquarium! I'm very excited, as this will be my first fish tank in about two years. I left the hobby for a little while to move on to frog keeping, but I'm ready to come back and try something new.

Specs-
Tank: 38 gallon glass
Lights: 36" Zoomed T5HO light fixture, ultra sun daylight bulb and flora sun plant bulb
Water: tap water treated with Prime, mixed with Instant Ocean salt, planned salinity is 1.005
Filtration: Aquaclear 70 for mechanical filtration, Aquaclear 20 for biological filtration
Heater: Aqueon pro-heater x2
Substrate: Petco black sand 1.5-2"
Fertilization: Seachem flourish, seachem flourish excel
Plants: Java fern, java moss, bacopa monnieri- keeping it simple for this one
Stock: bumblebee goby x10, orange chromide x6, amano shrimp x10, nerite snails x5, blue legged hermit crab x5 (I might add black mollies in a few months should circumstances be good for it)
Hardscape: white base rock, driftwood

Currently I have all of the supplies except for lightbulbs, the glass versa top, filter media, and a few other minor supplies. Everything else is stuff I had lying around from my old freshwater tank. The plan is to start the tank as full freshwater and convert it over slowly once I have all my plants and inverts. (Blue legged hermit crabs will be transitioned down from marine salinity in a separate aquarium and added later.) Fish will be drip acclimated. If anyone has input or advice, it would be much appreciated.
 

Duckie

AC Members
Mar 14, 2015
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Planned salinity of only 1.005? For brackish you should shoot for 1.010 - 1.015, IMHO. If you use IO then just use half the recommended dosage for marine (1/4 cup per gallon). Salt is not that expensive - if you get the 200 gallon IO mix (equals 400 gallon brackish) - you end up paying $40 for that (e.g. at Amazon) and it will last well over half a year if you do 10 gal WC every week.
 

CinnamonPearl

Professional Whovian
May 19, 2013
232
2
18
Long Island, NY
I know it's pretty low, but the reason is so I can keep those plants alive. I read they can only handle as much as 1.005. Can they handle more?
 

tanker

Josh Holloway--Be mine!!!
Sep 1, 2003
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IMO, I think salinity of 1.005 is OK, On the low side, but still OK. Brackish water salinity can change daily if not hourly in nature. It can go from 1.005 to 1.015 depending on high tide or low tide.
 

Artistwolf

Registered Member
Sep 25, 2015
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Hi CinnamonPearl!!
Your tank sounds great; I can't wait to see photos! The blue-legged hermit crabs especially sound really cool.
 

CinnamonPearl

Professional Whovian
May 19, 2013
232
2
18
Long Island, NY
I'll stick with the 1.005, then.

Hey, Artistwolf! Nice to see you here!
 

CinnamonPearl

Professional Whovian
May 19, 2013
232
2
18
Long Island, NY
Set up the tank on the stand today. I took down and cleaned up my old frog tank and dragged this baby up from the basement. I gave it a cleanup last Friday, so it's tidy and ready. Hoping to have time to fill in the substrate or set up the hardware later tonight.

 

CinnamonPearl

Professional Whovian
May 19, 2013
232
2
18
Long Island, NY
Got a bunch done today! I filled in the substrate and cleaned and set up the Aquaclear 70. For substrate, I had about 60 lb. of Petco's aquarium black sand, but I'll probably go for pool filter sand next time, as Petco's stuff is crazy expensive. The rate is nearly $1 per pound! Well, anyway, I washed the stuff out in a pillowcase, 20 lb. at a time, and dumped it in the tank. Final substrate measurements is 2-2.5", which is more than I thought I'd get out of 60 lb., so I'm glad. Filling it up did make quite a mess in the bathtub, though.





After that, I brought up the Aquaclear 70 from the basement. It was in pretty gross shape, caked with grime from my old fish tank and cobwebs, but rinsing it off and scrubbing it with a toothbrush took care of most of the mess. The only problem is the little piece that holds the filter away from the tank seems to have gone missing, but I'm hoping to find it tomorrow. It's so tiny, I hope the dog didn't swallow it. Here're some before and after pictures.




Final image as of today. I'll probably move the filter to the other side and put the Aquaclear 20 where it is now.

 

CinnamonPearl

Professional Whovian
May 19, 2013
232
2
18
Long Island, NY
Got some more done today. I brought up the Aquaclear 20 from the basement and the two aqueon heaters from the basement, cleaned them up, and set them up in the tank. They weren't in nearly as bad shape as the 70, but it took some scrubbing to clean them up. Afterwards, I started filling up the tank. I'm mostly finished, but I left some open space to make it easier when I set up the rock and wood structures. Tomorrow or Thursday, I'll drop by Petco and pick up a couple of glass thermometers and a black background. I probably should've waited with filling until I had the background on, but eh.


 
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