brackish to FW?

[gruntle]

Hi all,

I lost my little GSP mr. tubbs last week...I found out my lfs has no gsp's but has some figure 8's. I am planning on getting
2 of the little guys (2 inches each) but they are currently in fw or near that (1.002 probably).

How do I take my brackish tank that tubbs was in down to what they need without killing the bio off?

I was wondering if I could change the water by 50%, add in purely fresh and some bio-spira and then check the water salinity and see if it is low enough for the f 8's.

Also, I am not sure what salinity they need...some things saty they are fresh water...some say they need slightly brackish...what is it?

thanks!

[Nick]

Has the tank been empty for a week? If so, it's already not cycled anymore, and you can bring it down to 1.002 without harm and then fishlessly cycle it to get it ready for the F8's. F8's are brackish, 1.003 to 1.006 is the recommended range.

[gruntle]

He died last Tue so it has been just a week...
I have been adding some food to the tank every three days to keep it cycled...but I can stop that because I am not goingt o add the f8's until sat.

any other advice?

[Pufferpunk]

Continue to add the foos or plain ammonia, to keep the tank cycled until you get the puffers. During the week, start doing water changes, to get the SG down to around 1.004 & then drip-acclimate the puffers to that. Be sure to do an 80% WC bfore putting the puffers in there, to remove all the extra waste/nitrate.

[gruntle]

Thanks...will do...as I understand it the drip acclimate is when you put the m in a bucket and drip in the water from the tank slowly, right? I will look in the library for an article on this...

[Pufferpunk]

You are correct--just tie off an air hose, so it drips 1 drop/second.

[gruntle]

How much water should be in there before I move them into the tank? How long can they stay in the bucket?

[Pufferpunk]

When the SG in the bucket is close to the SG in your tank.

[gruntle]

I am a little confused...I put the fish in the bucket...with the water from the LFS. Do I add the same salinity water to fill the bucket up 1/2 way too? If not it seems that the water in the bucket will become the same salinity very quickly. THese little f8's are in almost full fresh from what I understand...

thanks...

[SeeingGreen]

You should use the drip method of acclimating them (at least from what I have seen here.)
This would be SLOWLY adding the water from your tank to the water that the LFS gave you....i thought somebody made reference to using a siphon hose, but only allowing enough water to change the SG by like .001 and hour. Whether this was accomplished by knotting it or whatever, low salt levels added to slowly bring it up to the same level.

Once the level is ~= tank level, add them(though the temp thing might still need to be acclimated to reduce stress also.)

[Pufferpunk]

Use an airhose with a knot in it.

[gruntle]

Got it...with a drip that slow it will take hours to do this correct?

[Pufferpunk]

You have to time the drip so it raises the SG in the bucket .001-.002/hour.

[gruntle]

okay dokey...thanks...I will do that...I got a cold and dont know if I can get them this weekend now...so I may have time to lower the salinity slowly int he tank and then use bio spira to help it along before I get the cuties!!

Thanks again for all the help...will keep you posted.