How To Convert To Brackish?

[TylerFerretLord]

I want to eventually convert my 29g to a brackish livebearer tank, but I have a few questions.

How should I do it? Do I just add the salt when I do a water change? Or do I have to slowly convert?
Will the tank cycle again from different bacteria being needed?
Can the change hurt my fish?


Thanks in advance!

 

[theotheragentm]

If you already have fish, you definitely want to do it slowly. You're going to want to get a hydrometer so you can measure the salt content. You want to use marine salt to do this. I don't know the exact amount of salt in a brackish tank, but the more gradual you can make the change, the better it will be for the fish. What kind of fish are there? Mollies?

 

[TylerFerretLord]

If you already have fish, you definitely want to do it slowly. You're going to want to get a hydrometer so you can measure the salt content. You want to use marine salt to do this. I don't know the exact amount of salt in a brackish tank, but the more gradual you can make the change, the better it will be for the fish. What kind of fish are there? Mollies?

All the livebearers in my tank(probably more by then ).
I plan to do weak brackish with high ph.

 

[dunchp]

If you already have fish, you definitely want to do it slowly. You're going to want to get a hydrometer so you can measure the salt content. You want to use marine salt to do this. I don't know the exact amount of salt in a brackish tank, but the more gradual you can make the change, the better it will be for the fish. What kind of fish are there? Mollies?

All the livebearers in my tank(probably more by then ).
I plan to do weak brackish with high ph.

Looking at your list of fish, I would suggest that you rehouse all the fish except the mollies; move the mollies into a separate small tank and the just set up the tank as a brackish tank. You can then acclimatise the mollies gradually before adding them back in.

I am not sure whether the plec has any tolerance to salt?

 

[lilfishie]

plecos cannot tolerate salt, it burns there skin or something as they are scaleless

 

[TylerFerretLord]

If you already have fish, you definitely want to do it slowly. You're going to want to get a hydrometer so you can measure the salt content. You want to use marine salt to do this. I don't know the exact amount of salt in a brackish tank, but the more gradual you can make the change, the better it will be for the fish. What kind of fish are there? Mollies?

All the livebearers in my tank(probably more by then ).
I plan to do weak brackish with high ph.

Looking at your list of fish, I would suggest that you rehouse all the fish except the mollies; move the mollies into a separate small tank and the just set up the tank as a brackish tank. You can then acclimatise the mollies gradually before adding them back in.

I am not sure whether the plec has any tolerance to salt?

plecos cannot tolerate salt, it burns there skin or something as they are scaleless

I certainly don't plan to kill my plec by trying to change him to brackish! Once I get another tank (going to do angels, for my mother, most likely, ) I'll move him. ALso, I shee very distinct ctenoid scales on my plec, he certainly isn't scaleless!

 

[dunchp]

If you already have fish, you definitely want to do it slowly. You're going to want to get a hydrometer so you can measure the salt content. You want to use marine salt to do this. I don't know the exact amount of salt in a brackish tank, but the more gradual you can make the change, the better it will be for the fish. What kind of fish are there? Mollies?

All the livebearers in my tank(probably more by then ).
I plan to do weak brackish with high ph.

Looking at your list of fish, I would suggest that you rehouse all the fish except the mollies; move the mollies into a separate small tank and the just set up the tank as a brackish tank. You can then acclimatise the mollies gradually before adding them back in.

I am not sure whether the plec has any tolerance to salt?

plecos cannot tolerate salt, it burns there skin or something as they are scaleless

I certainly don't plan to kill my plec by trying to change him to brackish! Once I get another tank (going to do angels, for my mother, most likely, ) I'll move him. ALso, I shee very distinct ctenoid scales on my plec, he certainly isn't scaleless!

Well if you are going for a bracking tank for livebearers, try Anableps, they are a very interesting fish and great characters.

 

[lilfishie]

oops me getting mixed up with loaches, but they still can't tolerate salt but do have scales lol

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Bym some of the posts here you seem to be making it sound like livebearers other than mollies can't be kept in brackish. Is this true?

If it is, I'll just make the tank high-ph. I want a livebearer tank.