The Puffer Forum

I'm trying to learn everything I can about keeping brackish puffers -- I'm certain there will be one or two Figure 8s or possibly a single GSP in my future. How much (if any) aeration do these two puffers need in their tank? I've only kept freshwater aquariums, but I know that when treating my goldfish with aquarium salt, the aeration would cause the salt to crust up all over the tank lid. (Yes, I do know that puffers need marine salt and not regular aquarium salt.) I'm assuming marine salt gets crusty as well.

Do puffers require lots of aeration? I'm used to fancy goldfish, where aeration overkill is the norm.

is the sediment you are seeing the crystallization of the hard water sediment?

I am not sure if puffers "require more O2" than gold fish. Cold water contains more O2 than warmer waters, but on the flip side puffers are messy eaters and that in itself may contribute to O2 depletion. Adding an aerator is not a bad idea.

When I had my puffs In BW I ran the bubbler normal like my FW tanks. I have a giant fancy tail. Had TWO for about 8 years and one just died recently but I still got his friend. Almost 10 years with me. Got him he was a dinky baby now hes 7-8 " very pretty goldfish. Anyways way off topic.

Why do you use the aquarium salt in the there. Its kinda unnecessary. Aqua Salt is more for killing ICK. Yes it does improve gill health but its not necessary if the tanks is well maintained IMO.

Yes Marine salt will leave salt salt creep alot worse. You must be using alot of aquarium salt to get that thou. IMO I would discontinue that and save a few bucks for the puffer stuff. When you do add Aquarium Salt your adding salt just to the water your adding back when doing a WC?? Not the entire water volume of the tank?? BC salt doesn't evaporate so you when you are doing a top off( NOT AN WC), just add dechlorinated water with no salt bc when the water evaps the salinity level increases. So theres no need to keep adding salt.

J-P wrote:is the sediment you are seeing the crystallization of the hard water sediment?

Nope, not hard water -- definitely salt. Only occurs when using salt, and I've tasted it.

SammyDee wrote:Why do you use the aquarium salt in the there. Its kinda unnecessary. Aqua Salt is more for killing ICK. Yes it does improve gill health but its not necessary if the tanks is well maintained IMO.

I don't use salt regularly -- only when treating an illness (such as ich) or during quarantine of a new fish. No salt the rest of the time.

Pufftastic wrote:

J-P wrote:is the sediment you are seeing the crystallization of the hard water sediment?

Nope, not hard water -- definitely salt. Only occurs when using salt, and I've tasted it. .

EWWW.

I've got the exact same problem. I have huge salt deposits on the back of my tank. Its not growing, and it won't come off. Since then I have stopped adding aquarium salt.

Someday, I have hope that hobbyists may learn the strange concept that "aeration" does nort ever require the use of airstones or such bubble generators. I have used O2 probes in many tanks, moving them about to check for "dead spots" or low current, low oxygenation areas. My oxygen content was always near the theoretical max for the temperature and atmospheric pressure. Higher levels only occur in brightly lighted, CO2 supplemented, planted tanks during the light cycle, and are not needed for fish health. Good overall circulation, even without surface breaks so long as there is no surface biofilm, is all that is required. I have no used airstones, bubble wands, introduced air powerheafds, water falls, etc. in decades, and likely will never do so again.

All you need is good total volume circulation. That is one of the multiple reasons why I multi-filter tanks - it gives me plenty of current to play around with. It usually takes me some weeks of fine tuning any new setup to ensure good overall circulation.

I have moderately hard water. I have run literally dozens of BW and over a dozen SW tanks at any given time, and never used aeration in the sense used in this thread for them. In hard or salty waters, it is a PITA, and unnecessary.

HTH