The Puffer Forum

So I just bought a brand new tank and added some live aragonite. I'm cycling it for my new GSP that I'm planning to buy soon. Do I have to have marine salt in the water for the live aragonite to work properly? Should I buy a live rock as well? The GSP at the LFS is in fresh water now, but I'd like to slowly accliamate him once he is used to my tank at home first, which for now is FW. Thanks for any insight ahead of time.

The "live" sand is worthless for establishing a cycle other then adding ammonia to start it. If your shooting for a full marine setup the just goahead and cycle the tank as a marine tank (adding liverock and then letting it sure in your tank) and drip acclimate the GSP when you bring him home.

Make sure you do a couple good vacumes to that live sand though or it will keep leaching ammonia into the tank after the live rock is cured.

Live aragonite sand will need 1.020-1.025 SG any lower and you've just killed all the beneficial bacteria/bristeworms/etc. Causing a major ammonia spike adding to the tanks cycle... Dont do that. You need Instant Ocean Marine salt or something comparable. And a hydrometer to measure specific gravity/salinity. Hopefully you havent added FW above the new sand yet....

Nothing "live" about sand in a bag.

Crap, well yeah it was FW in the tank before I added the live aragonite. I just bought a live rock from the LFS. I guess I'll have to get salt and a hydrometer next. *Sigh*. I can never do this right.

I was planning on introducing my GSP into freshwater and slowly adjusting the SG until it reached a desired level. Now I don't know what to do. The drip acclimation seems hard.

If you put live rock into freshwater....its not live anymore. Whoops.

Its not your fault. The LFS wants to make a quick buck and should have tould you. Where is the Live Rock? In FW the Live critters will soon die too just like some stuff in the sand. If I were you Id remove the LIve rock ( if its in the tank) consider it no good. You might want to try adding it to full saltwater ASAP to try to save it. If thats not possible youll want to boil the heck out of it before adding it to a marine tank with new LR. The new LR will re-propagate the rock to be live again. Sorry, it sux cuz LR aint cheap... And keep doing big water changes while syphoning the sand to remove dead stuff. Keep those nitrites down as well as ammonia. Test daily and if your test shows any ammonia or nitrite, do a water change. Repeat until the tank is stable again. Then start raising thr SG again. Only .002 a week to keep your bacteria alive as it goes thru the transition from FW to BW to SW...Then once your at 1.020 your full saltwater and can begin adding LR one piece at a time. Not all at once. This can also cause ammonia spikes. The live rock needs to adjust to your water conditions including salinity. Hope this helps keep asking questions if needed. We'll help you bc, somehow we've all went thru this. Me included. So hang tight and you'll be rewarded

The drip acclimation is rather easy to do. Just set your tank up at full marine and when you buy the GSP put him in a fish safe container. Use a standard airline tube and start a syphon from your tank to the container he is in. (it helps to put a bubbler in with him to keep the water oxigenated dureing the process) You can do a couple different thing to slow the syphone: either useing a clip or just tie a couple knots in the line. Adjust the knots or clips so that its dripping in the container he is in. Once the container has doubled its water volume pour half of it out and let it continue dripping untill its double its volume again. This should take a few hours. After you have emptied half the water twice your puffer is fully acclimated and ready to go in yout tank.

GSPs IMO are really easy to acclimate and handle the process really well. The 2 i have aclimated never showed any signes of stress other then usual signes of being in a small container.

IMHO its alot easier to set up the tank for what you want to keep him in long term rather then trying to deal with raising the salinity slowly over time. Unless there is financial strain just set up the tank at full marine (but make sure you read up on how to run a system that FOWLR(fish only with live rock.)

"Live" rock & "live" sand in a FW tank... I wouldn't put that puffer anywhere near that tank.

Thanks everyone for your help. Well the live rock was intended to get the tank prepared for when I started the transition to BW. My LFS said it'd be okay while the salinity slowly goes up. I guess he sucks then. So I'll be taking the LR out now.

Ok, I've removed the LR and siphoned out the LS and then rinsed thoroughly. I'm returning the LS once rinsed some more. I hope this'll bring the ammonia back down considerably.

Just want to ask is the rock the dry rock that is sold to become live rock or was it in a tank already and has alot of growth on it?

Make sure u call or talk to your LFS. And have the person giving you this info corrected. Many of my LFS have FW employees and SW employees. Make sure you grab the right person for ?s about BW etc. Most ppl never do BW. Im really surprised they said the LR would be okay going in FW >BW>?

Yeah really! I don't know of any LFS employee that would think it was OK to place live rock into FW/BW (& most of their advise is usually pretty bad).

It was in an already established aquarium. Well considering his shop is called "Coral maniacs" and he has many SW tanks and he owns the business, I assumed he knew what he was talking about. *rolling eyes*.