Hi all,
I'm planning on setting up a brackish tank soon (missus wants a puffer!). I like the idea of setting up a biotope (as much as possible, hence my other thread for natural habitat photos), but I appreciate everything is a compromise. I've picked up a Seabray tank which is 18x12x18 high.
I'm looking to house a single F8 puffer (a small one!) and some bumble-bee gobies. I'd also like to have the aquarium planted.
I've been looking at the various substrate and plant options. Right now from what i've read on this site (stickies, etc. -thanks!), it seems I want a flourite type bottom substrate with something else on top. For the above stocking, what would be the ideal substrate? Just a light sand to go ontop? Perhaps with a mesh/gravel tidy to seperate the two layers. I'm also wondering how deep i'd really need to make the substrate, but yes without a plant stocking list I suspect this will be impossible to answer accurately. As the tank isn't particularly big I don't want a 3-4" deep substrate so can anyone tell me if i'm asking too much from this setup?
As far as lighting goes, i'm doing a DIY T5 build into the hood comprising of two 36W T5 compact tubes. Haven't decided yet on which tubes to go for, but initially was thinking perhaps an Interpet Daylight and Interpet TriPlus? I think these tubes are discontinued though.
I'm thinking it's a lot of light, and will need to be filtered or require a fair amount of CO2 and fertilising.
Another area i'm not sure on yet is water. My tap water is hard (15 degrees IIRC), with a pH around 7.8. I do have an RO filter for my marine tank, so am not adverse to using RO and supplementing. I am wondering how feasible it will be that RO water with 25% sea water equiv. will provide enough buffering along with the substrate above. I've not mixed up anything yet to test so am in the dark somewhat.
Filtration-wise, i've got an Eheim 2224 canister filter I was intending on using. In the past i've used these on marine tanks purely to hold some phosphate remover and polyfilter, and back when I was keeping freshwater tropical i'd use them as biological too, but not sure if and how people use them for brackish setups today.
Any thoughts/comments on my ongoing plans welcome
I'm planning on setting up a brackish tank soon (missus wants a puffer!). I like the idea of setting up a biotope (as much as possible, hence my other thread for natural habitat photos), but I appreciate everything is a compromise. I've picked up a Seabray tank which is 18x12x18 high.
I'm looking to house a single F8 puffer (a small one!) and some bumble-bee gobies. I'd also like to have the aquarium planted.
I've been looking at the various substrate and plant options. Right now from what i've read on this site (stickies, etc. -thanks!), it seems I want a flourite type bottom substrate with something else on top. For the above stocking, what would be the ideal substrate? Just a light sand to go ontop? Perhaps with a mesh/gravel tidy to seperate the two layers. I'm also wondering how deep i'd really need to make the substrate, but yes without a plant stocking list I suspect this will be impossible to answer accurately. As the tank isn't particularly big I don't want a 3-4" deep substrate so can anyone tell me if i'm asking too much from this setup?
As far as lighting goes, i'm doing a DIY T5 build into the hood comprising of two 36W T5 compact tubes. Haven't decided yet on which tubes to go for, but initially was thinking perhaps an Interpet Daylight and Interpet TriPlus? I think these tubes are discontinued though.
I'm thinking it's a lot of light, and will need to be filtered or require a fair amount of CO2 and fertilising.
Another area i'm not sure on yet is water. My tap water is hard (15 degrees IIRC), with a pH around 7.8. I do have an RO filter for my marine tank, so am not adverse to using RO and supplementing. I am wondering how feasible it will be that RO water with 25% sea water equiv. will provide enough buffering along with the substrate above. I've not mixed up anything yet to test so am in the dark somewhat.
Filtration-wise, i've got an Eheim 2224 canister filter I was intending on using. In the past i've used these on marine tanks purely to hold some phosphate remover and polyfilter, and back when I was keeping freshwater tropical i'd use them as biological too, but not sure if and how people use them for brackish setups today.
Any thoughts/comments on my ongoing plans welcome