The Puffer Forum

i have been on a hiatus from everything it seems and havent been on a computer too much lately. pretty much the last time i was more active here i had a terrible mishap with my tank, not too long after losing my GSP. after that i broke everything down, cleaned it up and sold my tank/supplies. the only thing i kept was a bearded dragon in my 75 gallon tank but soon after i sold my fish stuff, i gave him to a friend of mine in the market for one, he had just built a cage. i still held onto my 75 all this time.

well i just came across some free live rock, approx 50 pounds of it. one big piece about 25 pounds and the rest are misc smaller ones. my friends younger brother isnt using the rock anymore and was going to put it out on his lawn for free anyway. it was sitting in a tank with water but no filtration so i have to cure it and make it base rock i believe. only issue is that my 75 is too big to set up where i live now. i am in the process of trying to find someone on craigslist that has a tank they are looking to upgrade and trade me their smaller one. i dont want too small, somewhere around 40-55high style tanks, anything 36" and smaller in that range. the only inhabitant will be a GSP, maybe a spotted hawk fish but im not fully decided yet.

i guess the point of this post was to see what people thought... i obviously have to get rid of any dead bacteria inside of the rock and get it back to 0 levels, but most pet stores around get GSPs in at around 1-1.5 inches. would i be better off cycling it as freshwater and doing the salt conversion with the rock and everything? or would i be ok cycling it as salt and then acclimating the puffer over a few hours?

my friends brother also has a coralife skimmer he is going to give me that is good up to 75 gallons. so basically the only things i will need are a sump, substrate then more decor for aesthetic reasons and exploration for the puff. with this stuff just basically falling on my lap, i have no other choice than to get back to having a GSP. this is just a bit sooner than i thought lol. i have a 10 gallon tank i was thinking of making into a sump, but i would also possibly like to start up a snail colony in it and get a separate tank 15-20 gallons for a sump. i have had no problems with just clams in the past, but if im getting a GSP that is 2", possibly smaller than i have a feeling i will need small snails.

this tank is still a little bit away from being set up, but in the meantime i want to get supplies and this rock cured in the meantime. i initially told him no i dont want it and to find someone to sell it to because if anything i was going to do freshwater for a while before going back into salt, but he knows how much i loved my tank and told me to take it because he wasnt going to sell it, just set it outside for anyone to take.

Welcome back!

Welcome back, set it straight up as marine it will save lots of effort

thanks bertie, thats what i figured and hoped was the answer. im going to take my time getting supplies i need. but what do you think about getting one so small? do you think there will be an issue with acclimating it to marine so young? the ones i have been seeing the past few weeks going into local pet stores again have all been 1-2" tops. i think there was a thread i can dig for about what people experienced when acclimating young ones and if it seemed to be better. im getting kind of excited. my old roommate just set a tank up and the puffer bug bit me immediately since its been so long. then i got all these goodies out of nowhere

Yup just drip acclimate straight to marine, will be fine

jus85411 wrote:i think there was a thread i can dig for about what people experienced when acclimating young ones and if it seemed to be better.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=15647

Welcome back!

Welcome back

so when i go to cure it and get rid of all dead stuff inside, should i put straight tap water in there? or should i add prime and act as if its going into a fish tank? setting up the tank is still a ways away, so the rock will be sitting for a while before being put in use but i would like to get this done asap. then this would give me options of establishing salt water bacteria in the rock before setting up my tank and cycling it in a container for a few weeks/month(s) before actually getting a tank set up and i could essentially

i was thinking about it and if i can zero out all levels, then as im collecting goodies for the tank i can raise the water to marine sg, i can then go about cycling it. i was thinking of grabbing a 20ish gallon rubbermade tub to do this with and possibly throw a filter on the back to get the cycle going, if that is needed as well. the media in the filter i can use in my sump when im done for another bit of a jump start and remove it when i know all is well. let me know what you guys suggest. i never have done a separate curing etc