Is this possible?

[enchanted]

Alright, you may think I'm nuts, but hear me out please.

I have a 30 Gallon tank w/ a PlaySand substrate, Slate Rocks, and some misc. plants.

It is already plumbed for a Sump. Currently it has 2 Green Spotted Puffers and about 14 Danios. The Danios are leaving next weekend and for my puffers health I will be moving the tank to brackish.

Now, I would like to turn this tank into a Marine tank and from my understanding GSP can do well in marine.

So, my thoughts are can I do this slowly piece by piece to adjust the puffers to it along with completing the conversion with minimal fuss and zero 100% tear down? Is it possible?

I also may have access to about 100 lbs or more of Dead Rock ready for reseading...

 

[Navarre]

Hi,
Im afraid i know very little about the Green Spotted Puffer but after doing some research on them i have found the following...
(Copied from an internet site)

Taken from a section on The Krib site. They are awesome, but.....

pH : Above 7.4 is ideal. High is good.
Temp: 78-82 preferred
Salinity: Brackish (tbs per gallon). Can live in fresh but should not adjusted to full marine. They do not do nearly as well in fres as in brackish
Terrain: Prefer a low level of water with lots of room. An ideal tank is a 40 long with lots of cave like structures, fine substrate, perhaps a sandy area for swimming and viewing.
Food : Live is preferred. Frozen brine shrimp or blood worms are suitable. Most puffers will accept freeze dried bloodworms or the like. In the wild they eat crustaceans and snails. Supplementing the puffers with snails or live ghost shrimp is a very good idea. Their teeth are developed for chewing threw snail shell, and their are reports of people having to trim the teeth of their puffers which are not fed hard foods.
Size: 4-7 inches. 5 is common in aquaria.
Disposition: The spotted puffers are able to be kept with other fish while young. This of course is limited to mates that can live in a saline environment. The problem is that when they've grown, they have a tendency to think of anything not a puffer as a food item. At just about any stage in their development if their tank mate is smaller than they are, they are most likely going to eat it. There are of course exceptions to all rules, but breaking this one yields an "I told you so." I've seen spotted puffers kept with Monos and Scats. The puffers were always quite small. Puffers will live with each other fairly well. However, keep in mind that at any moment they are able to take one another out. It is in their nature not to kill one another, but if they are fighting for food, or particularly cranky on that day, then you've lost a fish.
Finally, note that the temperament of puffers only worsens over time. Some will not tolerate anything else in the tank once they've gotten older.

From what i can see it doesnt recomend that these fish should be placed in a full marine environment.

If you get rid of the puffers and still wish to continue with a marine setup then we can offer suggestions with the equipment you have.

Sorry i could not be of more help )

 

[enchanted]

Well, that part I did already research. Which is why the slow conversion from fresh to marine.

Green Spotted puffers are generally considered brackish, but many have adapted them to full Marine. In fact, from what I have read of their life cycle they go from Freshwater to brackish, to marine, to brackish, to fresh to breed, then back to brackish, marine, etc.....

 

[Navarre]

Ok, well if you want to try it then i would suggest you do this very slowly and watch very closly for any form of stress to the puffers.
Each time you do a water change you could add a richer salt solution or when you topup from evaportaion you could add frechstal water rather than normal fresh water.

Watch your water perameters very closley I wuld try and aim for thelower end of the marine tank setup SG which is 1.022 or 1.023.

At the first signs of stress though i would lower the SG again.

 

[enchanted]

http/www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/gspsart.htm

There we go. They live their adult lives in the ocean, but they must return to freshwater at some point for breeding because that is where they start.

Now that is settled, what do I need to change here?

I have some Dead rock I can probably get access to. I currently have playsand as a substrate in this tank. I would prefer to hold off on switching to the sump and I'm currently running a Penguin 170.