Brackish tank cost?

[patola_l]

whats the added cost of running a brackish tank? can anyone with experience fill me in? i was thinking of setting up something around 1.005 salinity, and i know that means marine salt for each WC, but what cost am i looking at to keep that going?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

whats the added cost of running a brackish tank? can anyone with experience fill me in? i was thinking of setting up something around 1.005 salinity, and i know that means marine salt for each WC, but what cost am i looking at to keep that going?

I use Indian Ocean salt (small box is 8.99) and it's about 1/2 full after close to 2 months @ 1.003 SG. The one thing I do recommend is a refractometer to check your SG, it much more accurate than a hydrometer.

Here's the one I got and it works great: NEW! Salinity Refractometer 4 Aquarium Ocean Hydrometer | eBay

 

[patola_l]

how often do you do water changes? and how much %?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

how often do you do water changes? and how much %?

20%, once a week. I'm using a bit more IO since I'm starting to bump the SG up (1.004) now that my puffers are a week in tank.

 

[patola_l]

okay, so overall, your not paying all the much to buy salt, how big is the box (lbs?) ... how long do you think a 10 lb bag would last...my salinity will probably be 1.003-1.004 and im going to shoot for 40% per week WC

 

[Mr. Limpet]

3lbs box from Petco just to get started. You can get it cheaper on-line of course and I have a huge filter for my tank size and so far 20% works really well for me.

Here's my build thread:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f70/new-tank-build-29-gallon-gsp-adventure-147269.html

 

[patola_l]

oh perfect. looks like you dont so much salt after all. how much salt do you add to PWC? i do mine with a 2.5 gal bucket.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

oh perfect. looks like you dont so much salt after all. how much salt do you add to PWC? i do mine with a 2.5 gal bucket.

Normally, 5 tbsps per 5g bucket. But I'm bumping my SG up so this week I did 8 tbsps and the nice thing about brackish is, if it goes up or down a bit, it doesn't hurt since that's what happens in nature anyways . I use my refracto everyday, sometimes twice like this week with the SG bump. It's as important as my API test kit.

FYI: API told me to use the FW test kit for BW.

 

[patola_l]

i think ill start my conversion tonight then...perhaps ill do a 30%WC with just a bit of salt in order to lower the salinity just a bit for now. thanks for the help

 

[patola_l]

i have 2 buckets, both the same size, one i filled with water to go into the tank, i just added 3 TBS of instant ocean marine salt....how long should i wait to let it dissolve? i want to test its salinity(all i have is a hydrometer, i will for sure look for a good refractometer). The other bucket ill use to take water out of the tank.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

i think ill start my conversion tonight then...perhaps ill do a 30%WC with just a bit of salt in order to lower the salinity just a bit for now. thanks for the help

Glad to help and feel free to hit me up if you need too.

 

[patola_l]

thanks so much. ill keep you posted, and let you know if i need help

 

[patola_l]

just did a 25% WC....the salinity of the water added was 1.008..therefor, max my salinity now should be 1.001.... im sure it wont be even there yet, but i want to go slow.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

How are you checking your SG?

Yep, baby steps is what I did too. Cycled FW, then converted to BW slow for BB and plants to convert/acclimate properly.

 

[patola_l]

a hydrometer for now.