Urgent Advice Needed For Gsp

[Atrixblue.-MFR-.]

hey guys i have a 48X15X18 tank been running six months. my partner purchased three of what she thought were dwarf puffers as their freshwater tollerant, but bad labelling by a LFS turns out their green spotted puffers and require a brackish setup, there been cases that when older and about 6 inch long they have lived in salinity of 1.010-15 withought going all out on marine levels. they had black tummys when she purchased them and had sunken bellys but now their really fat and really really love cockel in a shell i do short water changes of 10% every 2-3 days, they still have black on their belly's and the green is more a dullish green i think this is due to the water conditions, trouble is i have tropical live bearer swprdtails and a 7 inch 5 month old common pleco snakeskin guorami's and black widow tetra's. there have been fin nippin but since their regularly fed 2 times a day have calmed down on the nipping.

my PH level is 7.4 ATM (i live in a hardwater area) but ive been told that they require 7.8 to 8.6 some carbon in the water through filtration.

i am about to set up a drip for adding salt over a period of 14 days via a 2 UK imp gallon bucket with a high concentration of marine saltwater and proper ph 8.2 buffer additive, dechlorinator, and some biological additive. i will carry on the 10% changes 2-3 times a weeks would this be ok to introduce to thie tank over the period of time?

i will monitor salinity levels weekly and after changes.
if anyone has any suggestions please please give your advice, rehoming the tropical isnt a problem. but i dont want to kill the puffers as they are ill at the moment as their displaying dim colour with slightly black sides under belly is slowly turning cream.


the poor fella's i'd hate to take them back and be subject to freshwater and underfed. and nearest place that will take them is 45 miles away but are stocked at the moment as i rung them before i traveled. and they are attached to me i go near the tank and they go nuts thinking im gunna feed them when i place the yellow cup i use to pour out defrosted bloodworm above the water the one i call pika tries jumping into the cup.

 

[nmonks]

Assuming you can swap out the freshwater fish, you can raise the specific gravity to 1.003 at 25 C (about 6 grammes marine salt mix per litre of water) right away. The filter bacteria will fine, and the puffers should perk right up. Some freshwater fish will tolerate SG 1.003 just fine, including livebearers and some cichlids, but tetras and gouramis won't.

You are correct to say GSPs don't need marine conditions even adult. Lots of people do keep them in marine tanks, but not because of the salinity. Under marine conditions it's easier to run skimmers and you can also use live rock, so the tank has better water quality and looks more interesting. It also happens that damselfish get along quite well with GSPs, so you can add some colour to the tank. But in absolute terms, anything from SG 1.005 upwards is tolerated perfectly well, and SG 1.008-1.012 is probably optimal in terms of cost/benefit.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Atrixblue.-MFR-.]

Assuming you can swap out the freshwater fish, you can raise the specific gravity to 1.003 at 25 C (about 6 grammes marine salt mix per litre of water) right away. The filter bacteria will fine, and the puffers should perk right up. Some freshwater fish will tolerate SG 1.003 just fine, including livebearers and some cichlids, but tetras and gouramis won't.

You are correct to say GSPs don't need marine conditions even adult. Lots of people do keep them in marine tanks, but not because of the salinity. Under marine conditions it's easier to run skimmers and you can also use live rock, so the tank has better water quality and looks more interesting. It also happens that damselfish get along quite well with GSPs, so you can add some colour to the tank. But in absolute terms, anything from SG 1.005 upwards is tolerated perfectly well, and SG 1.008-1.012 is probably optimal in terms of cost/benefit.

Cheers, Neale

i can swap the out the guorami's tonight to a 110L i have, i have started the drip (basically a air reg valve with two airline going into the bucket of mix) i have a fluval 305 filter bottom basket has ammonia removal bags middle has active carbon and top has biomax.

chears for the advice i will monitor carfuly then update on progress.

 

[nmonks]

Why? Ammonia remover is certainly pointless and will inhibit the cycling process. You either have bacteria to process ammonia, in which case zeolite (ammonia remover) is unnecessary; or you have just zeolite, in which case it needs to replaced every few weeks and is only cost-effective on small tanks.

Carbon has its place, but bear in mind it does little useful in most aquaria. Regular water changes are better for removing organic acids, and carbon needs replacing every 2-4 weeks to do what it's meant to do. Furthermore carbon will neutralise most medications.

Cheers, Neale

bottom basket has ammonia removal bags middle has active carbon

 

[Atrixblue.-MFR-.]

Why? Ammonia remover is certainly pointless and will inhibit the cycling process. You either have bacteria to process ammonia, in which case zeolite (ammonia remover) is unnecessary; or you have just zeolite, in which case it needs to replaced every few weeks and is only cost-effective on small tanks.

Carbon has its place, but bear in mind it does little useful in most aquaria. Regular water changes are better for removing organic acids, and carbon needs replacing every 2-4 weeks to do what it's meant to do. Furthermore carbon will neutralise most medications.

Cheers, Neale

bottom basket has ammonia removal bags middle has active carbon

thanks for the info. ill remove the amonia zeolite bags in the filter on next water change wich is tomorrow, but i havent got a clue what to replace it with? biomax all the baskets its what im thinking about doing putting all the established ones in with new ones to re seed?

 

[nmonks]

Replace the carbon and ammonia remover with plain vanilla biological media. Foam is good, as are ceramic noodles; sintered glass noodles like Siporax are perhaps a notch higher in performance.

Cheers, Neale

thanks for the info. ill remove the amonia zeolite bags in the filter on next water change wich is tomorrow, but i havent got a clue what to replace it with? biomax all the baskets its what im thinking about doing putting all the established ones in with new ones to re seed?

 

[Atrixblue.-MFR-.]

Replace the carbon and ammonia remover with plain vanilla biological media. Foam is good, as are ceramic noodles; sintered glass noodles like Siporax are perhaps a notch higher in performance.

Cheers, Neale

thanks for the info. ill remove the amonia zeolite bags in the filter on next water change wich is tomorrow, but i havent got a clue what to replace it with? biomax all the baskets its what im thinking about doing putting all the established ones in with new ones to re seed?

ok so my drip has been going now since last night, i have seen 2 of my GSP's go from a tint of black all over to purfect strong cream underneath but the top isnt a bright green its kinda browny green (juvinile?) the third one that i considder the weeker one is still black patchy on the sides where the white meets the green and spots but appart from that they all seem fine, they have purked up in activity, but are taking midday naps? do they nap? because when they do i can pick the up and litrally stroke their underbelly and put them down without noticeing did realise they were heavy sleepers?

 

[Atrixblue.-MFR-.]

hey all update on my tank.

ive been doing 10% changes every 3 days. i have tested water and heres the results/

ammonia 0.01 (tested after an hour of them having food)

nitrate 0

nitrite 0

PH 7.9 to 8.5 fluctuating but hasnt moved much from 8.5 in last two days using proper ph 8.2.

salinity 1.004 it went higher than this to 1.016 but after water change without adding salt went to 1.004

guorami were moved out to another tank, as well as male swordtails, the females are due to have fry so i havent moved them as of yet, blackwidows rehomed, and my common pleco has been moved also.

now all but 2 of my tropical have moved out, tank looks really bare but the puffers are having a whale of a time.

are there any other type of fish i can get? that are OKish with puffers? tank is a 46 GAL UK.