The Puffer Forum

Ok guys its been a week now with my 3 gsp in their 55g tank which was seeded by an established filter I am wondering how long i should wait before adding salt. I really am anxious to get the salinity up. can I begin doing so? I already have the necessary items/tools. Also when i do raise it should i go to 1.002 or some say i can go to 1.004 during the first raising of salinity. the puffers are no less than 2inches one being 2.5 measuring all from nose to tail. They are currently in freshwater with no aquarium salt as i was told thru TPF it wouldn't make a dfference. Please let me know when i can raise the salinity it is a 55g tank so if you have a good recipe let me know. All suggestions are welcome thanks in advance for your much needed responses.
Amonia is -0
Nitrate is -5
Nitrite is- 0
PH- 7.8/8
hardness -150ish
Salinity- 1.000(FW)

my goal salinity will eventually be 1.015-1.018 I intend to keep the lil guys high end brackish for their lifespan unless I fall into alot of cash for marine. Do you know at what saliity they thrive best at in a high-end BW? There is some confusion around the net and forum. PS I have read almost every puffer article and more.

Only raise your SG by .002 or less per week, even on the first increase, or you will kill your bio filter that you just worked so hard to establish. I'll just copy and past the process from another thread that I put up a few days ago.


I'll start from scratch, like you you know nothing about brackish water, and describe the process:

Things you'll need:
1) Container at least 3/4 size the total volume of your aquarium.
2) Marine salt
3) Water
4) A measuring cup, plastic or glass preferably (metal corrodes)
5) Hydrometer or Refractometer (refractometer is more expensive but well worth it)
6) Heater
7) Power head of some sort

How to:
1) Fill the container with water equaling 50% of your tank volume
2) Slowly add salt, you have to experiment with how much to add. Each salt manufacturer is different and even then, there is a difference between batches from the same manufacturer.
3) Add heater. Make sure it is one that can be submerged (don't ask how I found this out because I won't tell!)
4) Submerge power head and turn it on (again, read number 3)
5) Make sure all the salt is dissolved in the container. If you see some sitting on the bottom, give it a good stir and check back in a while.
6) Once you do not see any salt in standing on the bottom of the container, let the water mix for a few hours.
7) Check SG and adjust accordingly.
Let the water mix over night to make sure all the salt has dissolved.
9) Do a 50% water change. Replace what you took out with what you mixed and viola' brackish water!

The trick is to not raise things more than .002 per week. So, based on a 50% water change, the SG of the first batch of water you mix should be 1.004. Now the question is what is the next one and how do you figure it out? I use the formula:

(a+b)/2=c.
a= your current SG
b= what you need your next mix to be
c= your target SG

So if your tank is at 1.002 and you want to raise to 1.004 the equation should look like this: (1.002+b)/2=1.004
I'll let you do the math.....

thank you, I know all that, my question is how long to wait for my to do all this its a week old. Is it too soon or OK?

Dad, please make up a sticky on this.

Look guys I got the formula in all that and read every article here I just want to know if its too soon should I wait a week more or go for it when I do the water change?

If they're settled, healthy & eating well, do it at the next water change. Go for it!

thanks thats all i wanted to know i lll start later today bigfatfish ill keep yall posted on how it goes

Cool I just finished raising it to 1.002 but does anyone else have problems with their hydrometer like I have been I seems to be really inacurate. its spotless clean but i always got to tap it to get it to read or it just shows 1.000 i really get the feeling these things are junk. I had to test my new water like ten times to be sure it was right and even then i was really just getting the average. And just by the name of a refractometer seems really exspensive. I am using an INSTANT OCEAN HYDROMETER and like i said really doesnt seem to work well. do these things go bad after a while or something BC it was used when i got it.

What kind of hydrometer do you have?

I'm going with an INSTANT OCEAN HYDROMETER, but that's just a guess.

It may need calibrating. Did you measure the salinity of your tapwater?

I prefer to use a refractometer, so don't really have much experience in the reliability of a hydrometer.

yes it is an instant ocean and how do you calibrate it and how much is a cheap or typical refractometer cost? thanks again

I got my refractometer from e-bay. Think it was £25 + postage etc, so just under £30. So easy to use.

SammyDee wrote:yes it is an instant ocean and how do you calibrate it and how much is a cheap or typical refractometer cost? thanks again

To calibrate it, you measure the salinity of your tap water. It probably won't be zero. If it comes out as, say, -.002, then to raise the salinity to 1.002, your goal would be to get the salinity in the tank to read as 1.000. The salinity in your tap is actually zero, but the hydrometer can read it wrong, so you have to check that.

thanks the tank SG is 1.002 but ima try some tap later should be zero cause i added the salt slow and b4 it was zero in my 30g tub for water changes. Im still not really clear on how you calibrate it though.