Setting Up A Figure Eight Tank

[BurntSnow]

Substrate: White Aragonite Sand
Plants: Fake
Specific Gravity (I think that's what SG stands for): 1.004
Tank Size: 32 gallons
Dimensions: 30" left to right, 12" front to back, 20" tall
Inhabitants: 1 Figure Eight, 2-3 BBGs
Salt: Marine Salt
Temperature: ???
Filter: ???
etc.: ???

Now for the other questions.

Dwarf Puffers (please don't flame me, they're just questions)
1. Can a DP work well in a brackish tank?
2. Could it work well in MY brackish tank if I removed some BBGs?

Circulation
1. Do I need to circulate the tank?
2. What would I use to circulate the tank?
3. What does circulating a tank mean?
4. How much circulation do f8s need?

In regards to this post.
1. Which heater should I add?
2. How would I use the refractometer?
3. How often would I have to do this?
4. How would I know how much salt to put in?
5. Does salt raise the specific gravity?
6. Is a powerhead essential?

In regards to this website.
1. Should I add any invertebrates to my tank?
2. Which filter should I get? Less specifically, freshwater or saltwater?
3. How would I measure ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and pH?

In regards to this item for sale.
1. Apparently, they are being sold at around an inch. Is this too small?
2. Are there any better websites that have f8s in stock?
3. Is this a good price for the f8 offered?
4. Does the fact that I live in California and they are shipping from their California facility make the odds of DUA less likely?
5. Is shipping risky? I can't find f8s being sold near me.

[Pufftastic]

Substrate: White Aragonite Sand
Plants: Fake
Specific Gravity (I think that's what SG stands for): 1.004

Sounds great! I've had my own F8s for almost a month, and I'm aiming for 1.005 with mine. I have white aragonite sand and fake plants, too.

Inhabitants: 1 Figure Eight, 2-3 BBGs
Salt: Marine Salt
Temperature: ???
Filter: ???
etc.: ???

I'm keeping my F8s at about 77 degrees, per the PufferPedia recommendation. I use the same filtration rule for puffers that I use for my (extremely messy) large fancy goldfish -- a minimum of 10x circulation per hour. So on my 29 gallon F8 tank, I have a canister filter that does 300 gallons per hour.

Dwarf Puffers (please don't flame me, they're just questions)
1. Can a DP work well in a brackish tank?
2. Could it work well in MY brackish tank if I removed some BBGs?

DPs are freshwater fish and wouldn't thrive in brackish. And from my reading here, I've learned it's not recommended to mix types of puffers at all.

Circulation
1. Do I need to circulate the tank?
2. What would I use to circulate the tank?
3. What does circulating a tank mean?
4. How much circulation do f8s need?

I think you're referring to how the water circulates in the tank. I have a jet nozzle output for my canister filter that creates a lot of great current, and the puffers seem to really enjoy swimming against that current. I think that if your filter doesn't create much in the way of current, the strategic addition of a powerhead can create good flow for them.

I'm still getting the hang of the whole refractometer/SG thing myself, so I won't comment on those questions. What heater to use is a personal choice; I like non-glass heaters with a visible thermostat (mine lets me know if the temperature in the tank varies more than a few degrees from the temp I set). As far as I know, most available filters, whether HOB or canister, can be used on freshwater or saltwater (although saltwater tanks more commonly utilize live rock, sumps, and protein skimmers in lieu of traditional filtration). Measure the levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, etc. in your tank with a test kit -- I like the API master test kit. Test strips tend to be inaccurate -- pay the extra for a liquid/drops kit.

In regards to this item for sale.
1. Apparently, they are being sold at around an inch. Is this too small?
2. Are there any better websites that have f8s in stock?
3. Is this a good price for the f8 offered?
4. Does the fact that I live in California and they are shipping from their California facility make the odds of DUA less likely?
5. Is shipping risky? I can't find f8s being sold near me.

