# salt salinity for brackish water tank



## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

Hi all I know that the water quality is very important so. how much salt should I put in my tank I bought a two cartons of the aquarium salt [not the liquid form].
but I have no clue how much to put in. and theres another problem I dont know how much water is in because it is only partway full. 

so how much salt should I put in each gallon of water and how can I find out how much water in in my tank. I do have one of those salt measuring things [not sure what its called maybe a hydromiter]. so what should it read when I put in the water.

thanks

ieatflys


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## Guest (Jan 8, 2010)

Measure with a bucket...

And salinity needed depends on the species. Full salt is around 32ppt.


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## Cacatuoides (Feb 2, 2009)

well what size tank is it? also you could measure the tank, find the volume and convert it to how many cubic inches are in a gallon of water. What are the fish that are in the tank?


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

ok its a 55 gallon tank and I am going to have mudskippers dragon fish and archerfish.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

First of all, do not use the aquarium salt. It is the wrong kind of salt. Brackish water comes from the ocean water mixing with a source of freshwater, usually a river or stream. Therefore, you need to use *marine* salt. Aquarium salt is used in freshwater tanks as medication. 

Salinity: 
Mudskipper - 1.005 to 1.015 (7 ppt to 21 ppt)
Dragon Goby - 1.006 to 1.008 (8 ppt to 11 ppt)
Archerfish - 1.002 to 1.005 (3 ppt to 7 ppt)

So I would suggest you keep the salinity in the 1.005 to 1.006 range since all of your fish should be able to handle that. Brackish water fish in the wild do not have a stable salinity level, so raising or lowering the salt levels from the recommendations will usually be ok.

Also, your hydrometer might not go down far enough for brackish water. The only hydrometer I was able to find that went that low, was the one made by Instant Ocean. It may be a better idea to buy a refractometer instead, as they are WAY more accurate, and for such low salt levels, it may be needed.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

ok I am going to see if I can find one low enough. and I dont want to spend 50 bucks on a refractometer but Ill see what we can do I am getting the salt now.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

Hi all I went to a lfs and they heard me talking about mudskippers and said they would order some for me and a few archerfish and they will be coming in on thurs. I have a small 30 gallon canister filter running in the fish tank right now but I ordered one from my lfs and it will also be here thurs. then I am going to buy the canister filter on thurs and let it run in my tank for a week and get my fish then on the next thurs. so the only problem I have now is getting the fish adjusted to the tank but Ill deal with that later. thanks to all of the people commenting on these questions I have asked my tank is coming to gether and I would like to thank all of you for the help. 

my next big project is a turtle tank but that is coming up in a month.

thanks 
turtleboy


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## OCtrackiepacsg1 (Oct 18, 2009)

I'm not sure if an archer fish can fit in a 30g but I'm not an expert on that. 
I use floating hydrometers for my tank. They fairly cheap to. My petco sells them, if you don't see it, you can buy it online for a small shipping cost. They look like this
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41yU7NVzZOL._SL500_AA280_.jpg


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

Ive got the salt thing figured out. thanks and its going into a 55 gallon for now. ok I found a lfs to ship in my fish. I am getting 3 mudskippor ers 1 archer unknown# of scats and 1 or two dragon fish.

they are all comming in thurs along with my filter.


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## OCtrackiepacsg1 (Oct 18, 2009)

I hope that tanks cycled. I'm not sure if that'd upset your bioload if someone can verify that..BML!!


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

I am going to add the fish slowly and its been running for almost a week now. Im hooking up a better filter on thurs and Im gonna add the skippers first because they live in dirty water.
and also does anyone know of any types of brackish water plants and where to get them. and would pothos be ok living in the sand.

thanks turttleboy


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

also would it be a good idea to put a tube in the ground to simmulate a mudskipper burrow. and would I make one for the males and females or just the males?


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## OCtrackiepacsg1 (Oct 18, 2009)

plants for brackish..well this site can help you, I currently have swords in my brackish tank at 1.005 and I'd thought they'd die but their doing okay actually
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=143235
Tubes..I don't see why not, PVC pipes work


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

but like is it needed to make them happy or what?


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

turttleboy said:


> I am going to add the fish slowly and its been running for almost a week now. Im hooking up a better filter on thurs and Im gonna add the skippers first because they live in dirty water.


I would go buy a product called Stability and use that. Your tank is not cycled after a week, especially without a means to cycle it. Your fish can live in dirty water, not poisonous water. 

I tell you this because I am sure you don't want to loose your new and expensive fish.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

what does stability do??


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

It is a bottle of bacteria. It is the bacteria that is needed to turn ammonia, which is poisionous, into nitrates, which are not (in low amounts). Fish give off ammonia, similar to the way you urinate. There is no way that your tank built up enough of these bacteria naturally in a week.


