Brackish restart: setup advice! :)

[Boxermom]

Yup, if real, those green and white plants aren't aquatic and will rot in your tank. And the one in back looks like a marijuana plant. I'm not sure but the plants do look artificial.

[Corvus]

Thinking of substrates, if anyone has any advice on whether the CaribSea Bahamas Oolite live sand is any good that'd be great!
1. Does this really help in the cycling process?
TIA!

All live sand from seawater will only work in a seawater tank (just as live rock). In lower salinities (brackish and fresh) the bacteria and protozoans, which make the sand "live sand", will die and pollute the tank with ammonia/nitrite/nitrate.

In seawater tanks however live sand and live rock are a very good idea, although i do not know the company CaribSea.

[coldmachineUK]

Hi there, thanks for the extra advice! Yep, I know all about RTBS: I keep one in a tank already, I just wondered about moving him over into the puffer tank.

Yes, the two plants bottom left are both chlorophytum b-i-t-CHetti (that's all one word but the filter is editing it out!), and you're right they are not true aquatic plants (though that said, a fair few plants in the LFS trade are not true aquatic plants). Since I'll be upping the salinity of the tank very slowly over a long period (we're talking a year-ish) to 1.005, varying it as I go, I'll be able to keep an eye on them and see how they go. I fully expect to have to remove them, but they look nice for now
The other two plants are vallis americana var natans; I use vallis in my malawi tank where it does really well in the hardwater, and tho' the Brackish FAQ compiled by Neale Monks doesnt mention this specific vallis it does say some vallis can adapt to brackish conditions. I will only be going very low end brackish (1.005 is as low end as you can get!), so again it'll be a watch-and-see with it and I'll of course remove them if they start dying. The same with the third and last plant, the sword.

Hrrm....back to tankmate-thinking then!

[coldmachineUK]

Yup, if real, those green and white plants aren't aquatic and will rot in your tank. And the one in back looks like a marijuana plant. I'm not sure but the plants do look artificial.

Hahahaha! I never realised, you're right, it does a bit! It's not though
There are only 3 real plants in the tank, rest are silk

[kjharve]

Hi there, thanks for the extra advice! Yep, I know all about RTBS: I keep one in a tank already, I just wondered about moving him over into the puffer tank.

Yes, the two plants bottom left are both chlorophytum ####, and you're right they are not true aquatic plants (though that said, a fair few plants in the LFS trade are not true aquatic plants). Since I'll be upping the salinity of the tank very slowly over a long period (we're talking a year-ish) to 1.005, varying it as I go, I'll be able to keep an eye on them and see how they go. I fully expect to have to remove them, but they look nice for now
The other two plants are vallis americana var natans; I use vallis in my malawi tank where it does really well in the hardwater, and tho' the Brackish FAQ compiled by Neale Monks doesnt mention this specific vallis it does say some vallis can adapt to brackish conditions. I will only be going very low end brackish (1.005 is as low end as you can get!), so again it'll be a watch-and-see with it and I'll of course remove them if they start dying. The same with the third and last plant, the sword.

Hrrm....back to tankmate-thinking then!

OK, just be aware that you may not realise they are rotting. When mine rotted they went from the bottom up, in other words the roots rotted first. All looked fine until I had high nitrates and started investigating. There was a lot of black, messy stuff in the substrate around the root.

[kjharve]

Yup, if real, those green and white plants aren't aquatic and will rot in your tank. And the one in back looks like a marijuana plant. I'm not sure but the plants do look artificial.

Hahahaha! I never realised, you're right, it does a bit! It's not though
There are only 3 real plants in the tank, rest are silk

I thought the "marajuana" plant was outside the tank!!!

[coldmachineUK]

Aah, ok thanks for the tip. Definitely one to watch for then :S

lol! No, the 'marajuana' plant is inside the tank (I'm gunna have the happiest puffers alive lol). Seriously though, it's a fake plant I picked up which has a sucker that sticks to the side; I really love the effect it gives and I can just see the puffers swimming through it and brushing up against it

[Boxermom]

Yeah, I have a couple of those and some other varieties of the sucker plants in my cane toad tank. Makes it very jungle-like.

[coldmachineUK]

Yep, I wanted dense cover for the little cuties to be able to swim through and around. Never realised it looked like marajuana until you said lol You spoiled my lovely innocent impression of my aquascape! lol

On a more serious note: has anyone kept a zebra spiny eel with figure eights before? I've read these are brackish tolerant fish (around the same S.G. as F8s), and grow to 6" or so in captivity.
They've been recommended as suitable community tank fish, so I'm guessing they're not aggressive at all, but will the puffers have them as a snack?

[Corvus]

I've had an Indian spiny eel (M. pancalus) with T. nigroviridis. In the beginning the puffers took bites out of the fins of the spiny eel, but it grew again and there was no more "tasting each other" at all.

Problem with spiny eel and puffers is that the eels are shy and if fed together with the puffers the latter eat the food thought for the eels. I always had to feed the eels by hand to be sure the puffers don't get it.

[coldmachineUK]

Thanks for the info still, I really appreciate all the advice/tips etc

Yes, I'd heard spiny eels can sometimes need hand feeding (or via a tube so food can be directed closer to them), even in community tanks without 'character-filled' fish, so I was sort of thinking I'd have to do that in any case, but it's good to know its an option that will actually work.

The zebra spiny eel is quite small-ish, so I'm hoping that also means its fairly fast moving and can dodge any interest that the F8s might have. I'm going to go with the idea, and will report back on how well (or otherwise) it works. I think it's the only feasible sounding idea so far out of all the crazy thoughts I had concerning hermits, nassarius snails, and so on!

In the meantime I've moved over a mature filter from my cichlid tank which I had put in there to help cycle the new tank, along with the two black mollies. They had to be separated previously owing to aggression, so they were in two other tanks I run. I was concerned about them being back together but in fact they won't move apart now! Best of friends. I will be moving over a second power filter (internal) in the next couple of days, and will start to gradually raise the water level with top ups of saline water to also increase the S.G. and acclimatise the mollies to brackish (theyve been in FW in my other tanks so far). Then the tank will be ready for the incoming F8s & Co. lol