discussed brackish with lfs guy

[andruboz]

since i have a violet goby and some mollies in mostly fresh water, i asked my lfs guy what to do- and discussed stuff i read here.

for s.g. he said 1.007 to 1.010 would be fine as they don't need to be very brackish.

when asked about sand and anerobic conditions, he said yep you can get that with play sand thats why he uses a larger particle size, and reccommended ugf. [i already have a 50lb bag of the stuff he suggested, so he didnt say it just to make a sale.]
unfortunately, i am not going to go ugf, but have a penguin 125 and a penguin mini i can put on the 10 gal tank. never thought the mini worked very well, but it beats nothing. without ugf, i'll have to stir it up everytime i vaccuum?

if gravel can get anerobic under aquarium decorations, would it be better to jam the decorations thru the gravel and let them rest on the glass bottom?

do those floating glass tube type sg meters work?

i also bought some flourite. can i put that in a little bowl for planting a java fern/ moss? [ so i dont have a mix of flourite and small gravel]

 

[Pufferpunk]

Wow, a lfs guy that actually seems to know what he's talking about! I don't see anykind of sand with a UGF. How could it not just seep through the holes in the plates? I hate those things anyway, it's like sweeping the dirt under the rug. 1.007-10 is considered mid-range BW & will take about a cup of salt/10gal.

My puffers are so messy that I move all the decorations whenever I clean the gravel, because there is food in all of them. I just redecorate every time. In my 90gal community planted tank, I don't move much. I don't use only sand in any of my tanks, several are sand/gravel mix.

Java fern/moss doesn't need flourite to grow well. I have mine jammed in between rocks (not even in any gravel) & they are growing great!

I use a SeaTest fill-up type hydrometer.

 

[RTR]

The Violet goby will be happier on sand than gravel, and I agree that sand an UG is a very difficult situation to arrange.

A thin layer of sand is sufficient.

 

[Darkangel]

If you folks reread the post the LFS did not recomend the sand with the UGF. He recomended

thats why he uses a larger particle size, and reccommended ugf.

This LFS person is on the ball. Too bad they were not all like that.

 

[Sharyl C]

if the layer of sand is not very deep aneaerobic spots will be easy to prevent.

also a note on the plants - java moss and fern use their "roots" mostly for attachment and not for nutrients so they don't need special gravel stuff.

 

[andruboz]

i did it, or am in the proccess of doing it..

today cleaned out 80% gravel and 80% of the the water - tried to mostly save the top layer of gravel.

cleaned it up. dragged the penguin mini out of storage, soaked it in vinegar for a bit and rinsed it out real good [get rid of the hard water scale]. also did regular maintainence on the peng.125.

put in about 1" of 'filter media' : bigger than sand, smaller than gravel.

filled with water and 1/4 cup of aquarium salt, and a free sample packet of stress something. then being the instant gratification pig that i am, 3hrs after getting it setup,
[took about that long for the water to clear] i threw some mollies in. couple hours later the violet goby went in. basically hoping
the tank doesnt cycle again.
they all ate a nice dinner and seem fine for now. the tank should be able to handle a half cup of salt, but didnt want to shock the previously fresh water acclimated fishes and i havent bought the hydrometer yet. picking up hydrometer tommorrow when i go to check out the nicaraguans at my lfs. the fishies will get higher s.g. with the next water change

if you dont see a heater its because there isnt one. i live with a very cold blooded grandfather and the house is kept about 76 degrees. i have the $250 electric bills to prove it.

one question: will biowheels in a brackish tank eventually be covered with salt?

 

[Pufferpunk]

How large is that tank? My dragonfish is over a foot long.

 

[andruboz]

at this time my dragon is maybe 7" and the tank is 10 gallon.
the lfs has 4 in a 10 gallon that are over a foot. [ not a good situation]. if my dragon can wait till about july before becoming a monster, then i will have enuff resources to move things out of the 29g and convert it to brack. the problem with a dragon in the 29 is he just doesnt use enuff of the tank. so what would i get to make the tank more interesting in the middle and upper portions of the tank? not a puffer. it would tear the dragon a new one.

 

[Pufferpunk]

If you add some branchy wood then other gobys, like knights, would hang out on there. An archer or halfbeak would be cool for the top end. Go to the Species Profiles for BW at this site & look it over.

 

[RTR]

Most archers are way too big - 12" fish, many time the mass of the Violet goby..