new member saying hello

[mammamalone]

Hello everyone I am new here and new to puffers.
After many months of begging we have just bought our daughter a green spot puffer for her tank.
I am new to the world of brackish and salt tanks (I am a discus keeper) so adding so much to the water is quite alien to me lol
I am sure I will be asking many silly questions over the next few months please be patient with me.

[Pufferpunk]

library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/

[mammamalone]

thankyou for the link pufferpunk I have been lurking in the shadows reading everything on this great site for the past couple of days.
so much information its a fantastic site!!

[Pufferpunk]

I'd like to hear more about her tank.

[mammamalone]

Its a 180l tank with a sand substrate rocky decor and plastic plants filled with remineralised ro water and filtered by a ehiem external canister filter.

[mammamalone]

Its a 180l tank with a sand substrate rocky decor and plastic plants filled with remineralised ro water and filtered by a ehiem external canister filter.

The main question I have is how much and how many water changes will he require to keep him healthy (I am used to daily on the discus tanks) but does he need that amount or less?
and also how slowly should I up the salinity of his tank as the shop kept them in fresh water I have added a small amount of salt to the water so far (we only got him on sunday)

[Pufferpunk]

I do 50% weekly on my FW tanks & 90% weekly on my discus. If the puffer is the only one in that tank, & he's still small, you might be able to get away with 25%. Is there salt in there?

[purplecandle]

Weekly water changes with above average vacuuming should be fine.

Once you get the hang of brackish and then move onto marine for this fish, you *might* be able to lower that amount.

Use Marine salt and don't go over .002 a week

Look here for more info on Brackish water mixing -- viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

Welcome!!

[mammamalone]

only a very small amount of salt at the moment bearly measurable as they were in fresh water in the shop.
He is the only fish in the tank, I am really worried about adding the salt too fast and knocking my filter bacteria

[Pufferpunk]

Yep, that's why if you don't raise the SG faster than .002/week, you're bacteria will be fine. You may go slower though.

[mammamalone]

great thankyou again
and its nice to see a fellow discus keeper here too

[mammamalone]

Hi All,
After a while I am back with more questions.
Our GSP is still here with us and grown really well, but due to the addictive nature of the puffer personality I find myself turning another discus tank over to them.
I love figure of eights and have set up my 240 litre tank with them in mind (I have been watching some in the lfs for a month or so), the main question I have is how many would be safe to keep together in a tank of that size?
Thanks in advance.

[G S P Freak]

Two to three, optimally 3 to disperse aggression they may have, so one puffer doesn't get harassed to death. This relies on the fact that you will keep water parameters good too, as 3 puffers is a lot of bioload, and more tank room is never a problem, whilst less tank room often is.