50 gallon set up suggestions and questions

[yoshisdad]

Hi Everyone, I have been into fish keeping for 20 years and have decided to convert my 50 gallon cycled tank into a gsp tank.
It is planted and invaded with tiny snails which I think will be ideal for 2 puffers. I have 3 pieces of wood, sand substrate and many sight blocks.
Here are my questions. How much salt will I need to put in the tank? Should i put it all in or slowly add it to acclimate the gsp ( yet to be purchased) will my fresh water plants all die along with the snails? I plan on feeding them snails and frozen bloodworms. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
thanks Yoshi's dad

[Nick]

You have to add the salt slowly during weekly water changes, if you change the SG by more than .002 in about a week, it will kill the tank bacteria and it won't be cycled anymore. Use a marine tank salt water mix, not aquarium salt. Many people use instant ocean. You'll need a hydrmeter to be sure of the SG of the new water, how much to use will depend on the brand, so read the packaging, and remember you want to start at about 1/10 the strength of sea water.

[cobra1713]

yea nick got it covered, only thing i would add is yes more than likly the plants will last for a while but will die as you raise the salinity along with the snails. and also you might watch the PH with the wood in there to make sure it isnt buffering the PH too low as the salinity is raised, as seeing that they eventually like to be in a marine SG the PH needs to be around 8.0.

[PuffnStuff]

Just a note about the plants. If you go to http://www.wetwebmedia.com/index.html and search for articles on brackish plants there are some to try. I set up my 55g with Java fern, anubias and am trying some amazon swords right now. I also have a 10g started as freshwater and slowly raised salinity .001 per week to allow the plants to acclimate. Research which plants you have, maybe some of them can survive low brackish for awhile. Eventually going full SW the plants will have to go.

[yoshisdad]

thanks, I didn't realize they needed full salt water at adult hood. I doubt many people don't poor things, I think I will look into dwarf fresh water puffers. I am not prepared or really want salt water tanks in the future. thanks for helping me out and saving 2 puffers from death

yoshi's dad

[Jase]

glad you understand.

have a look through the pufferpedia (under the learn tab) and see if there's a FW puffer you like.

[cobra1713]

yea i will say there are some awesome puffers in the freshwater category, if you like a "lurking" kind of puffer look into my personal favorite the congo puffer (t. Miurus) they come in different colors and are just really awesome, but the problem is most freshwater puffers only require 30 gallons and cant have tank makes so a 50 is overkill for most FW puffers, but overkill is awesome for fish!, another suggestion would be a dwarf puffer tank, they only get 1" long but you sould get like wat 12? in that tank and also some tank mates i believe. (anyone wanna confirm that?)

[Pufferpunk]

For FW, I would look into the palembang puffer. Perfect size fish for that tank. Keep in mind, the FW puffers are extremely aggressive & mostly are best kept alone.

You don't HAVE to keep a GSP in SW, high-end BW will do but be prepared to spend a quite bit of $$$ on salt, as they will require larger water changes than if you has SW filtration on the tank. You could go with 1 GSP in there (30g is the recomended minimum for one anyway) & WC would be less.

[StormySkiez]

There are a few FW puffers to choose from so you should find one you would like. I think DP's would be great in your already planted tank if you decide on them. It's good you did your research! Smooth move and welcome to the puffer forum!

[yoshisdad]

It is between freshwater dwarf puffers and south American puffers. I will have to have them shipped nothing other than those poor walmart puffers around here