brackish setup

I'm considering (just considering!) setting up a brackish water tank for a mudskipper. What extra equipment, if any, do I need for brackish? Are there any pitfalls, as a complete freshie, that I should be looking out for? Is it easy enough to attain the right parameters? Any help would be appreciated.

Ian is the guy to talk to about every kind of setup
Actually, him and David Attenborough are what's inspired me to consider this. Ian gave a very interesting talk on some of the less water bound fish a while back. Attenborough wasn't at that meeting, but he did make a documentary recently that put mudskippers back on my mind.

This was a nice article on them . Telling about water conditions ect.
www.fishchannel.com/freshwater-aquariums...kipper-habitats.aspx
Also i would consider an autp top off for any evaporation or at the very least a mark on the tank for refilling with RO water every day or 2.
My friend has one of these , really cool so they are.

For equipment needed use this link.
badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html

I've kept brackish tanks before..What size tank you using .lot of brackish fish grow big .since your tank will be only half full to allow for mudskippers.id go for figure eight puffer or orange chrome.scats grow big monos take long time to grow but to a decent size.also both these need full marine eventually.If the tank is big enough archers are great and stay brackish.would have them in my top ten fish of all time.Good look with set up.Heard of a lad that had a tide in his tank which went out to a container and was timed to come back in.cant remember were I read it.Four eyed fish can't think of real name starts with a....... meant to be great for brackish tank,but get to big to have a group in a standard size setup

I'm an fool article about tide is on this site under breeding four eyed fish.great read .

dubdero wrote:

I've kept brackish tanks before..What size tank you using .lot of brackish fish grow big .since your tank will be only half full to allow for mudskippers.id go for figure eight puffer or orange chrome.scats grow big monos take long time to grow but to a decent size.also both these need full marine eventually.If the tank is big enough archers are great and stay brackish.would have them in my top ten fish of all time.Good look with set up.Heard of a lad that had a tide in his tank which went out to a container and was timed to come back in.cant remember were I read it.Four eyed fish can't think of real name starts with a....... meant to be great for brackish tank,but get to big to have a group in a standard size setup

It's an 80L tank and it'll have just one small mudskipper, if I decide to do it. Probably nothing else in it but that. I like the idea of a tide. I might make up a DIY surge system for it

I also want to know if I was to use premixed marine water from somewhere like SH, would I be able to just mix that with conditioned tap water at home, using a hydrometer to get the salinity right?

I'd just buy a bag of salt and do it yourself with tap water I'd no issue. Use the hydrometer .Dont see the point of back and forth to seahorse. I'd use a 25 litre drum fill it with water use usual conditioners.Add salt and add an air stone to help mix it..Good look and post pictures.

dubdero wrote:

I'd just buy a bag of salt and do it yourself with tap water I'd no issue. Use the hydrometer .Dont see the point of back and forth to seahorse. I'd use a 25 litre drum fill it with water use usual conditioners.Add salt and add an air stone to help mix it..Good look and post pictures.

Will do. Though I've been informed it might be a while before they're in stock, so I have plenty of time to plan first.

Personall i would buy a refratometer from ebay they are cheap as buttons and then you can make sure on a stable SG.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RHS-10ATC-Salinity-Re...&hash=item1e8b536cb6
I dont rate the hydrometer but just my preference . Look forward to seeing your setup
Also if you had the chance RO water would be better to use.Also buy a bag of salt yourself and mix it up with ro and a pump in with it until it disolves and a heater from what temp you want easy.

Cheers guys. Once the shop gets back to me about availability I'll start preparing the setup; bogwood, designing an area for a small beach etc

Looking forward to another interesting set up, you do like to mix it up

Q_Comets wrote:

Looking forward to another interesting set up, you do like to mix it up

I'm not setting up tanks for aesthetic reasons any more. I really don't have the eye for it. Instead, I'm setting them up with fish I find fascinating. Funnily enough, if I go ahead with this tank then 3 out of my 4 tanks will have have uniquely evolved specialists; the others being blind cave tetras and hillstream loaches

Ok, so it looks like I'll be able to set up my brackish tank sooner than I expected. Question though...
I'm thinking of making a v small wet/dry trickle filter that will sit on top of the glass cover. This will drain into a pipe that will empty into a pea gravel beach I'll make, thereby somewhat disguising the plumbing. Another possible advantage is that the beach also becomes a biological filter without dirt or anaerobic black spots building up. I was thinking of also putting a fine layer of coral sand on the aquarium floor, more to buffer than anything else. Any thoughts?

