Before figure of eight arrives

[Arawana]

Hi experts
Am about to delve into the puffer world with a figure eight. The question is I will obviously purchasing a juvenile so am expecting it to be in fresh water not brackish would this be correct.od does it depend on the lfs.
Also are water changes best done with ro water.
Tank has cycled so am thinking within the next week if I can get the right fish.
Thanks

[bertie 83]

99% of f8s are sold in f/w in the uk for sure. I don't think ro is suitable for low brackish unless you fully remineralise it. Are you in a hard water area?

[Pufferpunk]

Why RO? Is there something wrong with your tap water? You'd have to add minerals back into the water, before using it for your fish, even for BW.

[Arawana]

Ok thanks not ro then

[RTR]

Some UK water is awful, to be honest. If you can make good tea with it, it is likely OK for the fish.

Do you have liquid-based test kits?

[bertie 83]

If there's one thing we know its tea lol. Some water is terrible indeed.

[Arawana]

Yup all liquid test kits

[RTR]

RO or RODI is good if your water quality is poor from the tap, but is quite a bit more expensive over the life of a puffer. If your water profile is bad from the tap, RO or RODI may be required. As F-8s are very low specific gravity fish, you will not be using much marine mix, so I would consider that personal choice. But if you go RO, you may need to age/condition the water prior to use with aragonite-loaded canisters.

Back in the dark ages, I did test RO/RODI for F-8s, but to avoid big pH swings I had to do days to a week's conditioning with canisters charged only with aragonite. That was a PITA and as I really did not need RO with my very good tap water, I did not use it long-term myself. If I had bad tap water, I would - but it requires tank space, time, planning, and money.

HTH

[littlec]

I'm a new f8 owner. I use tap water with prime conditioner. My ph is 7.8 and someone on here recently said f8's like 8.0 ph. Mine came in freshwater and I am slowly adding marine salt to the water I add back in during water changers. I do about 50% water change per week. Owners on here recommend 50% because they can have a large bioload. They also recommend oversized filters for your tank size. When you make your salt water you need to do it in a bucket and mix it 24 hours before you add it to the tank. It takes that long for the minerals to fully dissolve. I use a power head to mix it for like 10 minutes then let it sit overnight with a heater in it. Have you got yourself a tank of pond snails for food? That is their main diet. I also feed him San Fransisco Bay frozen krill and San Fransisco Bay frozen silver sides cut up. There are lots of other things you can feed them but those were the easiest for me.

[RTR]

I do not use buckets* to age or mix water, I use tanks such that my pre-mixed/aged/supplemented tap water is at the temperature/salinity/KH needed in the display when it is pumped over to replace the removed water for that change. I do all that because I am neurotic and do not want to stress my wet pets at all if I can avoid it. My personal experience convinces me that the KH is likely equally important to F-8s as is the salt content, or perhaps more so. The kH boost from such low marine mix content is not sufficient to bring up the KH and maintain it between partials. If your tap water is hard enough to do that without aragonite use, you are ahead of the game.

For most puffers, a varied diet is optimum, provided that it does provide enough "crunch" to control incisor growth. I normally breed both ramshorns and common pond snails as feeders for puffers (each snail type in its own breeding tank or tanks). Frozen foods are thawed in a bit of tank water with some added vitamin supplement. That liquid is not added to the tank, but discarded.

*I am old and cranky, I gave up carrying buckets ~40 years ago. I pump water where I need it. Most of my tanks are in the tank rooms, where pumping is really easy. Those out in the house tend to have aging tanks beneath the display or nearby to facilitate pumping without much risk. My wife does not like water on the floors or carpets - tubing and pumps or Pythons are easier and cheaper in the long run.

HTH

[littlec]

I think I get at least a gallon of water on the floor when I do water changes. I use 5 gallon buckets with lids, a bucket dolly (cuz I'm a weakling), tubing that doesn't like to bend, and a strong power head that has a hole in the output hose so when the water gets low in the bucket it sprays everywhere and I have to cover it with my finger to get more pressure. I even looked up water resistant surge protectors the other day cuz I dowse them with water at least once during water changes too.

What kind of pumps do you use to get your water from your mixing tank to your puffer tank?

[bertie 83]

Ha ha, me too. I make a terrible mess every time I do anything, that's just me though. My wife automatically turns up with a couple of towels as soon as she hears the tank hoods move. We have laminate flooring do no big deal though

[RTR]

I use mainly Eheim Hobby Pumps, and stock a good variety of them in varied sizes to suit particular set-ups, plus an assortment of spare parts for all sizes. It is always good to have spares. I also stock some, but not a lot, of spare Eheim tubing - it lasts ~10 years for me in most situations, so does not require a lot of rteplacement. Most of my set-ups are aimed at a ten year life as well, but I do have some which are significantly older, up to ~ 20 years. Everything I use has spares (some are now hard or impossible to get, which bugs me). The maximum number of tanks operating at once peaked at ~40, but most of the time is in the teens. Even though my primary LFS handles Eheim and stocks spare parts, I want a non-stressed life as much as possible, so keep my own spares whenever they are available.

Life is easier when most setups use common filters, pumps, tubing, etc. I over-filter always. I prefer multiple filters per tank over single large filters - redundancy is always safer than a single absolutely essential component. There are fewer floods when reservoirs pump replacement water from nearby locations with extension switches which only operate with my hand on the button. Power failures are not disasters when passive overflow tanks are incorporated into multi-tank set-ups. I have made almost all the possible operator errors at some time in the past, and now only rarely get caught with my feet and the floors wet. There are some advantages to old age - you do learn best from your own mistakes. I am neither wealthy nor poor, but have learned that redundancy pays off, and pre-planning saves time, money, and effort in the long run. My trials are done only in the tank rooms, where floor damage is minimized or absent. My tanks in living areas are not ever experimental setups which could result in overflows.

HTH

The longer you stay in just about any hobby, the easier it gets.

[littlec]

What size Eheim pump would I need to pump water strait up through tubing to 4 ft?

This Eheim quick vac is cool but all of my tanks have sand.
http://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Gravel- ... ords=eheim

What do you use to siphon your sand?

[RTR]

I tested a hobby vac and then gave it away. I use the Python No Spill Clean And Fill. I have several of them hanging on hose racks in the tank rooms, with a full set of intake tubes to best fit any particular tank. You can vacuum sand by careful siphon flow control (flow control is near the intake end of the tubing) or can just stir the sand by hand or plastic or rubber spatula and then move the slowed-down vacuum tube over the surface to suck up the debris. Then I refill via pump and tubing from a nearby reservoir/aging/tempering tank or food-safe wheeled Rubbermaid drums.

HTH