Chemicals to put in tank to cycle?

[3dhuck]

Im new to brackish water and i was wondering if anyone knew of a chemical to help start the cycle. I bought the 37 gallon marineland eclipse tank with the bio wheel filter in it. I also have live sand that i pulled out of my 20 gallon aquarium. I then took the 10 guppies i had in the 20 gallon and put them in the 37. Should i just let the aquarium run or should i add some chemicals to speed it up. I am building the tank for one green spotted puffer.

[sevenyearnight]

Chemicals don't cycle your tank, bacteria does.
What is the salinity of your tanks?
Please explain what you mean by live sand, because sand from an established marine tank is live sand. Live sand in a bag is really "lie" sand. There is nothing live about it, and the dead bacteria just produces ammonia.

[3dhuck]

The sand i have is carribean arragonite sand and it has been in an established tank since day one. Also i just set the tank up yesterday and my salinity is at 1.013. The fish store here keeps there gsp' s in a salinity of 1.011.. This brackish is very new to me im going away from saltwater as it is getting too expensive.

[sevenyearnight]

GSP's need at least 1.018 salinity as adults, and with 50% weekly water changes that will exceed the maintenance costs of a FOWLR with an SG of 1.021 - 1.023, which is why most people go with that set up for GSP's.
Might I suggest you lower your salinity to 1.003 - 1.005 and go with a figure 8? They are smaller, and low end brackish is all they'll ever need to thrive, no higher. They are very much like GSP's in personality.

As far as cycling a tank as brackish, if you've taken bacteria from a freshwater source, that huge change in SG will kill it. SG cannot change more than 0.002 a week without the bacteria perishing.

[Iliveinazoo]

GSP's need at least 1.018 salinity as adults, and with 50% weekly water changes that will exceed the maintenance costs of a FOWLR with an SG of 1.021 - 1.023, which is why most people go with that set up for GSP's.
Might I suggest you lower your salinity to 1.003 - 1.005 and go with a figure 8? They are smaller, and low end brackish is all they'll ever need to thrive, no higher. They are very much like GSP's in personality.

As far as cycling a tank as brackish, if you've taken bacteria from a freshwater source, that huge change in SG will kill it. SG cannot change more than 0.002 a week without the bacteria perishing.

It used to be recommended SG1.012+ but many keep them in marine conditions because they appear to do well and the upkeep of the tank isn't as expensive as a high brackish environment in the long run. Does the Puffer Forum now recommend SG1.018+?

http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Species ... hp?ID=7763

[3dhuck]

1.018 is what im going to work my salinity up to over time. Ive read that they seem to do better in a full marine environment. Also i just added the filter from my established tank into the new tank to help cycle it.

[J-P]

I just finished posting the pufferpedia files and although high brackish is best, full marine is not bad either. The original docs say 1.015. (they have been modified).

[3dhuck]

JP let me ask you this i just started my puffer tank and the salinity is at 1.013 consistently every time i have checked it. The gsp at the pet store is in a salinity of 1.011 and i have had them prove this to me. How bad will it bother the puffer in this salinity change?

I have also decided i should probably do a drip acclimation on them as well.

[sevenyearnight]

Many people drip acclimate from fresh to salt water in about 5 hours, that slight change in salinity would really only need the standard 20-30 minute acclimation.
However, your water parameters are a concern, since you raised the salinity so quickly from freshwater, bacteria from a freshwater tank won't survive that large of a jump. What is the SG of the tank you seeded from? Puffers won't survive in an uncycled tank. What are your readings?

[3dhuck]

i have the filtration system from my 20 gallon tank in my 37 gallon. The 20 gallon tank was brackish and had been setup for a few months. So im introducing the bacteria from the old tank into the new one

[3dhuck]

Also i dont have the puffer yet im waiting on the tank to cycle completely before i get him. The old tank was at 1.008. Im using the biological filter from the old tank on the new one to aid in the cycle. Hope that clarifies some things

[3dhuck]

I also did not use any of the water from the previous tank.

[Pufferpunk]

What exactly are you doing to cycle this tank?

[Iliveinazoo]

I just finished posting the pufferpedia files and although high brackish is best, full marine is not bad either. The original docs say 1.015. (they have been modified).

Thanks for the clarification, I wonder if it used to be Neale Monks that recommended SG1.012+ at 25DegC.

3dhuck: You will not need to drip acclimate. You are talking about an SG0.002 difference in salinity which you will probably be doing at water change time anyway to up your tank salinity to your required level. Added to that; GSP's are considered a natural brackish water fish which would regularly swim up and down the specific gravity range from FW to SW in their natural habitats without ill effects.

You should check your water parameters as Sevenyearnight says. If you have killed off you nitrification bacteria and still have a freshwater tank running then you could re-start at FW and move up the SG range slowly, as said before GSP's naturally range between FW and SW in the wild so a short period in FW is not likely to do them any harm.

[Iliveinazoo]

Wow, a lot of posts while I was writing mine, but the jump from SG1.008 to SG1.013 is still likely to have killed off your nitrification bacteria, substitute "re-start at FW" with "re-start at SG1.008".

And thought that I would add clarification to earlier comment of drip acclimitisation: I would not recommend placing a fish, even a GSP, Mono or Scat, from FW to SW or vice versa without drip acclimating.