Live rock salinity tolerances.

[Fozza]

Just a question regarding how low a salinity live rock could tolerate.

The creatures inside aren't of real importance, its the aerobic and anaerobic bacteria's I'm interested in, for the filtering of ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. How low a salinity can they survive in?

i.e brackish water around 1.10 - 1.15, would live rock survive and thrive in a salinity this low?

 

[Anonymous]

Are you wondering if a brackish tank can be filtered with live rock? The answer is yes, but it will take an awfully long time to fully cure. Just about everything besides bacteria and maybe some copepod life will die off, and it won't look all nice and purple like it does in full strength SW.

 

[Fozza]

Yep, thats exactly what I was wondering. How long for curing do you reckon?

Thanks for the quick response.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, I have no idea. I would imagine at least two months though, if not longer. Get out those testing supplies and check for all the relevant levels.

What do you plan on keeping anyway? I had a nice little brackish tank a while back with what were called 'freshwater' morays (2 of them), Gymnothorax tile, although they come from areas of about 1.010-1.015 salinity IIRC. They can be acclimated to full strength FW or SW though. Neat little guys... some more info here:
http://fishinthe.net/html/forum/viewtop ... 662119a5c1

Tricky to initiate feeding, but once they learn to eat from a stick they're voracious. I used live ghost shrimp and guppies to get them eating. They ignored food for the first two or three weeks but once they got hungry they couldn't resist.

 

[Fozza]

Just bumblee gobies and green spotted puffers, possibly scats and mono's.

I just wanted to use live rock, because I'm not fond of power/canister filters.

Don't know what it is, but I've always had a fascination for brackish water fishes.

 

[Bojangles]

I've done FW and brakish since I was 8 and IMO skats are some of the worst fish ever. However mono argentis (yellow fins, black vert. line through eye) and bumble bee gobies are on my top 10 list. The bb's will be difficult to feed at first. Be sure to know what the LFS is feeding them and know that no crevice is safe from them. They can use their pec. fins to "hang" effortlessly on the open glass anywhere in the tank. "Usually" they dont do well with puffers, being the eatters they are and most times fin nippers, so be prepared to choose between them in a year or so.

Also bb's do much better in groups. I keep a fully planted 55g fw tank with about 60-80 white clouds and roughly 10-15 bb's. The tank basically sustains itself. I do bi-montly wc's and feed the fish. Water is perfect 7.1 ph and 0 ammonia / nitrates.

Good luck