Brackish Cycling
- Thread starter madhippoz
- Start date
Heh anytime catfishmike.
Jinx, it said it was good for both Fresh and Saltwater. I've noticed the color is a lot cloudier, than it normally looks on my freshwater tanks. I'll go pick up a saltwater Ammonia/Nitrite tester today, see if it makes a difference. I do know that I've stalled my cycle twice though. One with dropping all that Ammonia in there, it was off the chart, and the subsequent 2 x 50% water changes. The other was probably when I dumped in all the marine salt to get it Brackish.
Jinx, it said it was good for both Fresh and Saltwater. I've noticed the color is a lot cloudier, than it normally looks on my freshwater tanks. I'll go pick up a saltwater Ammonia/Nitrite tester today, see if it makes a difference. I do know that I've stalled my cycle twice though. One with dropping all that Ammonia in there, it was off the chart, and the subsequent 2 x 50% water changes. The other was probably when I dumped in all the marine salt to get it Brackish.
hippoz -
I've done some more research on bacteria in salt and fresh. It appears that there is some evidence to support various small mutations in bacteria when salt is added or removed. However, it appears to be a heavy seated debate that biologists are still working on. I do think you need to some how rig that powerhead so that it pulls water through the gravel and just now blow over it. It will take some tinkering but if you get an uptake tube from a UGF, stick the powerhead on one end and tape it so its secure, and on the other end, attach some type of strainer so that gravel isnt sucked up and jam it down into the deeper parts of your gravel. Even in my 20 gallon, i have airstones running 24/7 and my filter pumping as fast as it'll run , and i still had dead water in the bottom. my substrate isnt even that thick in the least. However i do have the UGF plates on the bottom, thus dead water. So all things being equal, you might still have to get that water flowing through the gravel itself.
I've done some more research on bacteria in salt and fresh. It appears that there is some evidence to support various small mutations in bacteria when salt is added or removed. However, it appears to be a heavy seated debate that biologists are still working on. I do think you need to some how rig that powerhead so that it pulls water through the gravel and just now blow over it. It will take some tinkering but if you get an uptake tube from a UGF, stick the powerhead on one end and tape it so its secure, and on the other end, attach some type of strainer so that gravel isnt sucked up and jam it down into the deeper parts of your gravel. Even in my 20 gallon, i have airstones running 24/7 and my filter pumping as fast as it'll run , and i still had dead water in the bottom. my substrate isnt even that thick in the least. However i do have the UGF plates on the bottom, thus dead water. So all things being equal, you might still have to get that water flowing through the gravel itself.
Well checked the Ammonia last night and it had dropped down to around .5-.6ppm which is usual. I add a capful of Ammonia, it goes up to around 1ppm, then a few days later, drops down to .5-.6. I got in there and really stirred up my gravel, got lots of debris floating around. Did a test immediatly for raised levels of Ammonia, nothing. Waiting about 30 minutes and did another test, nothing, same levels as before, or so miniscule it was almost impossible to tell. I also went to the LFS and I couldn't find purely saltwater test kits. They had Freshwater, or Freshwater/Saltwater kits. All my kits are Freshwater/Saltwater, so I don't think its that. I know for sure the Ammonia tester works as it has shown several different levels of Ammonia since turning the tank Brackish. So I'm going to stick with my plan, every other day water changes to get the salinity back down to 1 or under and keep adding small amounts of Ammonia and try and make it cycle Freshwater. Then worry about moving it to Brackish later.
That white filmy jellyfish looking crap? In my big tank adding a whack load of Marine salt did the trick, I poured it directly on that stuff. But since you've got fish in yours you can't really do it. I got it in my new 34gal tank which is freshwater. I kept stirring up the sand and sucking it off with my python and I'll have to check, but it appears Neon Tetra's love to eat the stuff. I put 7 in my new 34gal tank, and even though I haven't been feeding them much, all 7 at first were swimming around with massive bellies, and a definite decrease in the amount of white jellyfish looking stuff. But your tank is brackish, so that's out as well. I'm finding as I get my tank more balanced to where it should be, the stuff slowly starts to disappear on its own.