Changing tanks and cleaning methods

[wish962]

Just want to start by saying a big thanks to everyone for the advice they've written on this forum. It's been the best -- and most importantly the most consistent source of information about puffers I've found online. Thank you!

I have one young Figure 8 puffer and thanks to advice on this forum, I'm upgrading his tank to a 57 Liter (15G) tank. I was wondering about a few things about his new environment because i want to make sure everything is right for him, to make him comfortable and to promote good health.

I know about salt, i know about the temperature. The first thing i was wondering though was about the environment inside the tank. The pet shops I've checked so far said that i shouldn't put live plants in the tank with the puffer. What do you think about that? If it's OK, what plants live well in brackish aquariums? Also, do you recommend live rocks (there are some specially packaged in hermetic bags labeled for aquariums) or is it better to use fake rocks? I don't know about puffers' natural environment, but i want my puffer to feel comfortable with lots to do and lots of places to explore What do you do? How is your tank set up?

My second question is about cleaning. Until recently, I've only owned fish that lived in small tanks (like goldfish) and so cleaning involved taking the fish out of the tank, cleaning the tank and then returning the fish to said tank. With my puffer, since the water takes a few days to get ready, i would pump his water into a smaller "temporary" tank, and then put him in there while i emptied, cleaned and refilled his tank. He'd have to spend about 48 hours (the pet shop told me to let the water sit for a few days before putting the puffer in) in the temp tank and i don't think he liked it

I'd like to avoid taking my puffer out of the tank if possible. Is there a good way to clean a tank with minimal stress on the puffer? I want to disturb him as little as possible while i clean his tank and change the water. I read that it's OK to change only 20 to 40% of the water at a time. What do you think about that?

I appreciate any advice you can give!
Thanks in advance!

[manutius]

I must confess I am a little ignorant when it come s brackish fish but I know you definately do not want to removed you fish everytime you doa awater change, it will be way too stressful and it not neccesarry. 20-40% water change is fine and what you may need to do is have a storage tank, something like an old water butt but preferaby something food grade like camping water storage tanks. You could then have the water ready at the correct salinity and then add a heater to bring it to the corect temp when it comes to topping up the tank. I cant help with your other questions but there are plenty of people here that can, good luck

[Gomez]

When doing a water change on my brackish tank I first pour six, 7 gal buckets I purchased from the hardware store full of water. The top 2 buckets each get a full cup of marine salt at time of bucket filling. The water is left to sit out to allow any chlorine to evaporate from the water and to allow the salt to dissolve in to the water.

The next day usually about 30 hours later I will begin to drain out the water from my tank usually about half. However this amount depends on if my other tanks are low on water. I use a gravel siphon to clean the gravel and the fake plants. I have lots. Then I clean the filter with a pipe cleaner and rinse with the water I just removed from the tank.

The tank gets refilled, then the algae gets cleaned of the glass with my magna float, I plug the filter in again and pour water into it to get it going again. The filter is an emperor 400 so the water drains out when the water level goes low and needs to be refilled before the filter can be plugged in again.

The buckets are stacked for future water change.

I change the water in my brackish tank every 2 weeks sometimes 3.
The salinity is always between 1.02 and 1.05
And the nitrates never have gone above 10 ppm
The tank is 65 gal and has a school of mono sebae and some mollies

[Nick]

Don't take your fish out of the tank to clean it heavily. Just do 30-60%(I like 50% or so, puffers like water with very few decomposed organics in it) water change, using a gravel vaccuming siphon. Lots of crud builds up in gravel, you will probably be shocked how much strange detrius is sucked up. Get a big sterilite container from target or walmart or whatever, big enough to siphon all your gross tank water into, and mix your replacement water in. The clear kind of sterilite is best, it's rated for long term storage of human consumed foods and water, and thus you can be sure it won't leech weird chemicals into your water like rubbermaid roughneck totes might before they are "broken in". Mix your salt in that, at very low SG like you will do with a figure 8, the mix disolves very fast, the physics of disolving solids are very much on your side with the brackish in the low end, so it disolves much faster and easier than it will at higher SG. With a very low SG like that it would probably be ready in a couple hours, rather than a day, and I always use dechlorinator myself, in case my local water supply decides to use much more toxic chloramines rather than regular air dissipating chlorine. There are a good number of plants that will do well at under 1.006 salinity, so you can definately plan for live plants if you want. Just research which ones. For reference, it's OK to change much more than 40% of the water at a time, as long as you do so regularly so the fish is not stressed by what you do when you clean the tank. I do at least 50% a week, and if I miss a week, I do a 90%. This never crashes the biological filter, as almost all the bacteria responsible for this are on tank surfaces, gravel, and more than anywhere else, in the filter media.

[wish962]

OK! I'm glad i don't have to completely drain the tank every time i do a water change/cleaning, thanks everyone!

When i change the water, should i change the filter media before adding the new water, or should i change the media after re-filling the tank to let the bacteria in the filter get into the new water? I'm planning on doing 40% water changes, so i was wondering about that as some people say that the filter is the last thing you should change (but the people who say that also completely drain their tank at each cleaning session...)

Also still wondering about decorations. I read elsewhere on the forum that puffers need coral to keep their beaks trim. Will just about any live rocks do, or does it have to be coral? My tank's bottom is lined with coral fragments actually...