New boy in the Puffer place

[timbo]

I have a brackish tank with 3 young green spotted puffers and 12 bumble bee gobies. I have a fair bit of "Hair" algae growing and remove it every month or so when it gets unsightly. Are there any benefits with this stuff? or even anything that may be kept with G.S.Ps. that will control it?. My fish are about 1 1/2 inches at the moment, and the saline is at 1.008 to 1.012. (I varied it a little from time to time but these are the average spans.
Also I want to put plants (or anything alive) in the tank. every thing that I put in dies due to the salt. Any suggestions?

[RTR]

What are your nitrate readings?

How big is the tank?

There are no plants in the trade that will take the gradual change from FW to BW to SW that GSPs undergo as they mature. Nor are their algae eaters to do that job. You need to control the lighting and the nutrients to reduce the algae, and clean the rest off manually. Algae does remove nutrients from the water, so in that are beneficial - but only if it is harvested and removed regularly. When the setup gets to SW densities, you can add a 24/7 lighted refugium with macroalgae to help with nutrient control.

[Pufferpunk]

Eventually the gobies will become pufferfood, sorry. If you really like them, I'd set up a nice 10-15g tank for them. They also won't like the higher SG you willl be bringing the puffers up to as adults.

Welcome to TPF!

[timbo]

Thanks folks. Guess I'll just have to keep up the house keeping... !!!

[Pufferpunk]

You should answer the questions RTR asked. I was wondering how big your tank is also.

[timbo]

The Nitrates are 20 ppm (Straight out of the tap). And the tank is 30 Gallons, (As the fish grow they will be moved). Can I use live rock? I supose that the fish will eat that...