Sooooooo, another question...
The mudskippers I'll be acquiring are currently in fresh water in the shop but I want to run my tank as brackish. If I was to start my tank as fresh but with the first water change, I was to replace the water removed with brackish (approx. 25%) and continue that practice, would that be an adequate way to acclimatise them to brackish water?

I'm no expert and therefore am only giving opinion, I would have thought tho that 25 % might be a slightly high jump for first introduction to salt? Maybe start with a 10% add then an additional 10% a day or so later??? I'm not sure how quickly they would change location in the wild to be honest so I could be way off the mark

LemonJelly wrote:

Sooooooo, another question...
The mudskippers I'll be acquiring are currently in fresh water in the shop but I want to run my tank as brackish. If I was to start my tank as fresh but with the first water change, I was to replace the water removed with brackish (approx. 25%) and continue that practice, would that be an adequate way to acclimatise them to brackish water?

if the mudskippers come in fresh water is 1.000 so first day have him in that .second day add some salt and make it to 1.001 then 0.002 more each day until you have reached your target level . Have you decided what sg you will run at ? My friend i asked him and he runs at 1.010

LemonJelly wrote:

Ok, so it looks like I'll be able to set up my brackish tank sooner than I expected. Question though...
I'm thinking of making a v small wet/dry trickle filter that will sit on top of the glass cover. This will drain into a pipe that will empty into a pea gravel beach I'll make, thereby somewhat disguising the plumbing. Another possible advantage is that the beach also becomes a biological filter without dirt or anaerobic black spots building up. I was thinking of also putting a fine layer of coral sand on the aquarium floor, more to buffer than anything else. Any thoughts?

I would think a layer of coral sand would do perfect and as you said help for the buffer. Really looking forward to seeing this tank

hammie wrote:

I'm no expert and therefore am only giving opinion, I would have thought tho that 25 % might be a slightly high jump for first introduction to salt? Maybe start with a 10% add then an additional 10% a day or so later??? I'm not sure how quickly they would change location in the wild to be honest so I could be way off the mark

Apparently they can get some pretty good swings in salinity in the wild but I don't want to stress them more than I have to so maybe 10% a week would work out the best. There's also the plants to consider.

ceech wrote:

LemonJelly wrote:

Sooooooo, another question...
The mudskippers I'll be acquiring are currently in fresh water in the shop but I want to run my tank as brackish. If I was to start my tank as fresh but with the first water change, I was to replace the water removed with brackish (approx. 25%) and continue that practice, would that be an adequate way to acclimatise them to brackish water?

if the mudskippers come in fresh water is 1.000 so first day have him in that .second day add some salt and make it to 1.001 then 0.002 more each day until you have reached your target level . Have you decided what sg you will run at ? My friend i asked him and he runs at 1.010

Yeah, 1.010 or thereabouts is what I'd be aiming for. Should I be adding salt directly to the tank? All I've been reading suggests I should always premix.

Yeah, 1.010 or thereabouts is what I'd be aiming for. Should I be adding salt directly to the tank? All I've been reading suggests I should always premix.[/quote]

No i would premix and add. This way you can raise it slowly. So if you add 50% each day and have it ,002 more it will raise by .001 in theory. I think you could take it to 1.010 in 3 0r 4 changes without a problem or you can air on the cautious side and do more water changes but they are tough fish.Dont forget you will also have evapouration so you should have a mark where the level should be for you to top up tank with ro water so SG does not rise. Tunze have auto top unit and this will do it for you Coneected to container of RO or manual works good too

They definitely have a rep for toughness, in more ways than one
The more I read about them, the more I think they're actually going to be easier to keep than alot of other fish. That said, I think I'll use the cautious approach. The mudskippers might be tolerant but I think if I'm too hasty the plants will suffer.

