So, this section of the forum doesn't look like it gets heavy use??? thinking about setting up a brackish tank...

[Magnum Man]

So, I ended up with a new 55 gallon, this was to replace one of my old tanks, if the sanitize from the rainbow, suspected TB did not go well, it seems to have... leaving me a brand new 55 gallon tank, and no place right now to put it... 30 years ago, I did try a brackish tank, along with a handful of salt water tanks... this was before the internet... now I'm thinking something like @WhistlingBadger 's, where I could do a few mud skippers on the land part, and a few brackish fish, in the water part, and following my normal theme, add a handful of mangroves... I don't have a place for the tank, until Mrs. gets sick of looking at it, empty, against the wall in the dining room, so nothing happening right away, but open to suggestions in the build, and stocking areas, for the future...

 

[anewbie]

I wouldn't set it up brackish; if you do it will be awful salty.

 

[Magnum Man]

meaning??? If I used My RO water, not my hard well water and the prescribed amount of sea salt...

thinking skippers, and maybe a couple scats, mono's and or chromides, or similar...

thinking about laying a piece of plate glass, at an angle... maybe 30 -45 degrees, with the top ending 6-8 inches from one end, giving 30-40 gallons of water... fill under the glass with expanding foam, and silicone it in place, water tight, then use silicone to stick pebbles: rocks, and gravel on the tank side

 

[Archerfish]

Great idea! I had brackish water tanks for years. They are amazing. Scats etc get big. Do some research. Skippers are amazing but territorial. Even in a 55. I had several brackish water tanks. One had bumble bee gobies, a couple of others had skippers and I still have my Archerfish. I will have to go back to my records and look at all I kept back then. Red Mangroves are fantastic too. I am attaching an image of a red mangrove I started from a propagule about 20 years ago. It fills my sunroom now! They are great with mudskippers. Let me know when you are ready to start. I will be happy to share lessons learned. Brackish systems are probably the most misunderstood of aquariums. They are very unusual and quite the conversation piece. I just reread your post (above) regarding the glass. I tried that and what happens over time is the water (it will get in there) and the skippers will 'eliminate' on the sand or gravel turning it foul and it becomes difficult to clean. Consider using a fine mesh screen at the very bottom to allow you to pour water onto and flush the beach area. It works great. Again, a lesson learned. Good luck!

 

[anewbie]

meaning??? If I used My RO water, not my hard well water and the prescribed amount of sea salt...

Well I think it is obvious - if you put salt in ro water it ends up salty; take a taste

 

[Back in the fold]

Too much work fiddling around maintaining a constant and stable salinity . If you want brackish then get some Mollies and tell yourself they’re in brackish water . Neither of you will know or care .

 

[Archerfish]

But that is the beauty of brackish. It is a dynamic environment. The specific gravity of the water is ever changing. And the species are very tolerant. So much misunderstanding out there about brackish water environments.