water changes in a brackish tank - help?

[indie]

ive been reading the articles on setting up a brackish aquarium and i just want to get something straight in my mind cos im really confused.

i currently have a freshwater setup, so thats as far as my knowledge goes, but will be setting up an 80gallon brackish for ceylons.

right..

so you do your water change.
i currently have a 5 gallon bucket that i use for water changes. so i imagine filling it up with water thats approx the same temp as my tank, adding dechlor.
now, when u add the salt, it says raise salinity by .002 each week. so if i added enough salt to make it .002 in the bucket, would it not be drastically less once added to a tank of 80gallons? seeing as it would be diluted?

and also, with each water change, would u not have to add less and less salt? given that the salt doesnt evaporate. altho i know you'd be taking out 20% of water, but how do u know how much salt uve subsequently taken out? argh im really confused!
and once the tank is at the right salinity, how much salt would u use to keep it at the same salinity?

ok ive confused myself.

also, will a plastic bucket suffice for mixing salt with water changes? will i need to set up another tank to mix salt in??? what does everyone else do

[jake_vdb]

I use regular 5 gallon buckets (home depot) to mix. You can also buy your salt in 5 gallon buckets and re-use them.

If you haven't even set up the tank yet, I would just cycle it at the desired sg. Then once it's cycled, drip acclimate the puffers.

[indie]

is there any info pages on how to drip acclimate?

is it just putting the puffers in a half full 5 gallon bucket of freshwater. setting up a siphon and tying the end with an elastic band so it drips, then once the bucket is full put them in the tank?
or is it more complicated than that?

[Squealor]

I bought a couple of large Rubbermaid containers for water changes (one for my brackish and a larger one for my fw). I put it in the tub, turn on water, add salt & declorinator, and when it's full, I use the bucket to transfer. Works great!

[jake_vdb]

is there any info pages on how to drip acclimate?

is it just putting the puffers in a half full 5 gallon bucket of freshwater. setting up a siphon and tying the end with an elastic band so it drips, then once the bucket is full put them in the tank?
or is it more complicated than that?

I use a smaller bucket (1 gal). less than 1/3 full with the fish in it. Then use an airline hose for the siphon. It should flow pretty slow through the airline hose, but if the tank is much higher elevation you might need to use a valve to slow it down.

One of my LFS told me their F8's arrive in freshwater and they just float the bag for 15 minutes then dump them straight in a low sg brackish tank. I wouldn't recommend doing this, but the fish can usually tolerate sg changes well.

[indie]

i just realised. im hoping to use some mature filter media from my tropical tank to cycle the tank. so i assume i would need to start freshwater anyway and up the salinity slowly so not to kill off the bacteria.

or what i may do, because i havent got the tank yet, is to run a filter alongside my current setup so that i can get some beneficial bacteria and use that alongside a new filter in the new setup to cycle the tank, if that makes sense. thats assuming that the beneficial bacteria is in the filter, so therefore moving a mature filter over should cycle the tank pretty quick. could be terribly wrong

[Pufferoni]

"now, when u add the salt, it says raise salinity by .002 each week. so if i added enough salt to make it .002 in the bucket, would it not be drastically less once added to a tank of 80gallons? seeing as it would be diluted?"

If your not in a hurry to raise the salinity I would make my 5g bucket SG of about 0.010 for each change.


"with each water change, would u not have to add less and less salt? given that the salt doesnt evaporate. altho i know you'd be taking out 20% of water, but how do u know how much salt uve subsequently taken out?
and once the tank is at the right salinity, how much salt would u use to keep it at the same salinity? "


Top off the tank with fresh water to compensate for evaporation then do water change the same amount(0.010) usual SG.

Once the tank is at desired salt level replace with water at the same SG as tank water. If you remove 20g at 0.005 then replace it with 20g of 0.005.


"also, will a plastic bucket suffice for mixing salt with water changes? will i need to set up another tank to mix salt in??? "

The crucial point is that the salt is completely dissolved. If you have the rubbermaid container set the water up after a water change for the next one. Some people add a heater and a power head and although this maybe ideal it is not practical for everyone. I mix my container at double the salinity I need and then dilute it 50% at change time to adjust for temperature.

"what i may do, because i havent got the tank yet, is to run a filter alongside my current setup so that i can get some beneficial bacteria and use that alongside a new filter in the new setup to cycle the tank,"

I run a couple of extra filters on my tanks in case I need to set up a hospital tank or start a new one. If you use the filter you plan on for the new tank run it for a month or longer if possible you should be able to switch it over and go from there.