pepetj

Hi. I barely come into this side of the forum as I'm a freshwater fishkeeper.

I just cycled (fishless of course) a low-end brackish fish -Opossum pipefish (specific gravity 1.004-1.006) 20gal tank. I keep 7 Ghost Shrimp in there and am waiting for the tank to be "stable" before moving my fish there (e.g. need to solve a high temp issue first)

I 'm actually hatching brine shrimp with the intention of enhancing their nutritional value so my Opossum pipefish eat a healthy diet. As I get there, my Opossum pipefish are making it on napulii (just hatched brine shrimp), quasi-newborn fry of livebearers (fed with spirulina and high protein content diet) as well as unidentified (but likely unharmful) water "bugs" I've been "raising involuntarily" in the filter media of one of my tanks.

I'm therefor setting (early stages), technically speaking, a 5gal "saltwater tank" (Specific Gravity 1.023).

I have access to natural live rock without disrupting the environment (besides no store sells live rock locally).

From what I've been reading, it makes sense to set a saltwater tank to tamper the feed of growing brine shrimp instead of using uncycled reservoirs. That is doable -I think correct me if I'm wrong, as long I solve the filtration issue without harming them so they can grow into adulthood.

The question I make myself is: Does this makes me a saltwater keeper? brine shrimp and live rock are not fish so... what do you think?

Pepe
Santo Domingo

smileyfish

thats interesting umm. Well id say that your a brackish to saltwater keeper. I mean some brine shrimp i think are used in freshwater like as dried freeze or something. But as long as the live rock remains alive id say your qualified as a saltwater keeper

Tony G.

i think you are a saltwater keeper. You have everything but the fish. So IMO you are qualified as a saltwater fkeeper


congrats!

MizRamzi

Will live rock be sustained in an SG so low? Will there not be major die off? I have a brackish tank. Aside from keeping the fish healthy, it's been more trouble then it's worth. Unless I use RO/DI water the algae issue is a pain. Brown yucky stuff. I've even blacked out the sides and back hoping this would help. Not!

pepetj

I request this thread to be closed.



In the end this was a learning experiment. The brine shrimp pico tank got eventually "cycled" but it was almost impossible to keep salinity within reasonable limits and the brine shrimp barely made it.

Too much water evaporation without automatic top-off meant drastic fluctuations in specific gravity, not to mention temperature. I managed to keep some algae alive there and that particular piece of rock now rests in the refugium section of my DIY sump.

I don't consider this as my entry into SW. My entry came on August 2nd, 2009, with the following thread:
Entering SW

Thank you
Pepetj
Santo Domingo

PS I keep a low-end brackish tank, encouraged mostly by pinkfloydpuffer enthsiasm (it's my Opossum Pipefish tank, with 20+ native Endler guppies and Yellow Nose Shrimps). Easy to keep as it is heavily planted with specific gravity at 1.004-1.006.