Bio Spira + Brackish

[jtipton]

My brackish tank is in the range of 1.008 - 1.010 sg. I used the FW Bio Spira recommended by the LFS, but wanted to check with you guys. So which variety is best for this sg?

 

[BracKeeper75]

My brackish tank is in the range of 1.008 - 1.010 sg. I used the FW Bio Spira recommended by the LFS, but wanted to check with you guys. So which variety is best for this sg?

Saltwater!!

 

[jtipton]

I believe the theory is that 1.008 - 1.010 is closer to fresh water, than it is to marine water. Either way, the bacteria contained in the package are not acclimated to the conditions of my tank, so I suspect the Bio-Spira may take longer than advertised. I anticipate that some of the bacteria population will die from the change in salinity. If I had it to do over again, I would start with fresh water, add the Bio-Spira, then slowly increase the salinity over a couple of weeks. This would give the bacteria population time to acclimate, and give the hardy bacteria time to reproduce.

 

[nmonks]

I'd concur with jtipton above. Set the tank up to freshwater or SG 1.005. Use freshwater Bio Spira. Leave the tank a couple of months to make sure everything is settled. This will do your brackish water fish no harm at all.

Raise the SG over the next few months. There's no rush, so go slow, check for ammonia across a week or two after a salinity raise.

Cheers, Neale

 

[andywg]

I think you will find it is a different strain of bacteria which develops at different salinities. nmonks will probably know more, but I would not expect very many bacteria that are from FW to survive in a brackish tank. My understanding is that when you slowly raise the salinity from FW to brackish you are slowly killing off the Fw strains of the bacteria while allowing brackish strains to develop swift enough to prevent a cycle.

 

[nmonks]

It isn't clear at all to me! My assumption has always been that there are freshwater bacteria and saltwater bacteria. But most brackish water aquarists will have found that freshwater bacteria do fine up to SG 1.005. What happens above that salinity is unknown to me. In any event, if you make small salinity changes with a couple of weeks between each of them, keep checking the ammonia, there's no risk. Whether the bacteria are being replaced or are adapting, it doesn't matter!

Cheers, Neale

I think you will find it is a different strain of bacteria which develops at different salinities. nmonks will probably know more, but I would not expect very many bacteria that are from FW to survive in a brackish tank.

 

[jtipton]

I'm thinking that since I dropped the bacteria directly into the tank with 1.010, that I basically threw away $15 worth of bacteria. Any other ideas to speed up a cycle at that salinity? I can't drop the salinity because I have blue legged hermit crabs taking care of the algae.

Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 7 ppm
Nitrate 40 ppm

 

[andywg]

If you have access to some cycled marine media (though probably not live rock) then you could take out the crab, change the specific gravity to about 1.018 or above and then drip acclimatise the crab back in and put in some mature media. Then you can gradually let the SG drop with each water change.

That might help.

Edit

Just noticed that you already have nitrites. You should be over half way through the cycle, so patience may not be in too great a demand for this.