Thanks for the sticky!
Here are some updated pics:
Fish Tank Construction - Imgur
Current tank inhabitants:
- six Indian mudskippers
- three orange chromides
- three bumblebee gobies (in 30 gal sump below)
- six cherry shrimp (in sump, just added last week, already with eggs)
- two cuckoo african cats (schooling cats from Lake Tanganyika, which makes them brackish suitable...may outgrow tank at 6" adults, although small now).
- one redline halfbeak (eats like a pig, surface swimmer)
- 5 nerite snails (constant algae eaters)
- 4 very large exotic fiddlers (store bought, thriving in tank).
- 5 very small wild caught everglades fiddlers (mostly stay in water, fairly hard to locate, but periodically see 2 or 3)
- handful of brackish acclimated blue leg hermits.
- A thriving colony of copepods that adapted from full salt to brackish.
- Many trumpet snails. They love the brackish.
Water plants:
- 24 red mangroves (growing like crazy)
- 10 black mangroves (wild collected, 3 weeks in tank, slowly coming to life)
- Saltwort (wild collected in FL; awesome salt tolerant plant for emerging areas, looks like a jade plant, currently thriving)
- Jungle val (occurs in brackish native to florida; doing well after a slow start)
- java moss (lots in there...grows best at base of water falls...does less well completely submerged with salt being what it is)
- java fern (doing pretty well in brackish)
- anubis (lost a bunch of leaves at first, but doing well now)
- brazilian moneywort (looks like lilipads...has been touch and go in brackish, but seeing new growth)
- crypts (doing *very* well in brackish).
- several other unidentified fresh plants
- Coming soon: once it warms up in New England, I will will collect a bunch of widgeon grass. This is a submerged seagrass that dominates brackish tidal marsh ponds and estuaries up and down the east coast of the US. Should provide excellent nutrient uptake in sump. Requires sandy substrate, which I will wild collect; not sure if I can provide optimum conditions in display tank, but we'll see. Will collect co-occuring brackish plants on collection trip.
Water parameters: I really only measure SG, which is low brackish at 1.005. Anything higher and my freshwater plants would go downhill fast. Been keeping everything from planted tanks to reefs for years, so I am a pro with the underwater part. Total water volume between display and sump is about 60 gallons, which gives me a lot more leeway with water quality compared to typical mudskipper tanks, which tend to be low water volume. I dose daily with Flourish Excel, which is a liquid CO2 supplement used widely in planted tanks. Only started this recently, but have seen increase in growth. Water changes: about 5 gallons a week. About one gallon a day top off to sump with fresh due to evaporation.
I deserve heavy criticism for my slowness on getting the terrestrial plants up to speed. Biggest problem is a lack of substrate depth. I would really like to get a bunch of air plants a dwarf fern or two and maybe some violets. Gotta step up my game there.
Last fish to add is a Red Tailed Red Eyed Puffer. I am scheduled to pick him up next Saturday. I know all about the risks of puffers, especially with inverts, however, this will be this particular puffer's third mudskipper tank. He just happens to be an incredibly gentle puffer. A guy at the LFS is breaking down his mudskipper tank and looking for a new home for him. Allegedly gets bullied by mollies and won't even eat small snails. Haha, we shall see how gentle he really is, but I am confident he'll be fine with the mudskippers, and if he chases inverts, I will put them in the sump.
Once the puffer is in, I'll be maxed out for fish, although I would consider adding a couple more Indian skippers if they came available (a rarity). Suggestions welcome on land plants, as I am a total amateur in this area, and can't seem to find an online source that really makes it easy for me to know what to buy.
Updated Pics
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