# El-natural brackish water setup?



## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

I purchased some marine olive nerites yesterday that I slow dripped to get it acclimated to fresh water. Unfortunately, it has been lying dormant the last time I checked this morning. So if they are not moving by tonight, I'm going to start to worry that they might not survive the water condition change. This got me thinking, anyone setup El-natural brackish water. If it's low cost, I might consider turning my 5 gallon into a olive nerites breeding tank. I have yet to find anyone able to breed it in brackish water. But if all I need is a hydrometer, marine salt, and crushed corrals to setup a brackish aquarium, it might be fun to try. I am thinking of using just air stone and power head for water movement since I don't have any more spare filters. Any suggestion?


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Well came home and notice at least one of the brownish nerite is sticking it's body out a little, the other two that actually looks olive are still clamped shut inside the shell. It's almost 24 hours now. #$%@ hope they start moving.


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## mommyeireanne (Oct 24, 2007)

I've heard Marimo balls will work in brackish, also Red Mangle if it's trained to it, but it gets very large. I'd try some mosses like Vesicularia Dubania, too. Maybe some very hard water plants. There's a brackish water stickie on one of the planted tank forums here, but I can't remember which.


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## CaptainNemo (Jul 11, 2008)

I'm not sure I'd worry about them. I took some nerites from fresh water and just tossed them into a brackish (50% SW) tank with no acclimation and they just sat on the bottom of the tank for a few days looking dead, but once they got used to it they started moving around. 

I'm no nerite expert, but I'm not sure they breed in brackish. The ones I have in freshwater lay eggs like crazy, the ones I had in brackish never laid eggs. Could just be coincidence.


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## Rusalka (Jun 11, 2008)

Olive nerites do lay eggs in freshwater - but they are not viable unless in brackish water. I've thought of trying to breed them too - they are such great algae eaters! To add to the plant list bacopa monnieri, many anubias species, vals, hornwort, java fern & water sprite. But I bet lots of plants that have waxy leaves would be able to adapt to a brackish set up - oh yeah sagittaria will work too! I've also had green rotala, and rotala indica in brackish water and it was fine, although grew as though it was put in a shrink ray - it had lots of growth but it was mini! Maybe it was dehydrated? When I put the plants back in fresh water they went back to their normal leaf structure. 

are you planning to use a soil underlayer with crushed coral gravel or sand on top?


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

Rusalka I was thinking of crushed coral gravel. But all my nerites I tried to acclimate from marine to freshwater have died. So I am a little bummed. I think I'll stick with freshwater aquariums for now. I'll focus more on the fix for the cause rather than but snails adapted for marine/brackish into freshwater to fix the effect.


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