Switching to brackish water

[ryanm19]

ok, hey im pretty new to this but right now i have a 20 gallon freshwater tank with some cleaning fish in it and 1 molly. ive been wanting to switch to a brackish tank and i just want to know what steps i should do to do this. im guessing ill have to get rid of my fish in the tank now so they dont die. i am also thinking about getting some figure 8 puffers after the conversion to brackish water is complete. So if anyone has anything that would help me in switching to brackish water i would appreciate it.

thanks for the help

 

[f8fan]

Welcome to MFT

I'd check out the Brackish section, namely this article:http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/brackish-discussion/35372-brackish-tanks-guide.html

You need to slowly do the conversion. Go purchase some marine salt and a hydrometer (an instrument that measures salinity) and slowly raise your salinity .002 per couple weeks or so. The reason you need to do it so slowly is so that your beneficial bacteria can convert itself from freshwater to marine.

Make sure to thoroughly mix the salt in the replacement water (don't dump straight salt in the tank ).

Also - here's another article about brackish tanks that I really like:http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html

Good luck! Feel free to PM me or post questions about brackish tanks in the brackish forum...I always love to see another brackish tank keeper around here

 

[Orion]

That article probably says it, but I'll say it too. Adding Freshwater Aquarium Salt to a freshwater tank will not make it brackish. Only marine salt makes a brackish tank. Easy to get confused, but makes all the difference. Good luck!

 

[ryanm19]

So raising the salinity .002 every couple weeks is like how much per gallon of water? im guessing very little, but how many grams or table spoons or whatever is that

 

[f8fan]

So raising the salinity .002 every couple weeks is like how much per gallon of water? im guessing very little, but how many grams or table spoons or whatever is that

It's really all covered in the sticky I linked you to, but here's a quote:

Converting from Freshwater to Brackish Water
Converting with fish : This is assuming that you bought your fish from your LFS in freshwater. It is very important that you do not increase the salinity of your aquarium water by more than .002ppt (SG) at a time. Too much of a salt increase will badly stress out the fish and may kill your beneficial bacteria. First of all it is best to pre-mix your saltwater the day before doing water changes, and use an air stone or power head to mix/oxygenate the water. Do a 50% water change, add pre-mixed saltwater to tank slowly. Now, some people and articles say to do this weekly until you have reached your desired salinity, I personally suggest only increasing your salinity monthly to give your fish and beneficial bacteria time to adjust to the increasing salt levels. However you should still do weekly water changes, being sure to match your new SG each time. Then the next month, increase your SG .002 again, continue doing this each month until you have reached your desired salinity.
How to Calculate SG:
Example: 10gal Tank
Starting Water SG Level:1.000
Goal SG Level: 1.002
Pre-mix SG Level: 1.004
Multiply goal SG by 2 since you are doing 50% water change and this gives you what your pre-mix SG level should be, in this case it is 1.004.

Play with your hydrometer & replacement water by adding a tablespoon at a time to get a feel for how it increases the salinity

I'd really spend a little time reading some threads in the Brackish section of MFT. There are a lot of similar situations as yours there, and I bet you would learn a lot of background in brackish tanks. http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/brackish-discussion/

 

[ryanm19]

ok sorry for not investigating on my own
but thanks this looks like it will answer all my problems, thanks again