The Puffer Forum

Hi,

Need some help with my set up, its a long story but here it goes.

Got my Tank 24 US GAL (90LTR) which I set up and cycled as a freshwater planted tank (I was orginally gonna set up as brackish from the start but my missus said she wanted bright colourful fish like tetras etc but I wanted a Figure-8, she won the battle so we decided on a community tank ). So we went to my lfs to get some stock (tetras etc) where she then decided she loved the baby figure-8's and we got one instead for the tank. I was delighted as that’s what I had wanted at the start when I done all the research So it was settled one figure-8 in the tank which now needed to be brackish.

The figure-8 was kept in freshwater at the shop despite me telling knowing it’s a brackish fish but they looked in great shape best I’d seen infact in my area. So we bought the fattest healthiest one and brought him/her back to its new home and called it Pegasus. Its currently about 1 ½” long including tail and eating very well (mostly bloodworm but I have got Ramshorn snails on order which will be a couple of days).

The problem is now I need to convert to a brackish so I guess all my plants will need to go as they wont survive in brackish water (plan to eventually keep it in 1.003 – 1.005 range). Also I have a large piece of bog-wood will that need to come out too? (will it rot in brackish conditions?)

My marine salt should arrive today so I will need to rise the salinity slowly to acclimatise both the puffer and the filter bacteria, but how high should I raise it and how quickly? Would raising it .001 every weekly water change be ok? I don’t wanna rush things and kill Pegasus or crash the filter.

Please help guys

p.s Sorry if I'd babbled on above lol

Raising it by .001 a week is fine, you can do .002 a week safely but for the SG you want to finally acheive no need to rush it. Wood does go mushy in brackish conditions.

Im not a plant person but info on Neales Brackish FAQ page should guide you in what plants you can and cant have.

Brackish FAQ

Your bog wood will be absolutely fine in that salinity I've got some in my F8 and mudskipper tanks.
Many plants will survive in low brackish conditions, which species have you got?

Iliveinazoo wrote:Your bog wood will be absolutely fine in that salinity I've got some in my F8 and mudskipper tanks.
Many plants will survive in low brackish conditions, which species have you got?

I’ve got some Cabomba, Bacopa, Indian water fern(but thats not doing to well at the moment) Java Moss and some ‘mud babies’ (can’t remember their latin name sorry).

I will more than likely also add some Java fern and silk plants to brighten the tank up and get more interest for the puffer

Java moss/fern will do great at that SG, especially if you acclimate them slowly.

Here's a link for you:
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/to ... h-aquaria/

Certain species of Cabomba and Bacopa will grow but you will probably have to dose more ferts than you would in a FW tank. Ceratopteris thalictroide (which I think is Indian Water Fern) should grow nicely at SG1.003 because mine grows like a weed, it won't do well if it's planted into the substrate because it's a floating plant - you can tie it to something above the substrate to good effect though.

I've never come accross mud-babies?

Iliveinazoo wrote:Here's a link for you:
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/to ... h-aquaria/

Certain species of Cabomba and Bacopa will grow but you will probably have to dose more ferts than you would in a FW tank. Ceratopteris thalictroide (which I think is Indian Water Fern) should grow nicely at SG1.003 because mine grows like a weed, it won't do well if it's planted into the substrate because it's a floating plant - you can tie it to something above the substrate to good effect though.

I've never come accross mud-babies?

The latin is Echinodorous Tenellus/ pygmy chain sword http://www.plantedtanks.co.uk/echinodor ... -297-p.asp

Hope that helps

Here's what I found on the Echinodorous Tenellus:

http://www.thegreenmachineaquatics.com/ ... 20tenellus

It looks like it is a soft water plant so will probably not fare very well in a brackish set-up.