Can Someone Hold My Hand?

[oneshot]

I know I only want 2 or 3 archer fish.  I have a 65 gallon tank.  I plan on filling it to 50-ish gallons to leave some room for jumping/spitting.  I know how to get the SG to where I want it.  But my LFS said something about "needing" crushed coral at the bottom for buffering or something.  Do I "need" a substrate?  What other water parameters do I need to be worried about with archers?  More questions to come, but my little one just started crying..... can't ever get anything done, lol.

 

[Munroco]

Archer fish are brackish water fish so you will need some salt in your tank for sure, I'm not sure whether they need particularly hard water so you may not need the crushed coral.

 

[Jeremy180]

Just to clarify, best to use marine salt, not aquarium salt.

 

[Chad]

Just to clarify, best to use marine salt, not aquarium salt.

You beat me to it! 
 
Archers in and of themselves aren't terribly difficult fish to keep but they do have special needs and the main one is quality brackish water.

 

[iliveinazoo]

While Archers are 'shoaling' species in the wild you are likely to have a bad experience if you opt for 2-3 individuals because one will become dominant and harass the others and considerably shorten their lifespans, go with either a singleton or 6 minimum, when I had mine I only managed to source 4 and that still wasn't enough to alleviate the aggression of the dominant fish.
 
Do you know what species of Archer you will be getting?  The Microlepsis will prefer lower salinities, possibly even hard freshwater but the Jaculatrix and Chatareus will need a little more salt to do well. 
 
Crushed coral or aragonite sand will help to buffer the water's pH so can only be beneficial for a hard water species but if you have naturally hard water and will be able to maintain pH7.5 - pH8 then it will not be necessary.  I would always advise a substrate because it looks more natural and will contain nitrifying bacteria amongst other beneficial microbes that we can't see.

 

[oneshot]

Ok, then I only want a single.  I'll double check with the LFS (they're pretty good actually) but I'm pretty sure they have Juculatrix.  I'll check the natural ph of my water.  Thanks for the info.

 

[oneshot]

So it seems that my tap water has  a ph of 7.4-7.6 ish.  If I do add crushed coral, will that make it too high?

 

[iliveinazoo]

So it seems that my tap water has  a ph of 7.4-7.6 ish.  If I do add crushed coral, will that make it too high?

It wouldn't make it too high, the more alkaline your water the slower the coral will dissolve, the more acidic then the quicker it will dissolve which is why it's good at buffering. Your tank water will become more acidic over time because of the way that nitrifying bacteria works and with the waste that your fish will produce which is why it is so important to change water.

WitH your pH being quite high it does give you the option as to whether you add it or not but please beware of what I've already said above. If you don't want to use it as your substrate then you could put it in a mesh bag and add it to one of your filter compartments?