The Puffer Forum

I'm moving my GSP to a new tank and I wanted to know if aqua soil was a suitable substrate for it. I've browsed around a quite a few pics and i don't think i've seen anyone keeping their puffer in a tank with any aqua soil, not even the planted tanks.

If it's not suitable, what is the best substrate to use? I am currently using sand and some rocks about 1 to 1.4 cm in diameter, I don't like the sand because a lot of dirt gets caught up in it and it's hard to syphon without sucking up the sand...

Edit:
The actual name is Aqua Soil...

I believe I read somewhere that if you use soil for your substrate, then you just gave the puffers back their ability to produce the Tetrodotoxin. A few certain bacteria are responsible for the production on the toxin, most of which are found in soil.

-UMB

i read sand is best cause they sometimes like to dig in the subtrate and gravel can scrap and cut their scaless bodies.
aquarium dirt will be hard to clean and i wouldnt recommend it for the puffer

Is it real soil like we use in gardens or is it more like Eco-complete and stuff like that?

crazedpuffer wrote:Is it real soil like we use in gardens or is it more like Eco-complete and stuff like that?

Probably the latter of the two. It says on the thing it helps to soften water and lower ph levels and plants get nutrients from it...

Aragonite sand or crushed coral is recommended to keep the pH steady, around 8. Be sure to read the GSP article in our Library.

The soil will serve a GSP no purpose, really. IT would just drop the PH. There's no way plants can survive at the SG your GSP will be at before long, so it's probably a waste of time unless its a planted tank.

Nick wrote:The soil will serve a GSP no purpose, really. IT would just drop the PH. There's no way plants can survive at the SG your GSP will be at before long, so it's probably a waste of time unless its a planted tank.

SG?

Specific gravity--the measurement of salinity in your tank when adding marine salt to make the water brackish for a GSP. Please read the article on them in our Library.

Pufferpunk wrote:Specific gravity--the measurement of salinity in your tank when adding marine salt to make the water brackish for a GSP. Please read the article on them in our Library.

Oh, the salinity...

To be perfectly correct about the SG thing, specific gravity, more commonly known as density, is a measure of ALL solids dissolved in the liquid you are measuring.
It's just that the other minerals/salts in aquarium water other than sodium chloride are just trace elements and affect the reading hardly at all making it a good measure of salinity.

Just wanted to clear that up as most people think that it only applies to salt content.