GSP questions

[diddy74]

I would like to know if a 30gal tank with a whisper 40gph filter would be enough for a green spotted puffer's lifespan? I've heard that GSP are fine in brackish water, but need marine for adulthood. I dont think I can afford the expense of full saltwater w/ all the additional equiptment, so is it possible for a puffer to live a long happy life in my set up? .............thanks for the help

[diddy74]

I think what I need to know is............... What new equiptment will i need to purchase to maintain a 1.018 ?

I currently have
30gal tank
Whisper 40gph biofilter
50w heater
lots of plastic plants
corse gravel
several rocks
hydometer

[crazedpuffer]

It's easier just to make it full marine. You won't really need much new, just a skimmer which helps a lot with the water quality. Over time you can add LR too to help with the filtration.

[Nick]

You can keep him at 1.016 or so his entire life, if you want, marine is just a tradeoff of more money for less work and savings over time on salt for water changes. 40gph sounds like a filter for a 5 gallon tank, are you sure thats what it is? 200-400 gph would be best for a 30 gallon, though 150 would probably be tolerable.

[diddy74]

I'm sorry its a whisper40, says it treats up to 40 gallons. One more question though.................Should I use sand or corse gravel?

[Pufferpunk]

I prefer aragonite sand. Just plan on spending way more in salt (doing lifetime 50% weekly water changes for an adult GSP in a 30g), than you'd spend on live rock & a skimmer.

[Content2Swell]

Is it true that if you have enough LR with a skimmer you can remove the external filter?

[Pufferpunk]

External filters are nitrate factories in SW tanks.

[Content2Swell]

^_- my local fish shark was trying to sell me an additional external filter. Apparently he had heard that phrase about never having too much filtration and took it to mean "buy more stuff!"

[Nick]

If you take all the filter media out of them and use them purely for water movement, as a substitute for buying power heads, they're still useful. I have purigen(a synthetic substitute for carbon) in one of mine, and all the little bits of live rock I had no place for in the main tank.

[SeeingGreen]

So, in saltwater the filter media is bad? How does that work? I get the nitrogen cycle stuff, and I get that liverock has pockets that provide areas for anaerobic bacteria to further break down nitrate, but this is a new twist...

Thanks,

[cobra1713]

if im correct on this, its just another place for nitrogen to build up that the anerobic bacteria from the live rock cant get to so it adds to the nitrogen load of the tank, so its best to just either not have a filter, or if you have an extra you can keep in on and take the media out like nick said. right?

but yea in the long run it will be cheaper to switch over to marine cus the water changes will get very expensive with a high end brakish tank, (i should know im doing them right now cus my tank is at 1.016) and im going to switch it over here pretty soon.

now i have a question, how often do you have to do a water change on a well established marine tank with LR and a skimmer? i know its way less than brakish but not sure how often it normally needs done.

[Nick]

By trapping the wastes in a filter cartridge, you create a big area where they are transformed into free nitrates. Live rock has nitrifying bacterias living in the oxygen permeable outer layers, and anaerobic denitrifying bacteria living in the inner layers, thats why you can cycle a tank fully with just enough live rock. This principle of not trapping your solid wastes is one of the reasons sand is a better bottom covering than gravels - less nitrates. As the waste breaks up in the water, the nitrogen based wastes are processed by the live rock, and the other types of dissolved wastes are removed by the skimmer.