This of my first post, and I am hoping that I will be able to contribute more to this site as my experience increases! I am working on setting up a 25 gallon brackish water tank for a single figure 8 puffer. I was originally debating between getting the GSP or the figure 8, but I decided on getting a single figure 8 because of the smaller tank size that I have available to me. I figured that this fish, as they are smaller than the GSP, would be more comfortable in my 25 gallon. I also thought that it would be easier to manage this smaller tank at a lower specific gravity, which kept me from choosing the GSP (which require an almost full marine environment as an adult).
Anyway, I set my tank up on Sunday evening with freshwater and a bottom layer of CaribSea Aquatics Eco-Complete African Cichlid Zack Sand (to increase the pH). I have not yet added any decor yet, and I have not added any sources of ammonia for the tank bacteria to feed on (i.e. pure ammonia concentrate, decaying fish food, fish, etc.). At the moment, I am stuck on what to do next in order to properly cycle my tank. The bag of substrate claimed to have active bacterial cultures inside, but I have a hard time believing that this could be true because the bag was airtight and had no source of nutrients to keep the advertised bacteria alive. I do not know if I should take out 50% or so of the water and mix brackish water in a separate bucket to replace it with (I am aiming to have a specific gravity of 1.005 to 1.008) or if I should leave the tank freshwater for the cycling process and slowly convert it to brackish water after I establish my nitrifying bacteria and buy my puffer. I was not sure if such a drastic change in specific gravity would kill the supposedly present bacteria in my gravel, or if I would be fine to switch to a brackish cycle this early in the game. My LFS keeps their baby puffers in a freshwater setup, so if I was to convert my tank to brackish water right now for the cycling process, I would need to drip acclimate the fish before putting him in his new home. As far as drip acclimating goes, how would you suggest doing this if I was to take this route? I have read multiple articles on the process, and some had said that drip acclimation should take about one hour, while others said that it could take 24 hours (of course, with the addition of a bubbler to keep the fish alive). Which do you think would be most effective? The last thing that I would want to do is hurt the poor little guy.
I have never had a brackish tank before, but I presently have a 55 gallon freshwater tank and I am working on rehabilitating an overly-salty 55 gallon marine aquarium that belongs to my father. Please let me know what you think that I should do to make this process as simple and error-free as possible! I have always wanted a brackish puffer, and I am excited to make my dreams a reality! I appreciate all of the help that you can give me
