The Puffer Forum

Hey, it's been a while since I've had a brackish puffer. I keep mudskippers, which are brackish, but they are different in that I can make up the water to the strength it needs to be and they are okay with it.
I have just recently gotten a little Figure 8 puffer and as he came from a supplier that keeps them in freshwater, that's what he's in now. And of course the mature filters are both freshwater filters as well.
I'd like to change over to a brackish tank, but I want to do this slowly. I've forgotten how much salt to add and at what intervals in order to get to a low-end brackish tank safely. I don't want to kill off the bacteria in my filters, nor do I want to hurt my little puffer.

So I would appreciate any reminders on how to change this over slowly to a brackish tank.
Thanks.

mix up a batch that will only change the salinity by 0.02 at a time. When I was increasing my salinity, I would remove 10% of the water (to make the math easy) and replace it with water + marine salt such that the salinity gradually rose 0.02. I believe you can do this as frequently as weekly, which will give your bacteria time to adjust. I think there was a sticky here somewhere that set out guidelines to mix saltwater. Maybe in the brackish or marine sections? If not, I can find one for you.

Yeah, I don't mean to sound stupid ... but I'm a bit lame when it comes to math. So anything that explains things easily is good for me. And I no longer have a thing to gauge specific gravity, so I really need something simple.

What part of Maryland are you from Hillehaus, if you don't mind me asking?

you are definitely going to need a refractometer to mix, otherwise you will have no idea what your SG is. They are pretty cheap, I think I got mine on Amazon.com for $25. The easiest way to kill your beneficial bacteria is to think you are raising SG by 0.02, but it is actually 0.04 because you messed up your mix by a little. Here is the link: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

I find it easiest to place all your numbers in an excel sheet during your calculations so it does the math for you. My math is horrendous as well. When checks come for our dinner, I normally stare dumbly at my wife until the takes the receipt and fills it out for me. This isn't that hard though, once you do it a few times.


I'm about 30 min northeast of Baltimore, right near where the Susquehanna River meets the Chesapeake Bay.

Okay thanks, I will check it out. The reason I asked where you were in Maryland is that's my birth state. I was born in Baltimore, but lived in Pasadena, Anne Arundel County. Haven't been to Maryland since 2000 ... but have fond memories. I also lived for about 5 years down below Cambridge, on the Chesapeake.

Thanks for your help.

No problem!
Maryland is nice, except for the erratic weather. Plus, I need to live near the water.

Erratic weather?! Try living in England!!!

Following this for the link to Dadof4's post abt FW to Brackish. Thanks for linking to that thread.