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 Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy.

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saint_felony
The Turtle Whisperer
saint_felony


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Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. Empty
PostSubject: Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy.   Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. EmptyThu Apr 30, 2009 2:10 am

Thought I'd share my lazy method of brackish water. I've been using it on Diamondback Terrapins for a while now and have been making out just fine.

Basically I use one and a half cups of salt (12oz) per ten gallons of water.

This normally (if I check it with a hydrometer) gives me between 1.012 and 1.014SG. My current hydrometer is pretty cruddy however so I often don't bother.

As for the salt I've been using Morton's pickling salt (the one in the green box). It comes in even bigger and cheaper boxes than kosher salt, and has absolutely nothing else in it besides salt.
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Mostlycichlids
Cichlid Specialist
Mostlycichlids


Male Posts : 4566

Age : 44
Location : New Mexico USA
Favorite Fish : Jaguar Cichlid

Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. Empty
PostSubject: Re: Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy.   Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. EmptySat Dec 26, 2009 10:47 pm

Nice idea..comments?
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Wyomingite
Fish Wrangler
Wyomingite


Male Posts : 1781

Age : 56
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Humor : "I drank what?" - Socrates
Favorite Fish : I won't choose and ya can't make me!

Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. Empty
PostSubject: Re: Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy.   Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. EmptyFri Jan 29, 2010 12:19 am

Whoa, can't believe I missed this thread.

Comments? Yup. Wink

The biggest problem is that generic food-grade salts are almost totally, or are totally, sodium chloride. Marine salt has a much higher percentage of magnesium chloride, around 20% IIRC. Not to mention the percentages of sulfur, calcium, phosphorous and trace elements missing from grocery salts. I'll admit I've never tried saint's method, and I'm sure it's adequate for tougher species, but I'd be wary of using this mix on more delicate brackish species.

WYite
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saint_felony
The Turtle Whisperer
saint_felony


Posts : 1930


Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. Empty
PostSubject: Re: Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy.   Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. EmptyFri Jan 29, 2010 3:15 am

Well like I said in my original post, I use it for DBTs. They're essentially brackish red ear sliders. They got sturdy pretty well covered. Smile

I do wonder just what minerals and trace elements most brackish water fish *really* need. The jade sleeper goby did find in brackish originally with a smaller DBT for a while using the pickling salt, then in with the monos using I think Instant Ocean brand mix (I don't remember I swiped half a bag from someone I know who does salty) and it did just as fine in pure freshwater.

One thing that I never realized before we got to talking about it the one time, was how much hard water affects something like that as well. When I was trying to ID some pretty purple algae that was growing in the feeder guppy tank, the only thing that had changed recently was adding a pvc elbow (for the fish to swim in) that had been taken from a salt water tank. Either Wyite or MC (can't remember who got it first) traced it down to a nuisance algae that's very common for saltwater tanks.

Before then, (when this post was from) I never really looked into it, but had always thought that saltwater/brackish animals while wanting or in some cases I'm sure needing other minerals and elements, NaCl was numero uno required for continued long term living.
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Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. Empty
PostSubject: Re: Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy.   Making brackish water for the cheap and lazy. Empty

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