1puff wrote:Did a 50% wc this morning and the water params are:
Ammo 0,nitrite 0 and nitrate 5. SG is at 1.002.
If the tank is fully cycled by the end of the week,should i increase the sg to 1.004?
Forget SG completely until your tank has stable cycled parameters, I'd be very tempted to do as PP says and drop the SG to zero and add Tetra Safestart, I believe it is Sevenyearnight who is currently carrying out an experiment with the instant cycling product and is getting very favourable results. Figure 8's are freshwater to lower estuary fish so can tolerate freshwater conditions for quite a while but they are just best maintained in low brackish conditions. If you don't have access to Tetra Safetstart then carry out massive daily water changes and maintain your SG without worrying if it goes up or down by SG0.002; ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are far more important at the moment. Once your tank is stable, say for a fortnight, then you can start playing with your salinity.
People generally keep their F8 tanks between SG1.003-SG1.005 at 25DegC, I keep mine at SG1.003 at 25DegC because I can keep a wider variety of healthy plants and it won't have an effect on the health of the puffer.
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept: T lineatus T miurus A modestus T biocellatus C valentini C coranata C papuan C lorteti DPs suvattii burrfish T niphobles
I'll keep the SG at .002 until everything is stable and then increase by no more the .002 and leave it at 1.004 for life this way Ill have various options for plants.
According to RTR, low end brackish 1.003 -1.005 has the same bacteria functioning as freshwater, so technically you wouldn't have to drop your salinity back down to add Tetra Safestart. He said he has not found any difference in the amount of time it took to cycle a tank as low end brackish as opposed to freshwater. It is the abrupt changes in salinity, as in more than 0.002 a week, that will shock the bacteria and cause a die off.
However, those numbers indicate a cycled tank. Monitor for 2 weeks, and if stable, raise it to 1.003 or 1.004 for your Figure 8.
I just checked water params and they show some ammonia and nitrite. I'd say prob .1 ammo and .2 nitrite. I think with next water change everything should be at zero and stay there.
