Planted Brackish Aquarium

[AdAndrews]

CO2 is not necessary, but it can help. CO2 will make a good planted aquarium better; it doesn't by itself turn around a planted aquarium that isn't working. I've had lots of tanks filled with fast-growing plants and never used CO2; but equally, I've seen some stunning tanks where CO2 was an integral part of the system. It's really your choice.

Cheers, Neale

Can a large 100-120g brackish aquarium be heavily planted and still not need C02? After reading about C02 it sounds very necessary?

as long as you dont have lighting above 2wpg it will be fine as there is enough co2 in tap water that wont be used as regularly as it would in a high light set-up

 

[orcafood]

So the C02 is used in combination with high light to achieve a faster growth rate? Then fertilizer is necessary to maintain that growth rate?

I would really like to get the best out of the setup, would C02 be that much better? I was under the impression that fish expel C02?

 

[iliveinazoo]

and if you *add* fertiliser, isn't that simply going to speed up the growth of algae?

this as i was aware is the "old" thoughts on fertilisers, when years ago people used to starve the plants of NPK, however as EI dosing simply illustrates by making sure that the plants dont go spare of any nutrients they will grow much better, high lighting isnt as essential as people belive, a good fertiliser, substrate, cicrulation flow and decent lights will work out very well. using EI you have to do 50% water changed weekly to make sure nutrients dont " build up" as long as there is excellent water quality and enough nutrients to go around the plants algae wont be able to take place as the water column will be constantly feeding the plants and the clay based substrate will be capturing the nutrients so as to make them availible to heavy root feeders such as crypts.

good luck

Although I agree with what you say and the principal of EI that high levels of nutrients, carbon and lighting = faster growing plants (i only have 1.5W per USG utilising T5 lamps and have noticed a boom in plant growth and almost eradication of algae since I upped my carbon and nutrient dosing) I am sceptical that a slow grower such as anubias - even with the increased growth that EI produces - will outcompete algae.

You still need a few fast growing plants when dosing EI for the very reason that they will stave off algae growth and are better equipped to take in the extra nutrients.

EI is also desinged to be used in under-stocked tanks, therefore you can decrease the levels of nitrate and phosphate stated depending on the level of life in your tank and whether the fish that you own are classed as messy eaters.
The substrate that you use will also directly affect how much additional water column dosing that you carry out because the substrate itself will leach nutrients in the water for a long time after it is laid.

 

[Infidel_Uk]

ive just been to my LFS , disappointed, they have told me there are NO plants i can keep in a brackish tank, despite me asking for vallis , so now im confused, ive read so many times on here there ARE a small handful of plants i can keep...

guys , whats a man to do !

 

[nmonks]

There's no such thing as "a" brackish tank. It's not a like a freshwater aquarium or a marine aquarium where there's really just one set of conditions in either case. Brackish water aquaria cover a spectrum of conditions, from around 10% seawater salinity through to around 50% seawater salinity. Many plants will thrive at the low end but die at the high end.

So rather than ask, "what plants can I keep in a brackish water aquarium", ask instead "at SG 1.003 at 25 C, what plants will do well".

Cheers, Neale

 

[Infidel_Uk]

cheers neale , ive looked round on here and ive decided i want to get some vallis ?

by salinity will be at the lower end, f8 puffs and bumble bees you see, also my temps 26 c

 

[nmonks]

If you download and play with my Brack Calc application you can explore the relationship between salinity, specific gravity and temperature. The key thing is salinity, you see, not specific gravity; it just so happens specific gravity is easy to measure, but one salinity will have lots of different specific gravity readings depending on the temperature.

At 25 degrees C, which is fine (ideal, in fact) for most tropical fish a salinity of 6 ppt (18% normal seawater salinity) will be ample for figure-8 puffers and tolerated well by the larger Vallisneria species like V. americana.

Cheers, Neale

 

[orcafood]

Do you know of anyone who has a planted brackish?

 

[orcafood]

Are there any plants that would make a nice green carpet look in a 1.003 sg tank?
Any red plants that I could possibly use?

