The Puffer Forum

So a month ago i went to the fish store with my girlfriend and she wanted to pick out a fish. Of course the small, chubby fish with quick fluttering fins won. My GSP, dubbed "Myran" by my girlfriend, is about 1 and a half inches big. Now the fish store said that he would be fine in my 75 gallon with the other fish i have: 4 neon rosey barbs, 1 rainbow shark, and 3 small red zebras. Currently i add 1TBS aquarium salt to every 5 gallons as instructed by my local store.

After finding this forum, i talked with pufferpunk and she showed me the page that shows how to properly mix marine salt in water and how to properly introduce it at a slower pace. She also said that the other tropical fish will not like the salt, so once i get rid of them, my question is what fish will get along with Myran and not be bothered by the marine salt?

Also what kind of decor could i go with? i have small pebbles now, with random plants and rocks, as well as some driftwood. i plan on removing the driftwood and getting artificial drift wood or getting a different "big" or "main" focal point in the tank.

also if anyone has pictures of their tanks for reference that would help as well.

Thanks agian in advance for any help.

Here's my old 55g GSP tank:

(All fake corals)

You can also add these for fake mangrove swim thrus:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... &lmdn=Fish
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... id=prod_cs
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... id=prod_cs

I suggest another juvie (same size) GSP for now & then when you get closer to SW, you can add some damselfish or a tomato clownfish. I suggest changing your substrate over to aragonite sand, to maintain the steady pH of around 8.

for sand, could i just get play sand?

While we're talking about aragonite sand .... if I've already got some playsand in my tank, can I put the aragonite over top of it? It's going to be one big PITA to remove all the sand that's in there now.

pufferpuggirl wrote:While we're talking about aragonite sand .... if I've already got some playsand in my tank, can I put the aragonite over top of it? It's going to be one big PITA to remove all the sand that's in there now.

It doesnt have to be. You can suck out the sand with a gravel syphon, a fairly big bore one like a python into a bucket. Jam in the sand and it will begin to remove the sand, you should get most out. However you ma not want to do all at once because of the bacteria colonies. So my idea for this was a plastic ruler. Cut it to size and jam it into the sand and put some pebbles wither side to hold it up as the sand is removed. You could do the replacement over several weeks doing a quarter of the sand each time. If you were doing it more staggered than just half and half you would need more than one ruler.

So putting the Aragonite over the playsand is not a good idea?
There are areas of my tank that have very little to no sand, could I put the Aragonite there and would it be beneficial or does it have to be in the entire tank?
I've noticed that stuff (Aragonite) is not cheap and with a tank the size of the one I have, it's going to take a bit.

Aragonite is for buffering capabilities and i've read some stuff that says that it doesnt offer long term buffering. I woulnt feel comfortable layering it over normal sand plus it wont take long for it to be swallowed up by the more dominant normal and when cleaning. What might be a better solution would be some ocean rock. I bought a big bag for about £30. The size of the rocks would offer a longer term buffering over a thin layer of aragonite.

Placing 2 kinds of sand will always end up with the heavier sand on the bottom.

so i found the arganite sand i need, but what about tank mates besides another GSP? i want to get antoher fish or two before i start to adjust the salinity. also, would it look dumb with the arganite (considering its like coral and ocean like) to have a piece of like fake drift wood stuff like puffer punk posted? i was thinking some dark green plants, rocks, and a piece of fake wood that looks like roots.

That sounds like a wonderful tank!

awesome! now i just need to find a smaller GSP, F8, or some other kind of fish that will go well

Can't keep F8s & GSPs together. Better to get a GSP of similar size. When you get them up to SW, you can add a few marine species to the mix.

ahh ok. thanks.

if i cant get another GSP is there anything else that would be fine in mildy brackish water and would do ok with the switch to high brackish?

With a tank that size, you could do a scat (the red ones are nice) but they are the "garbage cans" of the BW world & HUGE waste producers, so I wouldn't add more than one. They get about the size of your outstretched hand or bigger.

Pufferpunk wrote:I suggest changing your substrate over to aragonite sand, to maintain the steady pH of around 8.

Would this be necessary if my local water is 7.9/8.0 straight out of the tap?