I have always been a freshwater person and have always dreamed on having a saltwater tank, but never had the time or money to start. My dad seeing my obsession wanted to try keeping puffers himself, but since we don't have any saltwater or brackish tanks he figures he wouldn't mind trying a figure 8 or a GSP. Luckly he didn't buy one yesterday cause I told him he had to have a tank presetup and already cycled before introducing a puffer. So he gave up on trying to out smart me and said he would like to 'learn' more on brackish tanks. The Figure-8t's we saw were healthy little guys and were waiting to go to a home. I found out from an employee that they were raised and housed always in a brackish water tank.
So first of all I would like to know what equpiment (other then the basic heater, filter, lighting, air, etc) would be needed to keep a brackish water puffer. My dad cleaned out his 30 gallon tall and is waiting to hear what he needs to do/get inorder to keep a Figure-8 or 2. I have a spare Bio Wheel 200 that he can use, but will the bacteria grow on this type of filter since it is brackish? And is there any other way (instead of a chemical fishless cycling, meaning use of ammonia or pieces of fish under the gravel) that can be used for cycling?
Any thing that can help me and my pops learn about brackish tanks would help. Plus I got a store credit gift card for him so he can go pick up the Fig-8 or a GSP when everything is ready (part of his fathers day gift )
The nice thing about figure 8 puffers is that they don't require very high levels of salt. They do good around 1.008 or so, so that saves you money on buying salt and you don't really need any expensive or extra equipment.
Figure 8's generally need at least 10 gallons each, so you could get away with 3 in that tank but since puffers are nasty in general, there is always a chance of some fighting/killing. Or he could try a single puffer and a couple small gobies like bumble bees, knights or deserts. They would need hiding spots and there can't be too many as they are territorial, but it might be an idea.
Lighting is your personal preference, live plants don't do well in brackish so you don't have to worry about providing light for them, so nothing spectacular is needed.
A biowheel filter is fine, but they do cause some salt spray, not sure how big of an issue that would be at low salinities though. Generally with puffers we try to aim for 10x water flow as gallons, so for a 30 gallon tank you'd want 300gph (gallons per hour) turnover in your filter. I'm not sure what the filter you mentioned does, but I'm guessing it does 200? That would be okay for young, small puffers, but as they grow, you'd want more filtration. The bacteria will still grow on a biowheel in brackish, but there is a specific bacteria for every salinity. So you can't seed a brackish tank from a freshwater tank's filter media. You can, if you start it as freshwater then increase the salinity no more than .002 every week up to your ending point. Or you could also use Biospira or fishless cycle with ammonia, the key for any of these methods is to keep the salinity steady and not change it more than .002 or the bacteria will die.
There are some good sticky posts or you can look in the articles section to read up on fishless cycling, Figure 8's and GSP's. For GSP's, a quick run down would be they need 30 gallons each, start off in mid range brackish water and do best raised up to full marine as they get older and larger.
the biowheel should be fine... i have it in my eclpise2 but just keep an eye out on the filter as it does get clogged up pretty quickly... i have it runnnig with a fluval internal filter in my 35G... before it was just the fluval and water became pretty bad in about a weeks time... the 2 GSPs werent too happy... but with the addition i still do my weekly water changes but water is still very clear... and the puffers are always active now...
In general, "long" tanks are preferred for puffers rather than "tall" ones, beecause puffers need footprint/floor space to satisfy their territoriality. In a tall tank, I would not try to keep 3 F8s, but 3 is potentially a more stable group than just 2.
The turnover figure cited by Myaj is appropriate for HOBs, but does not apply to other filtration formats. Biowheels can cause problems in BW and SW due to the salt spray they generate, but they are good biofilters.
Asuran's suggestion of using a supplemental filter for additional current and additional mechanical filtration is good. One of my pet neuroses is that I always multi-filter.
I was thinking of telling my dad to put an internal fluval filter in, but they look really strong with a high out put velocity and didn't want the puffer(s) to be spiraling and being caught in a current that they cannot get out of. I told my dad about the salt spray (that you guys mentioned) and he now is turned off the fact of using my biowheel. Does the salt that is sold in the buckets/boxes/bags etc cause corrosion? Or just build up? I saw a H.O.T. Magnum hang-on-tank canister filter for 40$ and was thinking of getting that for him to use. There is no 'splashing' of water so I figure there is no spray.
i forgot to mention that i personally dont really like the internal canister as it takes up room inside the tank itself... i will be swapping that out for a canister filter soon while still keeping the biowheel going.
also dont be too worried about the current... healthy puffers are strong swimmers and they wont get pushed around by it... mine love to swim against the current... it'll give them something to do too
as for corrosion... i dont think it does... none of the parts exposed to the water is metal anyways... the impellor shafts for the filters dont corrode (dont take me word for it though) but there will be a build up of salt deposits on the rim of the tank from the water when it evaporates.
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