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Cycling a brackish tank from scratch 7/5/07
Hi,
I currently have red cherry shrimp and am going to start breeding other shrimp
that the fry need to be raise in a separate brackish water tank to go thru it's
larva stages.
My questions start with can I take a fully cycled 10 gallon tank and convert it
to brackish and how?
Also once it's a fully cycled brackish tank do I need fish and or shrimp fry to
keep it cycling if so what small fish will do the trick, maybe a brackish water
shrimp ?
What SG should I keep the salt level at?
Any and all comments will be put go good use as I will print this out to keep
for future use so be as specific as possible.
Thanks,
Rick Sahrp
<Hello Rick. You can adapt filter media from an established freshwater aquarium
to SG 1.005 or less almost at once. Put the media in a bucket of freshwater, and
do some brackish water water changes over an hour or so just as you would
acclimate a new fish from freshwater to brackish water. The bacteria seem to
adapt well. Above SG 1.005 things get a bit more hazy. In theory, you can
gradually raise the SG in the aquarium at each water change and the filter
bacteria will change from freshwater to brackish water ones. In practise you
should GO SLOW and test for ammonia/nitrite after each water change in salinity
just to make sure everything is fine. You can keep a tank cycled without fish or
invertebrates. Adding a bit of seafood or a few pinches of flake food will do
the trick. As these rot, they will produce the ammonia the bacteria need. Don't
go bananas, but you are wanting to mimic about the same level of food every day
or two as you would add if there were real fish in there. The bacteria don't
"know" where the ammonia comes from, and couldn't care less if it came from a
pinch of flake or a black molly! Now, one thing I'm confused about is why you
need brackish water for Red Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina denticulata sinensis).
These are freshwater shrimp with no larval stage. They breed very readily in
freshwater, and brackish water is *not* required to rear the baby shrimp. The
baby shrimp are very robust and easy to rear. A local tropical fish shop has
baby shrimps all over the tank the adults are kept in! The only thing that
matters is the water is fairly hard and alkaline. Beyond that, they aren't
fussy. Amano shrimps (Caridina multidentata = C. japonica) do need brackish or
marine water to complete their life cycle, as do some other freshwater aquarium
shrimps, like the Red Nose Shrimp (Caridina gracilirostris) but certainly not
all of them. Hope this helps, Neale>
Cycling a Brackish Aquarium 7/7/06
Thanks for the quick reply.
<Hi Melissa, you've got Pufferpunk here this time.>
I did use something called Cycle when I set up the tank to get the bacteria
going.
<Cycle is total bunk & a waste of $$$. The only product that will "instant
cycle" your tank is Bio-Spira.>
The guy at the pet store told me if I used that, then it would be ok to get that
many fish. I guess he had no idea what he was talking about.
<Sure didn't! Don't always depend on the folks working at aquarium stores. You
must do your own research on these things too.>
So, is the aquarium salt ok to use for these fish? I never got an answer on
that.
<Brackish water is made with marine salt, measured with a hydrometer or
refractometer. Of the fish you have listed, only the mono & glassfish were
brackish. The mono is a schooling species that get about a foot long. You
cannot keep brackish fish & freshwater fish in the same aquarium. Please do
much more research on each fish species & their care before buying any more
fish. ~PP>
Going From Brackish To Freshwater
12/10/05
WWM crew, I have a brackish tank which my fish recently died and I want to turn it into a freshwater tank. I was just wondering if I could skip recycling the tank by simply emptying the brackish water and replacing it with freshwater. Hope this question
isn't too stupid... thanks.
< Brackish is a very loose term that means it is between pure freshwater and pure saltwater. Depending on the exact salinity you were keeping your fish at, after replacing the water, I would still add Bio-Spira from
Marineland to cover all the bases.-Chuck>
Set Up and Stocking in One Day - 12/07/2005
I set up a brackish water tank and all day the tank was clear the fish were active and eating, nothing unusual. I had 2 Green Scats and a Green Puffer. When I went to feed them this morning the water was extremely cloudy and the fish were dead.
<Surprise, surprise.>
Could this have been a filter problem.
<Well yes in a manner of speaking. Not physical however, but biological. This is what happens when fish are thrown into an uncycled tank.>
I had them on a Whisper filter overnight and was going to get a biowheel but I didn't get a chance to. Any ideas?
<Study. - Josh>
Making BW for a F8 Puffer, Cycle is Bunk -
10/24/05
Thanks, wow I had no idea about the brackish water thing. With the set-up I have now can I make a brackish tank? I know I'll need marine salt and a hydrometer or whatever measures specific gravity of the water. Right now I can't move the loaches out of the tank. I am moving the goldfish out tomorrow hopefully. I thought you needed some crazy equipment to handle a brackish tank. I have not researched it so if you could let me know what I would need to do I would be glad to do it. Cycle, as I read, had
dormant bacteria that come alive when the conditions are right, is this wrong? Water quality seems good, although things that are not
visible could be deadly I know. Well thanks again for helping!
<Your loaches will not appreciate the salt. Can you find somewhere to re-house them? Maybe your LFS will take them or you know someone that has a much bigger tank? Cycle is total bunk. Bacteria does not come alive. The ONLY product that contains live bacteria is
Bio-Spira & it needs to be kept refrigerated, so the bacteria doesn't die. Check out
www.thepufferforum.org, for more
puffer info & lots of great articles in the Library! ~PP>
FW water quality, puffer 8/9/05
Bob,
<Erik>
Update and 2 quick questions for you... My tank appears to be cycled.
Ammonia and nitrites are zero. Nitrates are between 20 and 40 PPM. I did
a 50% water change yesterday to bring these down a bit. My tap water is
not as loaded with Nitrates as I'd originally thought. Your comment made
me rethink my original tests so I did a control and tested straight tap
water, only 5 PPM nitrates.
<Ahh>
But I did notice one strange anomaly, and I
double checked it several times to be sure, my tap water does appear to
have ammonia in it! I did a control with distilled water, and of course
it registered zero, the tank is registering just above zero, but less
than .25 PPM, way less. The test tube appears pure yellow until I put a
control of distilled water next to it. You can then tell it has a very
slight green tint to it which indicates some level of ammonia. Am I
correct in assuming that a control test of distilled water will always
look a little purer than tank water?
<Generally>
There will always be trace amounts
of ammonia in the tank because of waste that hasn't been converted by the
bacteria yet correct?
<Umm, no... not detectable amounts in a completely cycled system>
Any way, I retested twice and yes, my tap water
appears to contain between 1 and 2 PPM of ammonia!
<Trouble>
I'm going to try a
different test kit, I find it hard to believe that the city would allow
such high levels. I don't drink tap water anyway but I worry about the
fish and my cat. He'll get bottled water until I find out what's going on.
<A good idea>
Anyway, my important question is this... Is it normal for a Cholonodon
patoca (Milk Spotted Puffer)
<Mis-spelled... Chelonodon:
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=6610&genusname=Chelonodon&speciesname=patoca>
to spend quite a bit of time resting on the
bottom?
<Yes>
When he moves, he's moving and healthy looking, but he rests
quite a bit. I've seen you tell other puffer owners that they do this,
but there is very little info out there about my little guy. As passive
as he is, I'd expect the Milk Spotted Puffers to be more popular.
Haven't seen him even threaten to fin nip his tank mates to date. I know
this will change with age but he's pretty friendly right now, even
shares his food with the sharks!
Salinity is about 1.008 and I am gradually bringing that up so as not to
hurt the other fish. Water temp is about 80 degrees F and the pH is
about 7.6-7.8.
Thanks Again,
Erik
<Keep studying... prevention... Bob Fenner>
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