The Puffer Forum

honestly ive never tested that stuff....need to go get a test

J-P wrote:

sevenyearnight wrote:Not at that salinity. That's different bacteria than low brackish.

+1 the SG difference alone would give you an ammonia bloom.

PolishPuff wrote:

xrayjeeper83 wrote:Not saying you cant do it, just that you run the risk of dumping some bacteria into your tank

Right, and something about the 4 seasons they bring different SG or something.

If the seawater is of different SG then you just Dilute it with RO accordingly no big deal, yes most in the UK make their salt water with Bucket salt but using Natural Seawater is a rising trend amongst reefers and add more nickels to the pocket for that extra special purchase like a new fish etc etc....

Read here a reefer friend of mine runs a 600 Litre reef tank with Fish filled purely with water from the sea : http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/show ... hlight=NSW

With a target Sg of 1.005 for an F8 puffer, putting sand in from the ocean (SG 1.015+) won't work right away. That live sand will very quickly become dead sand because the SG is too different (the critters can't live at that level), and the beneficial bacteria at 1.005 is still FW. Adding it to THIS tank in this situation isn't going to work.

my ph is 8.0 and im trying to keep it there i have never gotten my KH tested, so your saying only get argaonite sand? that stuffs expensive... crushed coral do the same effect?

I used CC in my F8's tank.

okay, i may be able to use that for more of a natural look... but i wanna remodel that tank, so if anyone has any links with some good fake plants, fake wood and stuff or some nice rocks or whatever... feel free

Try Craigslist & Freecycle.

I've heard people have gotten crushed coral and regret it..I'd go with aragonite...

so basically pool filter sand wont cut it

just get a small bag of arag and mix it with the pool filter or play sand..the arag will still serve it's purpose

For a 29g F8u tank, CC is fine. Mine did great for many, many years. I believe the problems comes in with large SW tanks, where the CC can't be cleaned thoroughly enough & detritus builds up in there. Also, it can't sustain the SW sand creatures that keep a sandbed clean, which don't exist in BW.

My worries were with the detritus, but I have no experience with it so I'd say listen to those who do!

It actually cleans quite easily with a Python/gravel cleaner.

Thanks for clearing that up for me PP, so if I'm right it's really not good only for large or reef setups?

I wouldn't use it for SW at all.