The Puffer Forum

Im currently converting my freshwater GSP's to Brackish water by every week changing out one gallon of water and adding 1 TBSP marine salt does this sound alright? i heard your supposed to kinda ween them into brackish from freshwater? And i also don't know which kind of substrate i should use that works the best. I have gravel right now and i dont think it keeps that water as hard as puffers are supposed to have? thank you

Crushed coral or aragonite sand to help buffer your PH.

As for converting from freshwater to brackish, make sure you are using marine salt and not aquarium salt. There is a big difference between the two. If you indeed have marine salt on hand, you will also need a refractometer so that you can appropriately raise your salinity by no more than .002 per every week (I would go with every other week). The purpose or this is so that you do not kill your biological filtration and cause ammonia/nitrite spikes that can be severely harmful to your fish.

Best of luck.

Those are both good substrates for brackish water. The marine salt will also help buffer the pH. Also, the pH isn't that big a worry in the first place. Most fish can adapt to the "wrong" pH easily.

You need to use a hydrometer or refractometer to make sure that you are at the right salinity.

perfect thank you, easier one of those substrates easier to clean or stays clean longer then one or the other?

Crushed coral is easier to maintain, but sand tends to have a higher aesthetic appeal.

If you plan to use crushed coral, try to find it in the smallest size possible. The larger sized crushed coral substrates tend to be a little pointy.