The Puffer Forum

ive red that u add about 1-2 table spoons of salt to each gallon of water in your tank to make it low end brackish water suitible for f8 puffers, but it dont say weather that is us or uk gallons.
can any 1 please help me and tell me how much salt for a uk gallon and how much salt for a us gallon to keep it low end brackish water which is safe for figure eight puffers?.
any help is more than welcome, cheers

Well, you need a hydrometer or refractometer.

It's difficult to tell how much salt you should add (you know that you need to use a salt water mix, and not only common salt?), as it can differ a bit from brand to brand, and even between bags of the same brand. I've experienced that myself, when I, when I opened a new salt water mix bag, luckily tested my water (I mix water and salt outside the tank) before I poured it into the tank. The difference was big between "old" and "new" salt!
So, what you need is some way to measure how much salt there is in the water. As mentioned in the second post, you need a hydrometer (not hygrometer - many make a mistake there. A hygrometer measures the humidity) or refractometer. A hydrometer is definitely the cheapest way. Well, cheapest if you don't do like I did: I broke 4-6 of them in one year! Hydrometers measure the amount of salt in the water by how well it floats in the water. The more salt in the water, the better the thing floats (there's a scale on it, that tells you how salty the water is).
A refractometer is easier to read (at least IMO), but can be pretty pricy to buy, depending on where you buy it (I bought mine on Ebay, and there you can get them for a very nice price). It measures the water in an optic way (I don't know exactly how).

Wed have a sticky in the BW puffer forum on how to raise the salinity of your tank. Do you have a cycled tank ready for your puffers or are they already in your posession?

no no i dont have the fish yet, ive only just got the new tank and cabinet,its 43.22 US gallons so they will be happy when i get them (2 f8's and few bumblebee goby's)
just wanted to get clued up before i start the tank.
its my first brackish tank,thats why im starting with f8 as they are low brackish water so im hoping they will be easier to start with.
ive had fresh water fish for 10+ years and want something new.
im worried that the f8's i get will be in fresh water when i buy them, i want to find some that are already in bw so i dont have to change a fw tank to bw with puffers in as ive never done it.

If you're just setting the tank up and it's not cycled you can mix your salt in the tank at the desired SG then do a fishless cycle. IMHO, though, I'd set it up as FW and fishless cycle. As you stated most F8's are kept in FW in the LFS so you could put them in the tank and then raise the SG per the instructions in the Sticky.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

Yes, they will most liklely be in FW at the shop, so just fishless cycle a FW tank for them, raising the SG as per Dad's article. You should check with the shop to be sure about the SG though.