3" GSP too small for full marine?

[JerryGSP]

Hi guys,

Jerry (GSP) has been getting along very well (now about 3")and he is currently in about 1.006 salinity water in his 190l(UK - about 55G US I think) aquarium.

I am moving in the second week of December (just over 4 weeks away) and plan to keep him in a 60l tank for the day before and maybe after the move to give me time to strip his tank down and get it set up again in its new home.

I was reading on here that live rock needs curing in a tank (can't remember how long for) before you can house fish with it and was wondering whether if I moved Jerry up to marine conditions slowly before the move I could keep him in the 60l for a longer time after the move (with huge daily water changes obviously) and cure the live rock in his tank.

Does this sound like a feasible plan? I am considering it because
a) I'm already having to dismantle the tank and reassemble at the other end so then would be ideal for redecorating/new sand/rocks etc
b) It would save the number of stressful moves for Jerry - he would only need to be caught once
c) I could introduce a tankmate (was thinking tomato clown) and give it time to settle before adding Jerry (and watching veeeeeeery carefully)

My main concerns are not keeping him in a 60l as he is going to have to anyway (and there will be plenty of water changes trust me) but whether at 3" he might be a bit little for marine and whether there is enough time to safely raise the salinity between now and then.

What is the minimum salinity that you need to have live rock? I could keep him and the rock at low end marine (if there is such a thing) and move him into higher end over time as long as the rock doesn't do something strange and have a second die off with an increase in salt.

Any opinions welcome!

Jeni

[Myaj]

For live rock to stay live, it needs full marine. I believe that is classified as somewhere around 1.018 and up, but I might be wrong (as in, it might be higher, I know its not lower than that).

It will take a few weeks for the live rock to fully cure most likely, depending on the amount of die off you get. One thing you can do, is simply cure the rock in a rubbermaid tub or bucket, just mix it up to marine and add a powerhead for water movement. Then, when its fully cured, just add it right to his full marine tank. This would mean you can set him up, take your time raising the salinity, and then cure the live rock when you are ready. A bonus to this option, you could stock his tank now with "base rock", which is basically very porous, dry rock. Its a lot cheaper than live rock. So you can get the layout how you want it, etc. Then later on, adding a few nice chunks of live rock will bring in the proper bacteria and "bugs" to seed all that nice, cost effective "base rock", at a much lower price than buying 100% live rock which is wet, heavy and much higher priced per pound.

As far as if he's too young for full marine yet, you could probably do it. I think there's a member or two on here who started their GSP's in full marine at a very young age to see how it affected them long term.. but its too early to know how that turned out. At 3" though, I would think he's probably big enough for high end brackish or full marine.

As far as adding the clown fish.. only do this if you can have another tank ready to go asap to move the clown to if it doesn't work out.

Just some things to think about.

[JerryGSP]

Cheers Myaj,

My main concern was Jerrys welfare at being in full marine at 3"...if that looks like it is feasible I will go ahead. His brackish setup currently has crushed coral substrate and ocean rock, which I was planning on keeping and using as his base rock.

Now to check the new house plans again and see where his new setup can go!

Jeni