LemonJelly wrote:

They definitely have a rep for toughness, in more ways than one
The more I read about them, the more I think they're actually going to be easier to keep than alot of other fish. That said, I think I'll use the cautious approach. The mudskippers might be tolerant but I think if I'm too hasty the plants will suffer.

Yes for your plants i would be very cautious. You are going to have a lid on this tank ? to keep the air warm and humid in the tank ? Also to stop the fish from escaping :-)You will need to have an opening of some sort in it to stop mould growing also.Small holes in the lid would be fine. I seen this on a website i was reading about them

ceech wrote:

LemonJelly wrote:

They definitely have a rep for toughness, in more ways than one
The more I read about them, the more I think they're actually going to be easier to keep than alot of other fish. That said, I think I'll use the cautious approach. The mudskippers might be tolerant but I think if I'm too hasty the plants will suffer.

Yes for your plants i would be very cautious. You are going to have a lid on this tank ? to keep the air warm and humid in the tank ? Also to stop the fish from escaping :-)You will need to have an opening of some sort in it to stop mould growing also.Small holes in the lid would be fine. I seen this on a website i was reading about them

There'll be a glass sheet over the tank with enough of a gap for various cables, perhaps 1/2 an inch on either end... and a hood. I think it should be nice and humid for them. I was going to make an overhead wet/dry sump system to filter it but I've since come up with a cunning plan for a v cool filtration system

LemonJelly wrote:

ceech wrote:

LemonJelly wrote:

They definitely have a rep for toughness, in more ways than one
The more I read about them, the more I think they're actually going to be easier to keep than alot of other fish. That said, I think I'll use the cautious approach. The mudskippers might be tolerant but I think if I'm too hasty the plants will suffer.

Yes for your plants i would be very cautious. You are going to have a lid on this tank ? to keep the air warm and humid in the tank ? Also to stop the fish from escaping :-)You will need to have an opening of some sort in it to stop mould growing also.Small holes in the lid would be fine. I seen this on a website i was reading about them

There'll be a glass sheet over the tank with enough of a gap for various cables, perhaps 1/2 an inch on either end... and a hood. I think it should be nice and humid for them. I was going to make an overhead wet/dry sump system to filter it but I've since come up with a cunning plan for a v cool filtration system

Do share your great filteration idea
How do you get away with all these tanks . Man i so want another tank. Have my eye on a red sea max s500 but it would mean i would be single lol What bugs me is i have a cracker of a deal on one at the minute and its killing me

To help the plants, would it be worth setting up an auto spray system that dampens the area above the water line every 4 - 5 hours?

hammie wrote:

To help the plants, would it be worth setting up an auto spray system that dampens the area above the water line every 4 - 5 hours?

That actually might be a good idea! I'm sure I could DIY that.

It will get pretty humid also i would imagine with open area in the tank that should also give some moisture. But i would like to see you invention for a spray system.

ceech wrote:

LemonJelly wrote:

ceech wrote:

LemonJelly wrote:

They definitely have a rep for toughness, in more ways than one
The more I read about them, the more I think they're actually going to be easier to keep than alot of other fish. That said, I think I'll use the cautious approach. The mudskippers might be tolerant but I think if I'm too hasty the plants will suffer.

Yes for your plants i would be very cautious. You are going to have a lid on this tank ? to keep the air warm and humid in the tank ? Also to stop the fish from escaping :-)You will need to have an opening of some sort in it to stop mould growing also.Small holes in the lid would be fine. I seen this on a website i was reading about them

There'll be a glass sheet over the tank with enough of a gap for various cables, perhaps 1/2 an inch on either end... and a hood. I think it should be nice and humid for them. I was going to make an overhead wet/dry sump system to filter it but I've since come up with a cunning plan for a v cool filtration system

Do share your great filteration idea
How do you get away with all these tanks . Man i so want another tank. Have my eye on a red sea max s500 but it would mean i would be single lol What bugs me is i have a cracker of a deal on one at the minute and its killing me

I'm keeping the filtration idea under my hat until I give it a test run It's technically nothing new but it should be almost invisible
I get away with the number of tanks because none are huge (the largest is 190L) and because I have them all in the one tiny room, my study. I'm more or less surrounded by fish