Planning of a 40 gallon puffer tank

[tele]

Hi everyone,

My first post here!

I'm planning to setup my 40 gallon tank as a brackish species only puffer tank and need help!
I haven't decided on which puffer yet, but I'm leaning towards 2 or 3 figure 8's.

At first I wanted a GSP, but I'm not prepared to spend the extra money on live rock and a skimmer so I decided keep a low end brackish tank.
Are there any other brackish puffers besides the figure 8 that I can keep in my 45 gallon tank? pros and cons?

[Flutter]

I don't think there are others. There must be but I think they would be very difficult to find. Most commercial BW puffers are found in higher salinities and people bump them up to marine as it's healthy for the fish and cheaper.

That being said, F8s are lovely fish and you could go with 3 of them or have 2 and some bumble bee gobies.

[tele]

Ok, then I will go with 2 F8's and some bbg's.

If I want to keep the tank as close to the F8-biotope as possible, what should I put in my tank?

Plants?
Drift wood?
Which sand?

[Flutter]

An aragonite sand is best and it's nice and white. This is important for them as it will dissolve and help keep a high level of Total Dissolved Solids in the water. High TDS is very important for these fish. Beyond that I'm not sure.

I like this website for biotopes:
http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope.htm

I would guess that the best fit on that website would be the Southeast Asian Mangrove Estuary.

[PolishPuff]

Ok, then I will go with 2 F8's and some bbg's.

If I want to keep the tank as close to the F8-biotope as possible, what should I put in my tank?

Plants?
Drift wood?
Which sand?

Most or some members here do not keep driftwood in BW, it devolves quicker then in FW. Some fake/plastic driftwood is fine.

Some live plants are OK in BW (1.005) Fake silk plants look very nice.

[tele]

Thanks for the link.

Should I use RO-water and coral sea salt?

[PolishPuff]

Thanks for the link.

Should I use RO-water and coral sea salt?

Sea salt. Example; Instant Ocean

[tele]

I have some Red Sea Coral Pro salt, using this in my SW tank, it should work?

But what about using reverse osmosis water?
Is it neccesary or is ok with tap water?

I think I'll use it to be on the safe side. It can't hurt.

[PolishPuff]

Tap water is fine

[Flutter]

Tap water is perfect (unless it's poor quality) and any marine salt is fine. They don't need anything fancy.

[Pufferpunk]

In a tank that size, you could keep a nice community of BW fish with your F8s, depending on how aggressive the individuals are. Orange chromides, mollies, & knight gobies are some of the neat fish that could go in there.

[RTR]

Nomenclature clarifications:

"Marine mix" is what is used by hobbyists to make up the water for salt water and brackish water tanks. "Sea salt" is a kitchen or grocery store item made by evaporating sea water in ponds, the dry end product is used as a flavoring agent substituting for regular table salt. It cannot be used for brackish or marine tanks, as there are many irreversible chemical reactions in the concentrating and drying process - it will mot support BW or SW fish or inverts.

In low-end BW for F-8s, BBGs, etc., the strength of the BW is measured by specific gravity or salinity. The weak solution of the mixes at 1.003 -1.005 specific gravity has insufficient carbonate/bicarbonate hardness for long-term stability. Tanks at this low salt density level rely on bacterial nitrification to make ammonia and nitrite less toxic by conversion to nitrate. That nitrification uses up dissolved carbonate, twice as much as the ammonia converted to nitrate. That bacterial process depletes the natural buffering from carbonate/bicarbonate, allowing the pH to drop to undesirably low levels. Using aragonite substrates provides readily soluble carbonates/bicarbonates to maintain the natural buffering needed in the light BW. That is why aragonite is preferred over crushed coral, as aragonite is more soluble than crushed coral. Silica-based sands provide effectively zero buffering support, so is worthless for this use.

Brackish water biotopes are rarely emulated in tanks. The fish found in these situations in the wold move freely from FW to BW and even to full marine (SW) conditions daily or frequently or seasonally from one condition or another to lesser or greater salinities. There is no possibility of matching these changes in captivity, and in fact it has been found that F-8s live longest and healthiest in relatively stable low-end BW (1.003 - 1.005 specific gravity) water. Stable low-end BW habitats simply do not exist in the wild - they move seasonally to daily with the tides. Captive handling of these fish is quite different from their wild conditions. Captive biotopes are effectively impossible. Wild -appearing biotpes are possible with careful selection of artificial mangrove roots and artificial plants, supplemented with aragonite substrates ("colors", really shades, are available - it is not all stark white as is crushed coral) and dried/cured rock or artificial corals.

HTH

[tele]

Thanks for your elaborate reply!

I can assure you that the salt I have "Red Sea Coral Pro Salt" http://www.redseafish.com/index.aspx?id=4163 is not a kitchen or grocery salt mix.

So I guess the optimal way to keep a F8 puffer would be to slowly change the salinity level from close to FW to BW on a yearly or 3-4 monthly basis?

[Pufferpunk]

As RTR said:

it has been found that F-8s live longest and healthiest in relatively stable low-end BW (1.003 - 1.005 specific gravity) water

[tele]

Ok, my bad missed that.