Brackish Planted Questions

[lisa_perry75]

Hi,
If I do do the brackish planted I have a few questions.
Atm I use tap water because it is hard alkaline (about pH 8 ) imagine liquid chalk... As I was thinking about doing a planted tank as well I was thinking about using different water. I can source some filtered really really pure stuff (probably alot like RO, pH 7 very low GH and kH). My question is
If I use this and add salt, do I need to add anything else to buffer it? I may well be adding Co2 as well, does this affect anything as I know it can lower the pH.

Substrate wise what should I use? I don't have to use anything specific for brackish, but anything I can buy at the lfs I used to work for is handy... (I get money off ). Decent substrate wise they have onyx sand, aquaclay ground, sand or laterite. They also sell 2-3 mm gravel which is really nice. Should I use laterite and gravel or onyx sand... Should I do a combination? How much depth wise should I use of what you recommend? I'm leaning more towards onyx sand for its buffering capabilities.

 

[mlawson]

Brackish fish and plants will appreciate the hardness of your water and just adding marine salt should be fine. Make sure the salinity is low (in most cases no lower than SG 1.005). If you haven't already look at AMS plants in Brackish water thread in the Brackish forum, this will give you an idea of the type of plants you can keep.

I think Onyx sand would be a good choice. I've heard that Onyx sand is good for plants which use Biogenic decalcification, whereby the plants gain carbon through converting carbonates in the water. Plants like Vallis use this and I'm sure a lot of other plants which you can use in brackish water can too. This way you may not need additional CO2.