Does anyone have advice on setting up a brackish fiddler crab paludarium?

[Ninjoma]

Hey All,

I'm planning a brackish paludarium build featuring fiddler crabs. I've purchased a 16.9 gallon cube tank for the project. Does anyone have any experience with fiddler crabs, brackish tanks or paludariums and have advice they want to share?

Here is my current plan:
-Aim for a PH around 8 using aragonite sand as the substrate and seiryu stone for decorations.
-For fiddler crab tank mates: guppies, amano shrimp, nerite snails.
-For plants: anubias, java fern, crypts 

Some questions I have:
-I have large amount of caribsea super naturals sand on hand I would like to use if possible. Do you think I could get away with mixing aragonite sand with PH nuetral caribsea sand and still end up with a PH of around 8? For reference, my tap water has a PH around 6.5.
-It seems like most sources recommend a PH of 8-8.3 for fiddler crabs, but I have seen a few (https://aquariumbreeder.com/fiddler-crab-detailed-guide-care-diet-and-breeding/ & https://azgardens.com/product/mini-algae-eating-fiddler-crab/) suggest a larger range is acceptable. Does anyone know if fiddler crabs can thrive with a PH closer to 7.5?
-Does anyone have suggestions for tankmates for fiddler crabs? I feel like guppies are the most reasonable option for my tank size, but I'm not the biggest fan of guppies, so I am open to suggestions.
-Does anyone have suggestions for plants that can survive in brackish water with a specific gravity of 1.005? Cursory google searches suggest java fern, crypts and anubias are good options, or potentially many more plants (https://aquariumbreeder.com/brackish-water-plants/) but I also noticed this from ACO (https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/what-aquarium-plants-can-grow-in-brackish-water) saying java fern and mangrove trees are the only plants they have had success with.
-What plants do y'all recommend for the terrestrial part of the tank? I have a germanium I kinda want to throw in there. Would that be okay?

[Ninjoma]

Hey @Zenzo. I saw you had some experience with brackish tanks in a thread from last year. Did you ever find success with any plants other than java fern and mangroves? I currently plan to try anubias, crpyts and val, but it sounds like they may not work out so great.

[Zenzo]

On 3/19/2023 at 2:13 PM, Ninjoma said:

Hey @Zenzo. I saw you had some experience with brackish tanks in a thread from last year. Did you ever find success with any plants other than java fern and mangroves? I currently plan to try anubias, crpyts and val, but it sounds like they may not work out so great.

No, so far only those two (and algae).