The Puffer Forum

I have a tanks set up for freshwater fish (cichlids to be precise) but I recently converted this tank to house puffers. They are all juveniles so they are doing well in the freshwater but I know that I need to make it brackish. My question is how should I make it brackish? Should I just add the marine salt recommended for brackish or make the adjustments gradually? How safe is it for my puffers to just make the change so suddenly? I think it would be best to ease them into it? What should I do?

You can raise your sg by .002 per week until you reach the desired sg. This will keep your good bacteria from dying off during the switch. There is an article in the library on gsp's and figure 8's. I'm assuming you have one or the other. You didn't mention what kind of puffers they are. Good luck with you new puffs.

Keep in mind that puffers have a much larger territory than your other run of the mill fish and require much more space. One Green Spotted Puffer per 30g and one Figure Eight Puffer per 15g is the median to go by.

How much salt exactly would it take to reach ".002 per week" for a 29 gal?

You don't have to raise it that fast. Use marine salt & get yourself a hydrometer or refractometer to measure salinity. You can go as little as just adding 1tbsp salt/g to your water changes.

Exactly as Pufferpunk said, the .002 is a maximum you should not exceed, but it isn't necessarily what you need to aim for each time either.

It takes a little math (I just explaind this all in another thread and don't feel like retyping it, sorry), but its easiest if you change 50% of your tank water and work with that, makes the math easier.

Otherwise, you can just add one tablespoon marine salt this week with your water change, next week add two tablespoons, the third week add three tablespoons.. etc. A few tablespoons in a 29 gallon tank (which truely only holds 25 gallons of water, its a funky naming thing), will not raise your salinity much at all, but it will get salt into the water and start them on the right path.

You still will need a refractometer (expensive) or hydrometer (cheap) to measure it so you know you aren't going too high.. you'll get the hang of it, its really not that hard.