# Paludarium with brackish/salt water feature



## Adroitmind (Jul 16, 2010)

I'm in the process of planing my first paludarium and have a pretty good plan in place.

I'm thinking I want to mimic a mangrove tidal area and was wondering if anyone has tried to add salt to the water feature of their paludarium? I think salt creep would become a problem around the shore line but would appreciate any feed back from some one who has tried this, thanks. My ultimate plan is to have some small saltwater fish like damsels in the bottom and terrestrial fiddler crabs on the top if I can find them for sale. Thoughts on the live stock would be good too.

If it's going to be too much trouble to try to have salt water then I'll just stick with fresh, no biggie. I just wanted to do something unique if I could.


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## mantisdragon91 (Jun 2, 2010)

Damsels wouldn't be a good fit since they tend to be very aggresive and are more of a reef fish. Your best bet would be something along the lines of mudskippers, archer fish or gobies.


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## Adroitmind (Jul 16, 2010)

mantisdragon91 said:


> Damsels wouldn't be a good fit since they tend to be very aggresive and are more of a reef fish. Your best bet would be something along the lines of mudskippers, archer fish or gobies.


I wish I knew where to acquire some mudd skippers or archer fish. Do you?

Unfortunately Gobbies will not work since I'm planning a bare bottom.


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## mantisdragon91 (Jun 2, 2010)

I have gotten decent quality stuff from That Fish Place in the past. Attached is a link to their brackish fish section. No archers or mud skippers at the present but they have had them in the recent past so it may make sense to reach out to them and see if they can order some for you.

Brackish Water Aquarium Fish

Regards,
Roman


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## ChrisK (Oct 28, 2008)

My sister got mudskippers from here: Frank's Aquarium-Freshwater Crustaceans, Hillstream Fishes, Gobies, and more


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## Adroitmind (Jul 16, 2010)

mantisdragon91 said:


> I have gotten decent quality stuff from That Fish Place in the past. Attached is a link to their brackish fish section. No archers or mud skippers at the present but they have had them in the recent past so it may make sense to reach out to them and see if they can order some for you.
> 
> Brackish Water Aquarium Fish
> 
> ...


Cool, thanks Roman! 

I still need to get some feedback on salt creep. I see that as the chief concern that may derail my whole endeavor. Anybody?


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## mantisdragon91 (Jun 2, 2010)

Adroitmind said:


> Cool, thanks Roman!
> 
> I still need to get some feedback on salt creep. I see that as the chief concern that may derail my whole endeavor. Anybody?


I do not believe salt creep would be much of an issue as long as you are dealing with Plants such as miniature mangroves that are adopted to a brackish environment. Anything else would probably not survive unless your tank is very large or you can mount the plants 6" or more above the water level.


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## steelyphil (May 8, 2010)

This place seems good and has a brackish section...

Aquarium Fish: Tropical Freshwater Fish and Saltwater Fish for Home Aquariums


It part of Doctors Foster and Smith which I'm pretty sure is a good company.


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## Adroitmind (Jul 16, 2010)

mantisdragon91 said:


> I do not believe salt creep would be much of an issue as long as you are dealing with Plants such as miniature mangroves that are adopted to a brackish environment. Anything else would probably not survive unless your tank is very large or you can mount the plants 6" or more above the water level.


Well I am converting my old 58 gallon cube reef tank so I have lots of space. The salt creep I'm concerned about would be around the shoreline edges. Would it create a problem with the skippers getting in and out of the water? I can't imagine that crawling over a layer of slat would be good for them. You know rain water washers the shore line clean in nature but I would not have that in a tank.


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## mantisdragon91 (Jun 2, 2010)

Adroitmind said:


> Well I am converting my old 58 gallon cube reef tank so I have lots of space. The salt creep I'm concerned about would be around the shoreline edges. Would it create a problem with the skippers getting in and out of the water? I can't imagine that crawling over a layer of slat would be good for them. You know rain water washers the shore line clean in nature but I would not have that in a tank.


Every person that keeps Mudskippers does so in a brackish shore line type tank. None have experienced any problem from excessive salt build up on their animals. Having been to many a beach in my life time, I have seen the salt lines on every beach. In my opinion this wouldn't be a non issue.


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## Adroitmind (Jul 16, 2010)

OK thanks. This board is already helping me out tons! I'm going to go for it. Will be sure to take plenty of build pics for another thread.


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## Brien (Aug 27, 2009)

I dont know but what happens when dendrobates get sale on them? Another thing is if you use a misting system you might be adding water which could throw your salinity.


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## Adroitmind (Jul 16, 2010)

brien said:


> I dont know but what happens when dendrobates get sale on them? Another thing is if you use a misting system you might be adding water which could throw your salinity.


Not planing any dendro's so no worries there. Still undecided on the misting system but I don't think it will effect the salinity too much. If i install one I'll monitor the specific gravity for a while before adding in any fauna.


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## mantisdragon91 (Jun 2, 2010)

brien said:


> I dont know but what happens when dendrobates get sale on them? Another thing is if you use a misting system you might be adding water which could throw your salinity.


Just for the record, I would never recomend housing any amphibian in a brackish shoreline tank. There are a number of small tree skinks, agamas and geckos on the other hand which are found in the same general area as the mudskippers which will do nicely with them in a properly planned tank.


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## HX (Jun 4, 2007)

Adroitmind said:


> I'm thinking I want to mimic a mangrove tidal area and was wondering if anyone has tried to add salt to the water feature of their paludarium? I think salt creep would become a problem around the shore line but would appreciate any feed back from some one who has tried this, thanks.


I've had several brackish paludariums, the largest being 500 gals (250 tank, 250 airspace) and the smallest 40ish.
Kept skippers, Monos, archers, puffers, fiddlers, gobies, morays and other brackish animals.

Never had a real problem with salt creep. Very adhesive materials such as wood or fake rock/wood made of cementy stuff tend to collect some salt creep to the area where they turn from wet to dry. But I also tend to spray these paludariums and melt the salt with fresh water while doing it.
Glass doesn't collect salt other than from splashed water (from water features, bursting airbubbles or splashes by animals).
In any case, salt creep is easily wiped off. A lot more easily than calsium creep collecting to aquarium cover glasses and such.


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## Kpribbit (Jul 10, 2015)

I also have a question about brackish paludariums. I was planning on doing one but I wasn't sure if I could have brackish water with ferns and the normal paludarium plants. Is that possible?


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## kentpiper (Mar 12, 2013)

I would imagine a misting system would take care of the salt creep if you did it in short intervals to not throw off you parameters.


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## jturner (Nov 26, 2014)

Because it is brackish water you would need to keep the salinity constant. You could connect the misting system to an auto top off unit to replace evaporated water. This could solve any potential salt creep and keep the salinity constant. just an idea.


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