The Puffer Forum

can i use regular aquarium gravel if i have brackish water??

Sure you can.

I use sand but gravel is fine.

Live sand wouldn't make it at this low SG

Ok thankyou it's cuz I'm buyin a 80gal tank this weekend so I just wanted to make sure

I used gravel for my younger juvenile puffers in their grow put tank but when I moved them into their larger, permanent tank, I used crushed coral. Lots of folks prefer aragonite sand. Either will do the important job of buffering your pH to a stead 8.

I would say that it depends on what species you are about to keep; fish that sit on or under the substrate like flounders, catfish, waspfish, mudskippers, Bumblebee gobies etc. would prefer a smooth fine substrate like sand but if you want mid or surface level fish like F8's, archers, halfbeaks etc. then it wouldn't matter if you used gravel.

if you are keeping low-end brackish fish that are commonly found in fresh water then a buffering substrate like crushed coral or aragonite probably isn't worth the extra money as the marine salt that you use will keep the water relatively hard anyway but if you are going to keep mid to high-end brackish species like GSP's, scats or monos then a buffering substrate would be beneficial.

Since this is in the BW puffer forum, I'm assuming that's what they're planning on keeping in there.

Pufferpunk wrote:Since this is in the BW puffer forum, I'm assuming that's what they're planning on keeping in there.

But I keep bumblebee gobies with my F8's and they skip around the bottom therefore I would recommend a smooth sand and not a gravel. If I only kept halfbeaks and a F8 then the substrate would not be much of an issue for me so gravel would suffice.
Because BBG's, F8's and certain species of halfbeaks are often found in freshwater as well as brackish zones then I wouldn't have thought that the additional PH buffering would be quite as critical as it would be with brackish water specialists as the marine salt itself is 'hardening' the water? I am by no means recommending that anyone should keep BBG's F8's or halfbeaks in completely fresh water.

I would recommend a substrate to buffer PH for a GSP though and would choose one that would also suit any tank-mates if I chose to attempt such a thing.

Either way, F8s need hard water with a high, stable pH, so at least aragonite sand, is recommended over gravel.

if you really prefer gravel to crushed coral or sand, a mesh bag of crushed coral in the filter does a great job of buffering and providing carbonates.