Removing salt from brackish tank

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Sublimer

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
38
Location
Lubbock/Fort Worth, TX
Would I have to basically remove all the water? I wanna make my brackish tank into a freshwater tank without having to take absolutely everything out
 
When I upgraded my brackish tank to a bigger tank, I made the old tank back into a freshwater setup. I did a lot of water changes back to back, but I left the substrate and decor in. I just emptied it as much as I could, filled it back up with water, emptied it again, and so on until my hydrometer couldn't pick up any more salt in the water. It was a 20 gallon tank and I probably emptied it seven or eight times. It took a few hours, but I was able to make the change in a single evening. If i remember correctly i was running a salinity of around 1.015-1.0018 at the time so if you are running a more low end brackish tank it might not take so long. Then I rinsed my filter and put new media in it (I moved the old media to the filters on the larger tank) and started cycling it for freshwater.
 
Sounds fair enough. Mine is set at a SG of 1.008 so it shouldn't be too bad. I was just worried that the salt would be permanently settled into the substrate. Lord knows I'm not washing that much sand again lol
 
Sounds fair enough. Mine is set at a SG of 1.008 so it shouldn't be too bad. I was just worried that the salt would be permanently settled into the substrate. Lord knows I'm not washing that much sand again lol

You pretty much have to, but you can leave the sand in the tank, haha. Just be sure to stir it up nicely when you fill it back up, then drain, fill, and stir it up again before you start the process over. 1.008 will probably be pretty easy to remove, but just be sure to test the water after every few rinses to see how much more you have to do. I just wish I had had a python when I did mine - I had to use buckets! Must have made 30 trips from my tank in my bedroom to the bathroom.
 
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