new to brackish

[serra]

I want to change my FW Tanganyika 25 gal. to a brackish tank for one T. biocellatus. My pH in this tank is 8.0, dkh= 9.6, alk= 3.4, temp 80 F. I have java ferns and anubia plants in this tank. Can they survive the change to 1.005 sg? How well do the biocellatus handle hard water? What are their optimum conditions?

How slowly do I change the salinity to save the biological bacteria?

I have a raphael catfish in this tank to eat some of the cichlid fry. Has anyone ever tried keeping this fish in a brackish tank? If not, can I throw him into my 57 FW planted tank with a bristle nose and name-not-remember-due-to-dain bramage-moment, but very common small variety of Plecostomus (when I did a search for the species I found this...very funny... "It is usually referred to as "Pleco" because of the superstition that if you spell it fully or correctly your fish will soon die." So I will leave it un-spelled but very loved, and alive!)

Thanks for your help.

[Nick]

Hard water is good for them. Carbonate hardness is one of the suspected reasons they are more resilient in brackish other than the salt itself, since just aquarium salt isn't enough. If you take the plants there at changes of SG around .001 a month, they will probably live. Thats WAY slower than the biofilter will need to survive.