# Cycling brackish tank



## euRasian32 (May 19, 2005)

What would be the ideal way to start a BW tank?

Cycling brackish water?
Or cycling a FW tank and then adding salt?

I have the same question for salt... I'll post over there if it can't be answered here.

I got a 55 just sitting around begging to be filled. My girl wants a puffer and I really like gobies.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

depends on if the fish you buy are going to be in brackish conditions when you buy them or freshwater conditions when you buy them.


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## euRasian32 (May 19, 2005)

The fish will be brackish, but I would get the fish depending on the answers to my question. If it was possible to cycle a FW and then add salt, I would get the fish once it was done, but if that's not a possibility then I would have to cycle the BW with fish which is what I'm trying to avoid.

I was hoping to use the mother ship (my 125) to jump start the bio cycle, and then add salt.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

well bacteria will only die if you flux the salt content in the water quickly (correct me if I'm wrong). So you could just add salt for two weeks while the cycle goes on in your tank. That way you get to jump start the cycle too.


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## euRasian32 (May 19, 2005)

:fish: 1st: thanks mang


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## FishieNewbie (Jun 27, 2007)

Thats what I'm doing at the moment in my brackish tank , took crabs out of FW conditions and slowly adding salt over the next few weeks to bring it up. From what I'm told it should work nice.


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

FishieNewbie, crabs shouldn't need that long to get acclimated. I acclimate mine over the course of 2 hours using the drip method and then dump them right in. They do just fine. In their natural environment they're fairly adapted to salinity swings and oftentimes go from brackish to fresh even marine conditions.


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## FishieNewbie (Jun 27, 2007)

fishbone said:


> FishieNewbie, crabs shouldn't need that long to get acclimated. I acclimate mine over the course of 2 hours using the drip method and then dump them right in. They do just fine. In their natural environment they're fairly adapted to salinity swings and oftentimes go from brackish to fresh even marine conditions.


Yea I soon come to learn that because of tide changes the salinity changes ALOT and there just fine with it , it goes anywhere from .000 to .018 at times i was told.


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

Yep.
However, acclimating is still a good thing to do due to pH differences and others.


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## Moltenice (Mar 18, 2007)

I added my substrate and got my tank settled, conditioned the water, added the Salt to the correct levels (5.5G per 10 gal for Malawi) and then added Biospira.. 8 days later I added one fish, my Red Zebra...... She sat in there for a couple days then all the others were added.

Worked perfectly, Water was perfect and fish were healthy (this was over a year ago).......


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2008)

didn't mean to post it twice....


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2008)

Moltenice said:


> I added my substrate and got my tank settled, conditioned the water, added the Salt to the correct levels (5.5G per 10 gal for Malawi) and then added Biospira.. 8 days later I added one fish, my Red Zebra...... She sat in there for a couple days then all the others were added.



I didn't know that Malawi's needed "brackish conditions". I thought they were fine in fresh water.


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2008)

Malawians live fine in fw, but the rift lakes are a little salty (I wouldn't call them brackish though....). Most Malawians you buy these days are tank raised, so pure fw is just fine.


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