Too many variables to estimate... Surface area, flow rate, natural alkalinity of water, number of water changes, etc etc etc. Impossible, really. The substrate will visibly dissolve, though.
Your best bet is to start with a cup of substrate in the filter. Measure KH & pH periodically for the first month and see how they change. Please let us know, too!
Can someone suggest a KH reading suitable for this kind of setup? I'm thinking between 8-12 degrees KH, but I really don't know.
new to this site and puffers
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Bred
- Former Staff Member
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KH is carbonate hardness... Put simply, it's the potential for the water to buffer against pH change. Higher KH vaules tend to coincide with higher pH values, but the relationship is more complex than that. Read the article I mentioned earlier; it does a much better job of explaining.
Oh. Haha. I mentioned the article in a different thread. It's this one, in the Library section of this site: "What? The Water's Hard?"
Oh. Haha. I mentioned the article in a different thread. It's this one, in the Library section of this site: "What? The Water's Hard?"
Like I said earlier...good for you for doing all your research first...it'll save you a whole lot of hassle. I read up about puffers for 18 months, and kept visiting my lfs to ask Qs and check they'd got all the equipment I needed, and found this forum....invaluable.
Ask away...you'll most likely be a successful pufferdad.
Pami.
Ask away...you'll most likely be a successful pufferdad.
Pami.
There are at least a couple of issues with dumping salt in thank directly.
Salt doesn't mix that easily and you're not going to know what the SG really is until it has completely disolved. If you dump it into the tank, lots will sink into the gravel where you can't stir it, so testing right away isn't going to tell you anything.
If you put in too much salt and bump the SG more than .002 it can impact your nitrifying bacteria and lead to a mini-cycle and puffers are highly sensitive to nitrites and ammonia.
Finally, it might burn the puffer's gills uf they swim through the falling salt (just my fear on this one, but I'm not going to risk it).
Eric
Salt doesn't mix that easily and you're not going to know what the SG really is until it has completely disolved. If you dump it into the tank, lots will sink into the gravel where you can't stir it, so testing right away isn't going to tell you anything.
If you put in too much salt and bump the SG more than .002 it can impact your nitrifying bacteria and lead to a mini-cycle and puffers are highly sensitive to nitrites and ammonia.
Finally, it might burn the puffer's gills uf they swim through the falling salt (just my fear on this one, but I'm not going to risk it).
Eric
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RTR
- Mentor
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Some of the more neurotic among us never use BW/SW short of 48 hours with current for mixing/dissolving/equilibrating. Some of those have found that the measures can change from 1 hr to 24 hours to 48 hours. Beyond that there is little detectable difference. So we don't use freshly mixed solutions until they are stable. Personal choice item.
Where's the fish? - Neptune
If you premix for 48 hours like RTR (this is probably the ideal way to do this), you'd need a heater (you don't want to shock the puffer with different water temp) and a powerhead for current the container.
However, I don't do what RTR does on this one simply because I'm only making BW at 1.005 SG which is really low and the salt does disolve within about 3 minutes with stirring. I do wait about 10-15 minutes before adding to the tank just to be safe. My SG in the bucket and in the tank is steady, and I did try waiting different lengths of time once to see if the SG changed which it didn't.
I think RTR and many of the others who premix are making larger batches at full SW strenght and diluting the water with pure FW to get the strength they need (I'd premix in this situation, too because salt doesn't like to disolve when used in mass quantities) - and most do this because they have multiple tanks at different SGs. Also, many aquarists let FW age, too, which I believe is to vent off any gasses and make sure there is nothing funny with the water chemistry.
That's my $.02 worth FWIW.
Eric
However, I don't do what RTR does on this one simply because I'm only making BW at 1.005 SG which is really low and the salt does disolve within about 3 minutes with stirring. I do wait about 10-15 minutes before adding to the tank just to be safe. My SG in the bucket and in the tank is steady, and I did try waiting different lengths of time once to see if the SG changed which it didn't.
I think RTR and many of the others who premix are making larger batches at full SW strenght and diluting the water with pure FW to get the strength they need (I'd premix in this situation, too because salt doesn't like to disolve when used in mass quantities) - and most do this because they have multiple tanks at different SGs. Also, many aquarists let FW age, too, which I believe is to vent off any gasses and make sure there is nothing funny with the water chemistry.
That's my $.02 worth FWIW.
Eric
I use a 5 gallon bucket to mix in, so for my 20 long tank it takes 2 buckets to do a 50% water change which I'm having to do since my city water has high nitrates right now. I've got a mess of plants growing in the tank, and the nitrates are starting to decrease so I'm hoping I'll only need to do 25% changes in the future (the tank only has 1 figure 8 - I'm all about understocking so I can do less work). Regardless, it does get easier with time.
I use about 1 tablespoon per gallon right now to get to 1.005, but that's partly because I'm compensating for water lost in the tank by evaporation. I think to start it was closer to 1.5 tablespoons per gallon, but you can't really trust tablespoons or cups for measurement - you'd need to check those amounts vs a hydrometer. Different brands of ocean/SW mix lead to different SGs, and any moisture in the mix also changes the amount needed. I think this has already by seen said, be sure and use SW mix like instant ocean and not deyhydrated sea salt or aquarium salt (at low brackish a small bag of istant ocean will list at least 2 months).
Eric
I use about 1 tablespoon per gallon right now to get to 1.005, but that's partly because I'm compensating for water lost in the tank by evaporation. I think to start it was closer to 1.5 tablespoons per gallon, but you can't really trust tablespoons or cups for measurement - you'd need to check those amounts vs a hydrometer. Different brands of ocean/SW mix lead to different SGs, and any moisture in the mix also changes the amount needed. I think this has already by seen said, be sure and use SW mix like instant ocean and not deyhydrated sea salt or aquarium salt (at low brackish a small bag of istant ocean will list at least 2 months).
Eric