The Puffer Forum

Hi all,
I am new to brackish setups and have recently started up a tank that is intended to house a single figure eight puffer and a couple of bumblebee gobys (which will be introduced first). Currently I am struggling to get this tank cycled, or even see the earliest indications of progress. I am doing a fishless cycle using 3 cubes of bloodworms in a filter bag and have left it running for just over a week (8 days to be exact). I have noticed that most people seem to start of as fresh and then slowly raise the salinity to ~1.005 sg/6.6 ppt. I have been dosing using Seachem stability as per its instructions... is it possible that beneficial bacteria available simply can not establish themselves initially in brackish? Should I start over with fresh and slowly raise the salt once it has been cycled?
(note: the store keeps their puffers at 1.005 sg)

Any assistance/advice would be greatly appreciated .

Here is some additional information on my setup + water chemistry:
Tank: 16 gal
Filtration (1100L/h): Hood trickle filter, containing filter wool and eheim substrat pro + some noodles
Substrate: Coral sand (1 cm deep)
Temperature: 78.8 F
pH: 8.0
kH: 7
gH: 125.3
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0

library/water-filtration/fishless-cycling/

I am assuming from your post that you are currently at 1.005sg you mention that other people raise to that amount and that the store keeps their brackish at the level but you dont mention what your tank is. The bottle of stability that i have is for saltwater use. I am not sure of any quickstart/safestart/biospira products that will work for brackish. The article PP provided should point you in the right direction. Just keep testing. Wait for your nitrites to spike. Then your amo and trites should dissapear then your good to go. And remeber nothing good in fishkeeping happens quickly, take your time. The fact that your seeking advice and havent purchased your fish already means your going about it the right way. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies and good advice. And yes you were right in assuming I have started at 1.005 sg (sorry for not explicitly mentioning that). I guess I regret not starting out with FW and then transitioning to BW, as it does seem it takes longer for brackish tanks to become cycled. Nevertheless, I'll persist with my current setup and keep my eye out for the nitrites and nitrates.

I look for this stuff a long time ago.

I have never read anything magical this before.

Mairahun wrote:I have never read anything magical this before.

Sorry, but what do you mean?
This is a pretty old thread I started a while ago btw. My tank has long since been cycled and has a well established puff.

Fishless cycling has been around for a very long time. Internet search finds you many, many articles on it.

I love seeing old threads getting pulled up, means people are digging deep. How is your tank going btw?

Going real well. Blinkey (my puff) has grown a bit (currently about 5 cm in total length) and everyone tolerates each other. I can see why BBGs are often regarded as the only potential tankmates for fig 8s they really don't take any crap and can be actually quite bossy lol. At the moment, I am buying separately all the parts for a new setup (for Blinkey) that will be about 28 gallons. Just bought the LED fixture yesterday and plan to get the new tank after I have acquired everything else (mainly overpriced decor lol). I plan to make it look better than my current tank (aesthetics-wise) with a sheltered estuary-esque theme. I may also eventually (once the bank has recovered) use the present tank (15.5 gal.) as a planted dwarf puffer aquarium.