GSP, convert tank to full marine?

[rowdy]

Hello, I have a GSP in my Biocube 29 along with 2 black mollies. As of right now, the SG of the water is 1.005. I want for it to be a full marine tank some day, and I have a few questions and thoughts on it I would like to have cleared up.

1.) Can I simply keep raising the level of salt in the water by .002 every week until I reach 1.022? He is 2.5"-3" right now, do I need to wait for him to get to <4" to go that high with the SG?

2.) What sort of changes will I need to make to my tank as I do this? I currently run it with stock everything. Still using the bioballs, with a carbon and sponge filter over the top, and a sponge in between the bioballs and the water pump.

3.) When I set the tank up I initially only intended on doing brackish water. So my substrate is Caribsea Super Naturals sand, and my decor consists of 2 pieces of a broken ship, a fake plant and a few sea shells. Will I need to get rid of the current substrate and decor and replace them with aragonite, and live rock?

4.) Would I be able to bump my SG up to 1.026ish so that I might be able to put corals in the tank? Or is that too much salt for the green spotted puffer and should I just go for a FOWLR setup?

5.) Would I be better off just getting a whole new tank set up for full marine?

Thanks for reading through my assault of questions and thanks in advance for any input on the matter.

[El Scorpio]

Here's my two cents on the issues:
1. Yes. And no more than .002 per week. This is very important. Increase salinity too fast, your beneficial bacteria will die out, and your puff will not survive the resulting ammonia spike and/or pH crash. His size is not a concern; I had one smaller than that in full marine and he did just fine.

2. What you have is fine for now. Once you reach marine conditions, you can add live rock and a protein skimmer.

3. Aragonite and live rock would be very beneficial, but not required. Personally, I would go ahead and do it - the aragonite will help lock in the pH around 8.1 where it should be.

4. You can, however, your GSP will more than likely shred the corals. They're not reef safe by a long shot.

5. Nah. Obviously bigger is better but 29 gallons is fine for one GSP. If this is truly what you want to do, though, then now is the time to do it.

Hello, I have a GSP in my Biocube 29 along with 2 black mollies. As of right now, the SG of the water is 1.005. I want for it to be a full marine tank some day, and I have a few questions and thoughts on it I would like to have cleared up.

1.) Can I simply keep raising the level of salt in the water by .002 every week until I reach 1.022? He is 2.5"-3" right now, do I need to wait for him to get to <4" to go that high with the SG?

2.) What sort of changes will I need to make to my tank as I do this? I currently run it with stock everything. Still using the bioballs, with a carbon and sponge filter over the top, and a sponge in between the bioballs and the water pump.

3.) When I set the tank up I initially only intended on doing brackish water. So my substrate is Caribsea Super Naturals sand, and my decor consists of 2 pieces of a broken ship, a fake plant and a few sea shells. Will I need to get rid of the current substrate and decor and replace them with aragonite, and live rock?

4.) Would I be able to bump my SG up to 1.026ish so that I might be able to put corals in the tank? Or is that too much salt for the green spotted puffer and should I just go for a FOWLR setup?

5.) Would I be better off just getting a whole new tank set up for full marine?

Thanks for reading through my assault of questions and thanks in advance for any input on the matter.

[Welch4]

Just a couple additions. If your going go full marine i would recommend moving to a bigger tank to offest the room for the 2lbs of live rock per gallon recommended. Although the gsp isnt reef compatible the only thing mine wont tolerate are feather dusters. Building up several peices of softies and lps.

[Pufferpunk]

IMO, a GSP in SW with enough LR to sustain: 55g minimum for a singleton. You might be able to add a few small, FAST fish.

[rowdy]

Thank you for the insightful responses, they are helpful. Ultimately I do plan on getting a larger tank for him, but as of now I think he should be fine with my tank size because he is still quite little. Once I have my current tank transitioned I will go about getting a bigger tank set up for the GSP to move him into as a singleton, and then hopefully turn the biocube 29 into a reef tank.

When the time comes for me to replace my sand with aragonite and my decor with live rock, can I simply remove my decor, scoop out all of the sand I can, and then add my aragonite and live rocks? Or is there a certain process I should follow - removing the fish first? Can doing it in this manner throw my water conditions into chaos for the fish?

[Welch4]

As far as the additions you have it. But as for as the parameters yes and no. If your live rock is fully cured you shouldnt have an issue, but the live sand IME will cause a slight ammonia spike from what has died off in the bag.

[rowdy]

Alright. Guess I will just have to dive in and do it and check my water afterwards and keep doing water changes if anything spikes. Thanks for the help I appreciate your input.