The F8s I bought at the LFS are about an inch. They're very healthy so far and don't seem unreasonably young or anything. As for availability of F8s, where in California are you? I was able to get a LFS to special order my F8s for me, which saved me from having to pay shipping costs. Plus, I had the fun of selecting my two puffs from a group, which was awesome. Overall, though, shipping fish usually goes smoothly for me -- I've had numerous fancy goldfish shipped and they've all done really well.

[sevenyearnight]

Substrate: White Aragonite Sand
Plants: Fake
Specific Gravity (I think that's what SG stands for): 1.004
Tank Size: 32 gallons
Dimensions: 30" left to right, 12" front to back, 20" tall
Inhabitants: 1 Figure Eight, 2-3 BBGs
Salt: Marine Salt
Temperature: 76-78 F
Filter: An aquaclear hang on back filter is a great filter choice, you could go with the model 50 or above
etc.: I personally like the aquaeon brand of heaters.
Now for the other questions.

Dwarf Puffers (please don't flame me, they're just questions)
1. Can a DP work well in a brackish tank?Dwarf puffers are according to what I read, from a freshwater river in India that leads to a freshwater lake. I did hear that someone thought a dwarf puffer was brackish, and accidentally killed it by adding salt.
2. Could it work well in MY brackish tank if I removed some BBGs? Nah, even if the water was the same SG, puffers don't like other puffers normally.

Circulation
1. Do I need to circulate the tank? Your filter will circulate the water.
2. What would I use to circulate the tank? Answered above
3. What does circulating a tank mean? Normally this is measured as GPH, gallons per hour, and this is how often the water in the tank will run through the filter in an hour
4. How much circulation do f8s need? Shoot for a 10x the water volume in an hour

In regards to this post.
1. Which heater should I add? Answered above
2. How would I use the refractometer? I have no clue :/
3. How often would I have to do this? You would want to monitor this I would guess depending on your evaporation rate, as that will raise the salinity and you want that to remain within 1.003 - 1.005
4. How would I know how much salt to put in? This website has calculators to help figure this out http://www.saltyzoo.com/SaltyCalcs.html
5. Does salt raise the specific gravity? I believe it is a matter of dissoved minerals add weight to the water, saltwater is heavier than freshwater.
6. Is a powerhead essential? I'd say no in a tank that size, the aquaclear should provide enough circulation.

In regards to this website.
1. Should I add any invertebrates to my tank? Yes, definitely, as food.
2. Which filter should I get? Less specifically, freshwater or saltwater? Answered above
3. How would I measure ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and pH?
Get this test kit http://www.bigalsonline.com/Fish_Water- ... tc=default
In regards to this item for sale.
1. Apparently, they are being sold at around an inch. Is this too small?No, but it is likely to be too cute!
2. Are there any better websites that have f8s in stock?
3. Is this a good price for the f8 offered?
4. Does the fact that I live in California and they are shipping from their California facility make the odds of DUA less likely? I would think so, and hope so.
5. Is shipping risky? I can't find f8s being sold near me.

[sevenyearnight]

I asked about this before, but I guess now is an ok time to ask again since it should be relevant to your set up. Normally, I see it suggested to cycle a tank as freshwater, and when the parameters are in check, raise the SG by .002 a week, with the reason that the tank cycles quicker without salt present. However, RTR mentioned not long ago that he found no difference in the amount of time it took to cycle a tank between 1.000 - 1.005. Perhaps he would be willing to advise on this so you don't waste time on an unnecessary step.

[xrayjeeper83]

Well seven pretty much nailed everything

as for shipping, Ive gotten both my puffers(one from just a few hours south of me and one from NY) and my Crays shipped to me with no problems. So I dont see any problems with them being shipped in state. But I'd ask your LFS if they can get some in for you so you dont have to worry about shipping and save on the cost of shipping, which will easily be twice what you pay for the fish if you overnight it

[BurntSnow]

Thank you so much for all your replies. What I'm still confused about is how to set up the tank. I know what to do, just not the order of what comes first. Let's say, I have all the materials except the fish. What should I do before putting the fish in? Sorry for all the questions, I have just about no help in setting this up and a grand total of 0 knowledge of aquariums.

[sevenyearnight]

Go to the learn tab, go to the library, and search aquarium microbes and fishless cycle.
If you have any questions after reading those, just ask.

