# Proper Salt for Brackish Tank



## pedersencato (Apr 28, 2008)

My brother (A hardcore aquarium veteran) recently set me up with a tank and mollies from his brackish tank (They seem to be breeding like crazy.) My tank is in it's second week and I just did a large water change (I had a major ammonia problem, but it's normalizing) and included the directed amount of salt for the water replaced, but the specific gravity barely registers on my hydrometer. My brother mentioned it may be the salt I'm using, and just wanted to confirm this. The salt we have is _Jungle Labs Aquarium Salt._ Any help is greatly appreciated.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

The ideal salt to use is synthetic sea salt for the marine hobby. Brackish water is where SW and FW mix. Though all synthetic sea salt is at least 95% sodium chloride, it's all the other chemical goodies that make salt water...saltwater, like calcium, magnesium, borate, carbonate, buffers, etc, in close proximity to natural sea water. 

To visualize how much "salt" on needs to get a brackish salinity of 1.010 in a 5gal bucket, I use ~1 double handed and 1/2 single handed scoop or ~2cups...extrapolated from making SW as I use 2 double handed a single handed scoop...LOL! Our hand sizes may not be the same so err on the low side as it's easier to add more salt if not salty enough than it is to dilute if too salty .

Best bang for the $$$ synthetic sea salt to use is Instant Ocean. IIRC BA dropped the price from $60/160gal mix to $55. You only need to get the salinity to 1.010 (max) so that bucket will easily make 320gal of brackish water.

JME/HTH


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

A cheap hydrometer ($20) like an instant ocean hydrometer will help you out.

Just fill it with the water, let the bubbles get out, and the needle will point to the level of salinity. So about 1.010 is what you want I guess?


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## pedersencato (Apr 28, 2008)

I have a hydrometer, But the salt levels don't seem te register on it; I've rinsed it thoroughly to make sure there's nothing weighing down the needle, to no avail. They must be doing alright though because one of my swords birthed this morning, and I'll be damned if I know who the father is, the mollies all seem too young for breeding, and I only have female swords.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

you can breed those in a bowl of cheerios. If its not registering you arent mixing right, arent using the right kind/ enough salt, or have a defective hydrometer, or are using it wrong.


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## Cory_Dad (Apr 18, 2008)

Pablo said:


> you can breed those in a bowl of cheerios. If its not registering you arent mixing right, arent using the right kind/ enough salt, or have a defective hydrometer, or are using it wrong.


Pablo:

What kind of milk would you use, whole, 2%, 1% or skim? Wouldn't that clog up the filter something fierce? And what if the swords were lactose intolerant?

pedersencato:

If you want to check the hydrometer could you not mix up a smaller batch and keep adding salt until either it not longer dissolves or you get a reading? You wouldn't be wasting the salt because you can always store it for use in a later batch.

Just a thought.

Cheers.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

I use whole milk. No filter just an airpump.


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