The Puffer Forum

How should an F8 tank be decorated to resemble their natural habitat?

Good question.

Sandy bottom, lots of plants and driftwood, but I guess you all ready know that.

IMHO, Live plants and driftwood are not good for F-8 tanks. Live pants are not easy in light BW - algae issues are common. Driftwood is inappropriate for BW as it decays more quickly there than in FW. Artificial mangrove root or fake wood are fine, as are most artificial plants - but they may need frequent cleaning.

Is drift wood ok for bw tanks?

RTR wrote:IMHO, Live plants and driftwood are not good for F-8 tanks. Live pants are not easy in light BW - algae issues are common. Driftwood is inappropriate for BW as it decays more quickly there than in FW. Artificial mangrove root or fake wood are fine, as are most artificial plants - but they may need frequent cleaning.

So what does their habitat have in the wild?

RTR wrote:IMHO, Live plants and driftwood are not good for F-8 tanks. Live pants are not easy in light BW - algae issues are common. Driftwood is inappropriate for BW as it decays more quickly there than in FW. Artificial mangrove root or fake wood are fine, as are most artificial plants - but they may need frequent cleaning.

OK RTR, where did I mentioned to keep LIVE PLANTS ?

"lots of plants" would assume live plants =)

1puff wrote:

RTR wrote:IMHO, Live plants and driftwood are not good for F-8 tanks. Live pants are not easy in light BW - algae issues are common. Driftwood is inappropriate for BW as it decays more quickly there than in FW. Artificial mangrove root or fake wood are fine, as are most artificial plants - but they may need frequent cleaning.

So what does their habitat have in the wild?

Like I mentioned before. Use some FAKE PLANTS ( some live plants will do OK in SG 1.005 ) I did keep real driftwood for 3 years with no problem.

J-P wrote:"lots of plants" would assume live plants =)

THX for clearing this out for me J-P.

IMO, driftwood will soften in BW & also lower the hardness of your water.

Just get some fake driftwood, that's what I have in my F8s tank, she loves it.

Here's an (old) picture of her tank:


I've added a rock formation, added a new plant, and taken out the shells and two of the plants, but there's the basic idea.
I rearrange the tank every water change to keep her interested. She LOVES the fake driftwood (I call it her "tree") and I dig out the gravel underneath it because she likes to swim and hide in it.

The idea is to replicate their natural habitat.
So what does their natural habitat consist of?

Mangrove roots. Petsmart makes great fake ones.

For F8 you got two choices, a natural live representation and a artificial natural representation:

You already know how to do it artificially, but in the other hand, i´d like to expose the live way:
You can put live plants on 1.004, it is difficult, yes, requires a lot of attention and parameter measurements (ph, gh & kk weekly) to prevent algae blooms, because the algae take much more advantage in higher alkalinity, so you have to choose low requirement plants, and light no more than .5w per liter, you will need also need fertilizer (Ca, N, K, P & Fe are the ones i used) adding 30ml per week divided in three sessions of 10ml after WC... very complicated
But this is the result:

wow those tanks are really nice!

i feel like im looking at 2 wheres waldo pictures lol