The Puffer Forum

it depends on what you define as brackish....

there is no hard set rule. Some will do better at higher SG levels than others with mangroves going very high.

There are very few true vascular plants which do well in mid to high BW or SW.

In light BW, quite a few can survive without much growth, some can grow, few flourish.

jtbadco wrote:No idea what the actual salinity is......1 cup salt per 20 gal ...under dual 10,000K T5's

you can buy a $3 hydrometer at petco. its definitely a necessity

Actually not really a necessity for a BW plant tank. BW makes rapid changes in salinity because it is where SW and FW mix. Tides play a huge role in the SG of brackish areas as do the FW systems outflow.

But there are very few true BW plants suited to tanks in the trade.

Captive systems are also very unlike wild BW situations - nobody has come up with a practical specific gravity variable system at hobby scale. Tidal change systems, yes, but salinity/specific gravity shifting with tidal changes, no.

I just added two healthy java fern plants to my brackish tank (1.005), so I'm hoping they will do well.

I have them attached to little rocks using sewing thread.

Does anyone know of the light requirements of java fern in brackish water? Its a 25 gallon tank standard height (not a long tank), I have 2 compact florescent bulbs (6500k day light 13w each). The java fern plants are already pretty mature. Roughly how many hours per day?

Thanks guys!

pufferfreak wrote:

LilGreenPuffer wrote:I don't think there are any commonly traded plants that will do well in the reccomended salinity for GSPs.

There is some right here. http://www.reefcleaners.org
Generally macro algae can be found at any marine fish store.

Can anybody expand on this. I love the idea of having microalgae but most of the types on offer at this site have a full marine SG requirement.

http://www.reefcleaners.org/index.php?o ... &Itemid=58

Would love to have a go at Scroll Algae or Ulva.

There are, as stated before, few to no true BW plants in the trade for low-density BW. Most folks experiment w/vascular plants which have some salt tolerance. Results tend to be pretty variable.

I assume, keeping marine plants in low BW will destroy them?

RTR wrote:There are, as stated before, few to no true BW plants in the trade for low-density BW. Most folks experiment w/vascular plants which have some salt tolerance. Results tend to be pretty variable.

So I gather, the reason I asked bout Scroll Algae though, is because I think it is an estuary or near estuary dweller?

There is also a rare promise of growth from Chaeto in brackish from this seller:

http://www.petshrimp.com/store/index.ph ... ucts_id=18

RTR or anyone ,

Do you think there is any merit or even serious study in denitrification of brackish systems with PHA reactors... I thought you may have come across it... rather than a macro algae, a microbial approach. I know we might have to deal with organics but my searches have not yielded any direct studies yet.

http://www.growfishanywhere.com/media/3 ... on__2_.pdf

Obviously its gone mainstream within the the reef marine community but such an approach may offer a moderator to nitrate build up in brackish tanks ? yep I know about water changes but its about emulating nature and a closed loop pseudo "nature approach" has brought us long way in the last decade or so on the marine side. No reason we cannot control time based salinity inclinations and declination through modern hardware as we are emulating lunar cycles and daily weather patterns using LEDs in reef tanks.

PP: Reef-based algae are highly unlikely to survive at reduced salinity. From my few trial, Sargassum algae (Atlantic) was similar, but the higher temps may have be a contributor- the lighted refugium heated the display tank quite well.

PufferGho/ti: I cannot bring that page up in a readable format, sorry - my programs scramble it. I have little or no experience with BW between 1.012 and 1.018/1.019. I run only low end BW (1.005 or less, but w/boosted KH). If it is not low-end, it goes full marine. Mid-level and high-end BW is too $$ and troublesome to operate IMHO.

PufferDek: That is very interesting - have you asked them if they know the functional range of that species/cultivar? I am a big fan of plant/macroalgae refugia in both FW and SW, but my few mid-BW tests were all failures. I don't do any mid-range BW tanks, just low end or full SW. Currently I have no BW at all.

RTR wrote:PP: Reef-based algae are highly unlikely to survive at reduced salinity. From my few trial, Sargassum algae (Atlantic) was similar, but the higher temps may have be a contributor- the lighted refugium heated the display tank quite well.

PufferGho/ti: I cannot bring that page up in a readable format, sorry - my programs scramble it. I have little or no experience with BW between 1.012 and 1.018/1.019. I run only low end BW (1.005 or less, but w/boosted KH). If it is not low-end, it goes full marine. Mid-level and high-end BW is too $$ and troublesome to operate IMHO.

PufferDek: That is very interesting - have you asked them if they know the functional range of that species/cultivar? I am a big fan of plant/macroalgae refugia in both FW and SW, but my few mid-BW tests were all failures. I don't do any mid-range BW tanks, just low end or full SW. Currently I have no BW at all.

Adobe Reader should be able to open PufferGhoti's link.

You can get it here if you need it:
http://get.adobe.com/reader/

I have not had any contact with petshrimp.com. It does look like they make some big claims about stocking rare species of fish and shrimp too. I have no idea if what they have is rare or not.

I will send them a PM and see what they say about the macroalgae.

I have to use enlargement and color-control programs (visually handicapped) which can scramble some text. Adobe's various programs are not often an issue, all forms are up to date. Most things are manageable, some are not. Even here on TPF, some parts of the posts and forum format vanish into never-never land. Edit a post? I haven't been able to see that set of buttons since Windows 10 went in. There are other drop-outs, but at least no scrambling of message text here.

RTR wrote:I have to use enlargement and color-control programs (visually handicapped) which can scramble some text. Adobe's various programs are not often an issue, all forms are up to date. Most things are manageable, some are not. Even here on TPF, some parts of the posts and forum format vanish into never-never land. Edit a post? I haven't been able to see that set of buttons since Windows 10 went in. There are other drop-outs, but at least no scrambling of message text here.

Response from petshrimp.com

I have personally grown this species at salinities between about 1.004
SG to over 1.025 SG. If you want to grow it at even lower salinities,
you would have to go the trial and error route and see if it works.

I will PM that to you too. Is there a colour that makes the text stand out more?