new to this site and puffers

[RTR]

Jayhawk described my situation exactly, I do mix salt full strength and mix in aged tap as required. It saves space.

[YBeNormal]

You mentioned at the beginning of this thread that the tank has been cycled for about two months. Do you currently have fish in the tank or are you dosing with ammonia to keep the tank cycled?

[Pufferpunk]

There is no way that 1tbsp of salt/gal could make up a SG of 1.005. For me, it usually takes a cup of salt/5gal.

[thedude]

I've had just 2 pleco's in there until last night when i added the salt. tuesday i got rid of all the fish, there were about 16 community fish in there.

[Pufferpunk]

How do you plan on cycling the tank?

[thedude]

i guess i figured it would still be cycled

[YBeNormal]

The tank probably was cycled while you still had fish in it, maybe even after that depending on how much food, decaying plants and other organic matter remained in the tank to continue feeding the nitrifying bacteria. Without a continuous source of ammonia though, the bacteria will eventually die off. The bacteria also might not be able to handle a rapid transition from 1.000 to 1.005.

If I understand correctly, the tank is now devoid of fish, the SG level has been raised to 1.005 and you are preparing to purchase one or more puffers. Although the tank was previously cycled, you may want to verify this by following the steps outlined in the fishless cycling article located in the library. If you add the ammonia, test the following day and see zero nitrates, zero nitrites and an increase in nitrates--your tank is cycled. Do a water change to bring the nitrates back down and you are ready to go. I'm somewhat paranoid and would continue testing until the results were repeated at least three days in a row, but that's just me.

[Jayhawk]

PP - I used this article which I think you referred me to a few months ago (possibly on the old board, possibly on another board): http://badmanstropicalfish.com/brackish/brackish.html

It mentions 1-2 tablespoons to achieve 1.005-1.010, and my hydrometer seems to support that. I use Instant Ocean if that makes a difference.

I wonder what your water is like up in the windy city? Maybe it's a difference in our tap water (our GH is about 13 out of the tap - the water from the Missouri runs through about 1000 miles of limestone which was formed when this area was a vast inland salt sea)? Maybe my argonite substrate (which spent several years as a tanganyikan tank substrate) is raising the SG?

Maybe it's because I eat salted potato chips over my tank?

I'm not sure why, but it seems to work out for me and at least for the author of the article it matches their experience, too.

Eric

[Pufferpunk]

I use whatever salt is the cheapest (by the bucket). What kind of hydrometer is it? I would have your hydrometer checked against a refractometer (what I always use).

That article must be mistaken. It says it takes about 7 tbsp of salt/gal to make SW. According to my latest bucket (Oceanic), it's calling for 1/2 cup/gal.

[Pamela]

I'm using Tropic Marin, and I have a 7.5 litre bucket, and I swear on Robert and Mags' little fishy fins that a rounded 50ml measuring cup, into the 7.5l bucket makes 1.005.
I've waited a while before testing it in the bucket, and I also test regularly in the tank.
I've got a swing arm hydrometer, but it's constant..the SG is always between 1.004 and 1.006...as I do vary it a little from time to time..on purpose, as that's what happens in the wild.
Reckon what it is is that Tropic Marin is very concentrated.
Pami.

[Jayhawk]

Pami - that led me on a merry chase around conversion tables and all, but that's 1.5 tablespoons per gallon of water. I do round my tablespoons, too, so my measurements are very close to yours and I end up with 1.004 in my bucket and my tank hovers right at 1.005 (I don't refill with pure FW for evaporation so I make my BW a little on the light side and it seems to balance out OK).

PP - I have an Instant Ocean Hydrometer because it was the only one at the LFS that measures down to 1.000 and the LFS uses the same model (not a refractometer) because they say it's the most reliable hydrometer they've found. In reality, the LFS is also probably too cheap to own their own refractometer.

But in the interest of science, I dug through my long neglected brewing supplies and found my floating hydrometer, added water from my tank to the hydrometer's beeker, chilled to the proper 60 farenheit the hydrometer is calibrated for, and ended up again with 1.005 SG.

Not sure if it makes a difference or not, but my Instant Ocean has a bold yellow star saying "IMPROVED".

Eric

[Jayhawk]

OK, in a further effort to see if there is a reason my SG is at it's current rate despite the salt amount I use, I measured KH and GH for the first time since I set up the tank (the tap KH and GH read their normal KH 2 and GH 12). With the argonite substrate and Instant Ocean, using FW test kits since the SG is only 1.005, I had:

KH 6
GH 59

I'm not making up that GH number. I tested it twice, and then I retested my tap water to make sure the test kit hadn't gone wonky.

Is that normal? Isn't that close to solid? Could the BW mess up a FW GH test? This is my first BW tank, obviously, and maybe that GH level is normal.

Eric

[LittlePuff]

Back to hardening the water..
Could you use a cuttlebone to slowly dissolve and release calcium into the water?


Kim

[RTR]

Cuttlebone would hadly be controlled or certainly not cost effective.

[LittlePuff]

Thanks, RTR