Brackish biotope- what would you do?

[Cactuspixie]

Hi all, I'm going to have an empty tank soon (just as soon as I transfer its freshwater occupants to a 6ft tank) and would like to have a go at a brackish biotope.

The tank is 36"L x 18"W x 17"H

I don't want livebearers or anything that will grow bigger than 5 inches (I can't keep buying 6ft tanks! lol)

Now I don't know really anything about brackish setups, so feel free to throw any advice, warnings, anecdotes, links, science etc at me. I want to get it right first time!

This is really a blank slate- I will provide whatever substrate, filtration, decor, lighting etc that a specific biotope requires.

 

[Cactuspixie]

feel free to throw any advice, warnings, anecdotes, links, science etc at me. I want to get it right first time!

I have a couple of bags of synthetic marine salt- is that right for brackish?

 

[Smiles982]

Should be ok with that salt. I have my brackish tank for over a yr now and it was a rough start cause not much info out there for brackish. I currently have a 75g with a eshopps wet/dry and a 700gph pump on there. My stock is 4 sun mollies, 5 orange chromides, 4 figure 8 puffers, archer. Stay away from green spotted puffers cause they will need to be in a marine tank down the road. Most brackish fish that I've seen in LFS will get bigger than 5inches. Here is a pic of the tank and my lighting is a fluval ultra bright led.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Should be ok with that salt. I have my brackish tank for over a yr now and it was a rough start cause not much info out there for brackish. I currently have a 75g with a eshopps wet/dry and a 700gph pump on there. My stock is 4 sun mollies, 5 orange chromides, 4 figure 8 puffers, archer. Stay away from green spotted puffers cause they will need to be in a marine tank down the road. Most brackish fish that I've seen in LFS will get bigger than 5inches. Here is a pic of the tank and my lighting is a fluval ultra bright led.

Nice setup! What kind of plants (if any) would I be able to add if I kept it open-topped so the leaves would be above the water line?
I really like gobies, but there doesn't seem tone much variety in my area.
Can you recommend any good sites to do with brackish fish/biotopes?

 

[Smiles982]

I have fake plants cause my puffers for some reason decided to tear my one real plant to test out. I use liveaquaria.com mostly but I usually just google sites to get more info. Real plants are very slim pickings cause of the salt lvls. I had to raise my lvl a bit so I can't have real plants. The only thing that is real is the wood. Now for gobies I can only think of three that would live in brackish, bumblebees, knight gobies and the dragon goby fish but they can get kinda big.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Is it true that blue chromis can (and do) live in brackish water?