 

[orcafood]

while i know little about brackish i would like to suggest what i would do. for a brackish aquarium i personally feel that the plants suitable are the so called "easy plants" your anubias', crypts and ferns. considering this i would keep things very low key, no co2, lower light of about 1-1.5 wpg, but still a nice rich substrate as long as you have no fish that like to dig, substrate wise there are many options and it all depends on budget, but one thing i would recommend strongly is the use of fertilisers, you can make an all in one solution(i can give you the recipe if you require) or my personal favourite tpn+ availible from aqua essentials and the green machine, basically tpn+ is an all i one fert that you can dose however frequently you want, it says on the bottle once a week, but for the higher tech planters we do once a day, i dose 2ml on a low tech 54litre planted tank which is heavily planted daily. but even this can be cheap, for instance a 500ml bottle costs just over £15.

thanks

Adam

What is that formula for the all in one fertilizer that you have? Cheaper then the tpn+?

 

[AdAndrews]

while i know little about brackish i would like to suggest what i would do. for a brackish aquarium i personally feel that the plants suitable are the so called "easy plants" your anubias', crypts and ferns. considering this i would keep things very low key, no co2, lower light of about 1-1.5 wpg, but still a nice rich substrate as long as you have no fish that like to dig, substrate wise there are many options and it all depends on budget, but one thing i would recommend strongly is the use of fertilisers, you can make an all in one solution(i can give you the recipe if you require) or my personal favourite tpn+ availible from aqua essentials and the green machine, basically tpn+ is an all i one fert that you can dose however frequently you want, it says on the bottle once a week, but for the higher tech planters we do once a day, i dose 2ml on a low tech 54litre planted tank which is heavily planted daily. but even this can be cheap, for instance a 500ml bottle costs just over £15.

thanks

Adam

What is that formula for the all in one fertilizer that you have? Cheaper then the tpn+?

its cheaper in the long run as about £35 can make something stupid like 6 litres of it, but short term ie a year it would be better to just get tpn+ anyways the formula is this:
48g Potassium Nitrate
2.2g Potassium Phosphate (monobasic)
17g Magnesium Sulphate Heptahydrate (Epsom Salts)
5g Aqua Essentials Trace Elements Mix
0.5g E300 Ascorbic Acid
0.2g E202 Potassium Sorbate
500ml distilled water

you can shop around but if it were me i would get the E202 and E300 from the home brew shop, water(RO) from lfs, epsom salts from a chemist, and the rest from aqua essentials

good luck

 

[nmonks]

Lilaeopsis tolerate slightly brackish water well, but they need a LOT of light.

Your best bet for red plants are reddish-brown species of Cryptocoryne. Most truly red plants need very strong light, so bear than in mind when setting up the tank.

Cheers, Neale

 

[orcafood]

What product available in the US would you recommend in place of tpn+?

 

[iliveinazoo]

Are there any plants that would make a nice green carpet look in a 1.003 sg tank?
Any red plants that I could possibly use?

Nymphae lotus (tiger lilly) is a nice red plant, IME it needs high ferts and additional carbon though, mine's doing well with continuous growth at 1.5W per USG but i reckon with more lighting it would thrive.

 

[orcafood]

The one essential thing for a planted aquarium is strong lighting; I'd also argue a decent (iron-rich) substrate like pond soil goes a long way to making planted tanks easier to set up and maintain, though some might argue the point. CO2 is a luxury.

It's best to let plants settle down at a low salinity, say SG 1.002 at 25 C, to start with. Most should handle that fine. For archerfish, gobies, figure-8s and livebearers, SG 1.003 should be fine, and SG 1.005 is ample. That gives you lots of scope for choosing suitable plants. There's a nice pinned topic here, and there are further comments on my FAQ as well as in the Aqualog book to guide you through the choices of species. Slow-growing species like Java fern and Anubias will have zero impact on algae, so don't change things around just to grow them! What you need a fast-growing species that will use up the nitrate and actively suppress the growth of algae. Vallisneria and Hygrophila would be ideal at the low salinity end, while ambitious aquarists with very strong lighting (2-3 watts/gallon) could opt for things like Samolus valerandi, Bacopa monnieri, padded out with some Cryptocoryne ciliata and Crinum calamistratum.

Monos are hit-and-miss at low salinity; they can do well, but it helps if you buy them as juveniles rather than sub-adults.

Archers will eat small fish like BBGs, so be careful; do also be aware that Toxotes microlepis is a freshwater species but will do very well at low salinity, and is small enough to be relatively easily kept alongside a range of fish species.

Cheers, Neale

Hey thanks for all your guys help. One last question.
Tell me if this fish list sounds good for a 120 gallon aquarium at 1.003-1.004 SG @ 7

1 Toxotes chatareus
3 Monodactylus sebae
3 Monodactylus argenteus
2-3 figure eight puffers

What fish would be a good idea to use as an algae eater?