The Beginning of my 80g

[ilovemydragongoby]

So today, we went to look for some black sand, couldn't find anything. We ended up settling up play sand. I've heard of lots of people using so I figured we'd give it a try. We picked up 3 - 25kg bags of it, and we put 2 of them it. We have a granite "cave" set up a log and a small tunnel set up in there so far.

As much as I wanted live plants, we aren't going to be doing them just yet...maybe down the road. Tomorrow I'm going to the LFS to find some nice...fake, plants. Aswell as some more decor.

As of now, once the tank is cycled, my dragon goby will be going in the tank. We've decided on a few bumblebee gobies, and some mollies. Not sure what else would be good fish to go with my dragon. Anyone have anymore ideas? We were thinking of a puffer but heard they can get aggressive.

I will post pictures once the sand settles.

If anyone has any suggestions please post!

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

Also, does anyone know of any brackish water algae eaters. Are pleccos brackish? I have an oto in my freshwater, but he's going to be staying there.

 

[Lowryder]

there are a few that can tolerate low levels of brakishwater. I wouldn't go over 1.10 and would adjust VERY slowly to this level.

Your best bet might be getting some nerite snails.

For the plants, you have to watch what you buy. Most plants in a LFS are for fresh and wont do well in a brackish. Here is a link if and when you plant your tank Brackish Water Plants

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

There is a man in my city who has a shop, it's more of a hobby than a business though. He sells all kinds of brackish plants, so we've got that part figured out.

 

[mfdrookie516]

One of the mentors on here, dragonfish, has a brackish tank, you might wanna go check out her tanks if you haven't already, she has lots of plants, and dragon gobies too

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

yes i have spoken with dragonfish many times

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

my boyfriend has changed my mind, we are going to be doing a few live plants and a fee fake plants. Probably going to be getting some java fern, jave moss. There is another plant at one of the shops in my city it's sagittaria we are looking into.

 

[TCool]

Play sand?!?! Should've gone with pool filter sand.

I have play sand in my tank. I like how it looks, but it is so fine that it can be a royal pain. It ruined my impeller on my brand new filter in about 10-15 minutes lol. So, I'd suggest adding some extra protection to keep the sand out of your filter-like a prefilter (use filter pad, my sponge let enough sand through to destroy the impeller).

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

thanks for the info...but the tanks been running going on three days with the play sand in it, the filters are fine as far as i can tell. I have a dual bio wheel running and an aqua clear 3000. What do you mean by a pre-filter?

 

[Lowryder]

What do you mean by a pre-filter?

A filter before the impeller. Most common is just taking a sponge and stuffing it into the intake pipe. It will prevent items from damaging your impeller, I use one to keep my baby shrimp out.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

so would you suggest doing that with the dual bio wheel and the aqua clear?

 

[TCool]

I would just get a sponge or some filter pad and wrap it around the intake, and secure it with a rubber band or something. It may be good now, but I'm guessing you have no fish yet. The play sand is very fine and gets kicked up very easily. It'll settle fairly quickly, but if it gets kicked up anywhere near your intake there is a good chance some will get sucked up.

I think some have said that the aqua clears deal with sand very good, so maybe you have nothing to worry about. But, I had a HOB filter once that didn't get destroyed by the sand, it just made it loud, which was very annoying. You could just take your chances too. I think you can usually get new impellers for 10 to 12 dollars on the internet if it does get ruined or loud.

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

thanks for the advice

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

we've picked up some drift wood and a couple small java ferns today. drift wood is soaking, we're going to see if it'll will just water log and be able to sink to the bottom. we also picked up some rocks. i think we're def taking a step in the right direction

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

after adding the drift...just to see if it was going to work. I was able to get a picture of how we are going to set it up. The wood is soaking right now, cause it doesnt sink.


we have two small java ferns in here as well, the came with a hitchhiking snail...dont know what kind it is

the rock thats sitting on top of the wood won't be there after, we had to put it there to get a picture

 

[TCool]

Looking cool!

 

[logansmomma1228]

that looks really awesome!

 

[Aquarium1]

have you added any salt yet? because if you cycle it fw and then add salt, I'm not sure whether or not the bacteria would be able to survive, but I have no idea. awesome tank so far btw.

 

[DragonFish71]

have you added any salt yet? because if you cycle it fw and then add salt, I'm not sure whether or not the bacteria would be able to survive, but I have no idea. awesome tank so far btw.

I started our as FW then added all the plants and fish, then slowly started raising the salinity so everything could adjust. I figured that was the best way to get both fish and plants to acclimate.

 

[Aquarium1]

ahh, well that's why I said, I wasn't sure, just thought I'd bring it up since some day I wanna have a BW tank lol.