My Brackish Tank...

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jennybugs

Eternally pruned fingers!
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Feb 10, 2007
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With permanently pruned fingers, I would now like to introduce you all to Blue Oyster Bay - A tank in the making!

Juwel Rekord 120
120L
101 x 31 x 46 cm
1x30W T8 lighting
100W heater (soon to be changed for a Rena Smartheater 150W)
Juwel internal filter (soon to add either an Eheim Aquaball of an external set up)
Silver sand
JBL AquaBasics Plus plant substrate
Low end brackish to house 1xTetraodon Biocellatus - Figure8 Puffer and 10xBrachygobius spp. - Bumblebee Goby.
Vallisnera
Java Fern
Anubias nana
Moss balls
Java Moss bamboo hollow log
Bog wood (currently soaking)
Lace rock and assorted rock pieces
Ceramic Beetle ornament (to house moonlight blue led) to be covered with java moss

The tank
36.jpg

The goodies
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Lace rock to keep the KH up in the high numbers
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Family moss
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Free MTS to keep the silver sand aerated
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My brackish water bible
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TBC... :D

Filter set up next...
bottom layer medium coarse sponge
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Then the top layer - top to bottom - filter wool, carbon sponge, nitrate removal sponge, coarse sponge
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heater slots in filter too
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pump is in next
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easy access to the heater settings
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Major soaking for this beastie!
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plant substrate goes in with a gap round the front and sides so you can't see it
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silver sand (thoroughly rinsed) on top
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TBC...

Rocks and ornament next
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Followed by family moss
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Plants in - temporary aquascaping - bog wood to follow
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Just add water...
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and more plants with the blue background (looked better than black and opened out the tank more) and the lighting
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A non conformist moss ball
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Will look great when the mooonlights go in
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moss log
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moss balls and java fern in temporary residence
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...

Here's the FTS for you
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It was lots of work, and took several hours but I am happy so far! Lots more to do yet with aquascaping - getting more rocks etc to create hiding places for the BBGs and interest for the puffer.
I'm cycling with mature filter media and danios for a while in freshwater, on the recommendation of Wholesale Tropicals (tank etc purchased from them). I've picked out my puffer and reserved 10 BBGs and they're happy to look after them til the parameters are acceptable. In the meantime, the mature sponges are going in today with the fish.

I spent Eleventy Hundred pounds and still have more to buy, but this is really exciting me!

Hope you enjoy my diary with me :D
 
Good job! :good:

The moss balls and the vallis look great, I'm sure the fish will appreciate the tank.

Make sure you keep us updated.
 
I certainly will! It's got a long way to go but the fish have been reserved so it's down to wood soaking and parameter checks in the mean time :lol:
 
It looks nice, (bar the car) and that ive never ever had a piece of Mopani wood last more than a month or 2 in Brackish before it started to rot or get covered with slime mould..
 
It looks nice, (bar the car) and that ive never ever had a piece of Mopani wood last more than a month or 2 in Brackish before it started to rot or get covered with slime mould..

my zebra nerite snails loved the stuff, ate it as it was growing. Then i took them out and my wood was covered in it about 2 days later lol
 
Not decided if the car will stay yet or not tbh. I have a madness for aircooled dubs and own a classic bug myself :rolleyes:
As for the bogwood, I'll try it and see. I have another tank they can both go in if I decide it doesn't work out/I don't like the overall look. I'm very much a fan of natural looking tanks and have to admit I'm struggling with having something unnatural in the tank. :blink:
 
if it is going to be covered in java moss, you wont be able to tell what it is anyway lol
 
what are those things to stir the sand?

Malasian trumpet snails (MTS), as they burrow through the sand they turn it over, meant to prevent air pockets forming and eating any waste food. I used to have them in my tank, until I introduced loaches. Still amazes me when I turn over sand manually how many shells I pull out.
 
Will the MTS be ok with an F8 puffer? I know their shells are very hard and would hate for it to get hurt by them when I finally get it home. :unsure:

My DPs just suck the flesh out of the shells if I accidentally get one in their tank.
 
Tank looks great! I really like the theme -- very unusual, but the pseudo-real world-look works. Some tanks can really pull off the ornament thing. I've seen tanks with Grecian urns with airstones inside them, and the bubbles coming out of them look really nice. Artificial, but nice. Anyway, I think your aquarium looks good.

Bit worried about the lighting though. IME, a single standard aquarium lighting tube isn't enough for plants to do well, or even hang in there. Anubias might get by, but that's about it. The Vallisneria certainly won't. So I suspect you'll need to at least double the amount of light.

On the flip side, as soon as you get enough light for the Vallisneria to do well, the Anubias will get covered in algae. Anubias is adapted to shady environments, and almost always does best planted under something rather than in the open.

Wholesale Trops is one of my favourite stores in London. Always manage to find something nice. Do keep your eyes peels in the livebearers/killifish section. Any of the small but robust species would work well with Figure-8s and gobies. Xenotoca eiseni (too much a fin-nipper for the average tank) for example, or the Florida Flagfish (great algae eaters, by the way).

Cheers, Neale

PS Melanoides snails generally maintain their populations reasonably well in tanks with puffers. Does depend on how hungry the puffers are, but most puffers seem not to attack adult Melanoides even if they do take the juveniles. Sometimes they just bite the foot off the poor snail, killing it, but not crunching up the shell, which is what we want them to do!
 
Great looking tank :good: even though im not much of an artificial person, that car doesnt look TOO bad in there :lol:
The marimo moss balls, vallis and that bogwood look great in there :D Nice job!
See you soon
 

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