How To Make Brackish Water?

C

campmor52

Registered Member
Jul 17, 2005
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BELLEVILLE, IL
I have a couple of saltwater tanks and want to know how to make brackish water? I can get good water from a store in my area both salt and fresh. What should be the mixture or should I attempt to mix the two?
Thanks for help
Campmor52
 
Are you mixing your SW for your fish or does your store actually sell premixed SW?

If you're mixing your SW, you must have a hydrometer on hand. BW is a SG of 1.005 up to just below the SG of SW, but the SG level you want would depend on the fish you want to keep.

If you're mixing premade SW and BW, you'll need a hydrometer to measure the SG as above.

Eric
 
I buy SW directly from the store and I would be mixing freshwater and saltwater together- both are pre-made from the store. I still would need a hydrometer? Where and how much is one?
Thanks Jayhawk!
 
I'm experimenting with having a brackish tank.... so I'm starting with just a 10 gallon. I have 2 mollies and 7 bumblebee gobies in there. I may add 2 or 3 dwarf -puffers, but any more than that and I will need a bigger tank. My question is......

How much salt do you put into the water to make brackish water?? I do NOT have a hydrometer.
 
I hope someone with more experience will help out more, since I am pretty new to keeping fish, but here are my thoughts: I am not sure if it is a good idea to mix puffer fish with such slow moving and slow eating fish like gobies... the 2-3 dwarf puffers would already require the 10G tank themselves. Also, if you mean the commonly seen dwarf puffer, it is actually a fresh water species of puffer. I tried to keep them in a community set up, and it failed miserably... now they are happy by themselves. I can not even keep shrimp or otos with them, although some people seem to have more luck with this combination. Mine just hate everything that moves, except the other puffers... they do not show agression towards each other, only at feeding.
 
Stefanie is right on the money. DPs are purely FW and despite their size they're nippy.

Hydrometers come from your LFS (ask them, they'll have one). A swing arm one is usually $10 USD.

Eric
 
Look into buying salt mix and mixing your own water for your brackish tank. Since you will need a hydrometer anyway.

Also when buying brackish fish make sure to ask the store what level their brackish water is at and use that to start, adjusting slowly to a more desirable SG (which will depend on fish type). And be aware that some brackish fish actually need to be full saltwater as they mature.

A lot of research on fish type is essential. Oh and unless you have a huge tank stay away from scats.
 
I have huge tanks (my biggest is a 240 gallon), but I wanted to start slow because I'm not sure where I'm going with this.

So..... the dwarf puffers are FW?? I want them, but I guess they'll have to go in another tank. I found a beautiful 3 inch goby called the Fan Dance goby (something like that) that is brackish. I will try some of them. If this works out, I would like to have anableps......... and perhaps mudskippers, but in an aquarium of their own.

So a hydrometer is a MUST, huh?? Should I just buy a cheap one, or would it be worth it to spend a little extra?

Does anyone have any idea what kind of live plants can go in BW?? Or what brackish fish eat algae (aside from Nerite snails)??
 
For light BW, I think a hydrometer like Instant Oceans is fine. If you want to spend more, a refractometer is more accurate.

Eric
 
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