The Puffer Forum

Thanks for the constructive critisicm on the tank. It's my first brackish so definately a learning experience. Here's a pic of the modified setup. I tried to break up sight lines and change what plants I had in there. I'll add a bubble wall somewhere as well.



Plants in the tank: Java Moss, Echinodorous bleheri, microsorum pheropus (windelov) and some cutting from another microsorum pheropus (not sure what kind). I did some research on the Tropica plant site and this site http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubW ... plants.htm to see what may be compatible for brackish water. My salinity is at 1.002-3 right now as I did a slight water change for the new plants. May keep it there for a while and slowly get back up to 1.005 when..actually IF they become more established in the system.

Opinions of driftwood in brackish water seems to vary. I've read good and bad so all I can do is keep a close eye on mine. Underneath the driftwood on the left is quite a bit of swmming space it's just hard to tell in the pic.

Luckily if the driftwood or plants don't do so hot I got 3 FW tanks that can house em, and plenty of fake plants and decorations that can take their place. If the java moss does well I actually have tons of that I can use in spots.

If you are getting 4 figure 8's you need a lot more decor to break up the lines of sight. More plants, more ornaments or both would work. IMO, I think that figure 8's and dwarf puffers enjoy heavily planted tanks (jungle-like) where they have to continuosly explore to see whats on the other side. Just my two cents. Here's a pic of my fig 8 tank. The plants have only been in for a week so I'm hoping that they will grow and fill in nicely.

Thanks for the tip, I've been searching for a good tree root - the one you have looks awesome. If I can't find anything soon I'll do more driftwood for now until I get some plants with good brackish tolerance.

The Dracena sanderiana at the right of the photo is not brackish, not FW, it is terrestial and will die slowly - and not do your water quality any good.

I can't see the plants at the left, some type of sword?

I didn't know that about the plant. I've had some for about 6 weeks now and they've done well for me.

I'll do some more research on them - but thanks for the tip!

Took out those plants - btw the others I can't remember the exact name they might've just been generally labelled "amazon sword".

They could well be the standard swords. They still have the emerse foliage form which will change over to the submerse form over time by replacement foliage. I have taken those to hard water (Rift Lake) and very light BW (~1.003) where they survived. I have not taken them to higher densities than that.

Driftwood rots in brackish water. I had some but took it out last week because it started to rot.

Those tree roots are artificial and I got them from http://www.petsmart.com, here's the link http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_ ... 6058647231
The big one that I have is the 'jumbo' but it doesn't have a picture on the website, the smaller one in my tank is the 'large' which is the bigger one in the petsmart picture.
Like Raphael said, you don't want to use real driftwood because it will rot and leach toxins into the water. I really like mine and the puffers seem to like it too. They like to swim under it and explore around it. It was kinda pricey but it was well worth it and should last a long time.