[energizerfish]

Many websites have a DOA policy provided you take a picture of the fish in the box in the event that they do arrive DOA. Hopefully that does not happen if you do choose to have them shipped to you. Check with your LFS. The LFS that I get snails and other things has ordered fish for me and other people before. They put them in a quarantine tank and call us and set a pick up time. Any fish we don't take home go into their display tanks the next day.

[BurntSnow]

energizerfish, I'll be sure to take a video of unboxing the fish. I asked all the LFSs near me, and none would order a figure eight.

sevenyearnight, I really don't think reading those would help with what order to set up the aquarium in. I mean, shouldn't the water be clean or something before mixing it with salt?

[sevenyearnight]

Hey, I'm trying to help, and I feel as though reading those articles will answer a lot of questions, especially those last 2.
I actually don't see how reading them *couldn't* help. I'm not being lazy by sending you to the library, those articles are much more detailed and more eloquently written than I could pull off swyping on my smartphone.

[BurntSnow]

They definitely help a lot in answering a lot of questions I have, may have in the future, and aiding me with the overall health of my tank.
Although, the one thing I'm still confused about is what to do. I'm being linked to all these different guides to specific things. Yes, this helps answer some questions, but when I get the tank and I get all the materials I will have no idea what to do, and I'm sure I'll screw up by doing something first (or NOT doing something first).
In the simplest terms I can think of, if you were to have every material needed and are told to build a brackish tank for a figure eight puffer, what would you do? I don't need details, just something like- 1. Cycle the tank. 2. Check the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels. 3. Start raising SG. 4. Let bag of fish rest in tank for 20 minutes, and then put the fish in the tank.
I don't know what half of that means, but that's just to give you a general idea. I can figure out the rest, but even with all these different guides I haven't seen one guide to completely setting up a tank, and since I've never done this before, I won't know how to set up the tank.

[Pufferpunk]

I did hear that someone thought a dwarf puffer was brackish, and accidentally killed it by adding salt.

That was my 1st attempt at keeping DPs.

If I were you, I'd go with an Aquaclear 50 filter.

[sevenyearnight]

Ok, I understand.
I'd like to wait for RTR to answer the question about cycling the tank initially as low brackish, because I don't want to put extra steps in if it's not necessary.
In super basic terms, you'll need to cycle the tank, "Aquarium Microbes" explains this more thoroughly, you can also look up emergency cycling, which the emergency part doesn't apply, but it gives some quick cycling methods.
One quick way is to buy Dr. Tims (online) or Tetra Safestart
A far as water being clean, a product you want to but if called Prime, it makes the tap water fish safe.
A tip on adding gravel and water, rinse the substrate. PP puts it in a bucket and sticks a hose into the substrate and flushes it till the water runs clear. Even with rinsing, it probably will still cloud the water a bit, after you add the substrate, place a plastic sheet over it to diffuse the water flow, and slowly add the water. To add water to the tank, get tubing from Lowes or HD that will fit over the output of the power head.

I'll write more tomorrow, I'm sure you'll have others here helping too

[BurntSnow]

I hope so. Thanks for all the info! I'm so glad there's people like you on these forums.

A couple of questions from your post-
"A tip on adding gravel and water, rinse the substrate."
What if I'm using sand as substrate?

"place a plastic sheet over it to diffuse the water flow, and slowly add the water."
What do you mean by plastic sheet?

"To add water to the tank, get tubing from Lowes or HD that will fit over the output of the power head."
This part I didn't understand. Could you explain it more thoroughly please? For one, I don't think I'm getting a powerhead. A filter should be enough. As far as tubing, why is it needed and why should it fit over the output of the powerhead? I really don't understand the whole powerhead thing much, I hardly understand what it is, so that's probably why I don't understand what you mean.

[Pufferpunk]

I'd just stick a big bowl in the middle of the sand & let the water overflow into it, so not to disturb the sand too much.

Without the powerhead, how are you going to thoroughly mix the salt? To bring the salt from the bucket into your tank, you can use the powerhead.