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## Guest (Jan 14, 2010)

To clarify, there are several species of good bacteria that are essential to a fish tank, and that is why you must cycle a tank. The bacteria of the nitrogen cycle turn ammonia into nitrite, and then nitrite into nitrate.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

Ok good I already put that in a week ago. I am going to go get my filter i an hour. and I am going to go get the skippers on Saturday. [and all of the other cool fish]

thanks and any Ideas on the burrows for them Becouse I am scared they go into the pipes and not be able to get back out.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2010)

turttleboy, you are moving too quickly. THere is no point in adding the bacteria without a filter. You need the filter in, then add the bacteria (following the directions), and the cycle could take 1week-1month to be complete. With the continual addition of products like Stability you can add fish in 1 week I believe.

Just use some PVC, and build it in a way that they wouldn't get caught lol. Maybe put an end cap on the PVC so they don't get caught underneath it.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

I have a filter. ok I am going to set up the burrow tonight. I have had a filter running for a week and I put in the bacteria the night I got the filter. I am a little angry because my skippers didnt come in. there not commin in until next week. but my archers and scats came in so I am going to get them on saterday. and I got a 75 gallon tank filter for 200 dollars. and it works perfectly.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2010)

Okay, my bad, I didn't know you already had a filter. If you're adding a new one, you might want to put some of the filter media from the old one in the new one.

THink of it as a good thing. This way you know you will be completely prepared when you're critters come in.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

I already hooked up the old filter onto a turtletank. but I am going to put some more bacteria into the tank. and I keep on purposley stirring up the sand and gravel so the filter will suck up the dirt and when I went to go do so today no dirt came out of the gravel so I am hoping it will stay that way. and I know it will if I stay ontop of cleaning it. 
and question is there an automatic live food feeder for the skippers? becouse I am not always here.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

I am going to go get the archers and scats in the morning. I will post picks in the morning if I can. I know they try to shoot small bright lights [matches] when seen so I am going to do some experimenting as well.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

ok I am an hour away frome getting the fish and the temp in the tank went down about 5-9 degrees I dont know why. its a 300 watt heater submersable and its light is on I turned the flow of the filter down a little and Ill see if that will bring it up. what is wrong.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Did it get colder in your house?

Also to point out in the above conversation, Stability lets you add fish right away. In a freshwater tank, it would allow you to stop adding more Stability in a week. In a tank with salt, you may want to go a little longer.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

If anythng it got hotter I am going to get a new heater becouse the temp went up then backdown and then up and down again I can not rely on these its driving me nuts. note to self never buy electronics off of ebay.


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## Guest (Jan 16, 2010)

What sized heater? the higher the water flow the more consistent your temp will be. also make sure the thermometer is not near the heater.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

the thermomiter is at the other end I am leaving in 15 minits. I went and got a heater that I hooked up to my filter and it is at about 68 degrees and rising.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

Hi all I have my 2 archers and two scats the heating prob is figured out but one of my archets has a pink to back fin and I dont know if its a disease or what. and if its bad what can I do? the lady said to bring it back if it croaks.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Good thing she said that; you're going to be having some problems.

68 degrees and you still went and got the fish? Huge mistake. A temperature shock like that will NOT make your fish happy, and will likely lead to a disease problem.

Don't get dragonfish unless you are ready to feed them the foods they need to survive and do so in the way they need it. They also need a sandy bottom. They eat by sifting big mouthfuls of sand and picking out the food bits.

Mudskippers tend to climb on everything, and if they don't have something like a bunch of bamboo sticks or rocks or whatever, they'll climb the sides of the tank, maybe even climbing out of it.

Brackish water tanks have a higher pH than most freshwater ones, or SHOULD have if you're foing things right. The downside is that any ammonia will be much more dangerous at these higher pH levels than what you may be used to. This makes a new brackish tank a very unsafe place for a fish. Use Stability, correctly, and do it quickly.

The redness sounds like a type of infection, but it's hard to tell without a picture. It might clear up, or it might get much worse. Under the brutal conditions of a brand new tank, any improvement would be something of a miracle.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

the lady said to bring it back if he is not active so I am going to do so and correction the temp went up before I put them in or even got them. and I already put the stability. the other two fish I have are good to go so I guess the tank is ok. I tested the ph on mon and wed to see if it was going in the direction. I am leaving in 2 min to get the archers frome a different store. I will try to post some pics as soon as possible becouse were putting on the lights and lid tonight or tom for sure. I will post before and after pics.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

the fish are being acclimated. I am going to mess with the pics and see what I can do.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

Ok here is a possible problem I have two scats in with eachother there about 3 inches long and oone seems to be chasing the other off and I was wondering if it is becouse the one chasing the other is a male and the one being chased is female. if so how do I tell the difference and should I put another female in with them.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

well last night I put a large login it and some plants in it [fake]as well and they stopped arguing today.


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

With stability and constant water changes you can cycle the tank with fish in it. Just make sure you have like two bottles of the stuff on hand just in case use as directed


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

the tank is now fully sicled but I dont know when the skippers are comming in but I will post when they do.


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## turttleboy (Dec 30, 2009)

my mudskippers came in and they are beautiful.


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