New Brackish Tank - Filter?

[Minawri]

I have an established 10g FW tank with an UGF. I would like to convert this tank to a brackish water for one puffer. My question is will an UGF work if I'm using gravel and not sand?

Also, if I switch to a HOB filter, should I keep the two running simultaneously until the HOB is established? Or would that be over filtering?

Thanks!

-Mina

 

[BigJim]

UGFs are effective, but a bit dated. If you don't mind the noise and intrusion in the tank, a UGF is fine. If you want to switch to a HOB filter, run the two filters in tandem for at least a month. There is no such thing as overfiltering if the fish can handle the water flow.

What kind of puffer are you looking at? Dwarf puffers are really the only puffer suited to a 10g and they live in fresh water. Other puffers get too big for a 10g. A GSP or Figure-8 puffer really need at least 30g to thrive.

 

[Minawri]

The LFS has them labeled as "Green Puffers" which would be T. Fluviatilis but after doing some research I believe they are really "Green Spotted Puffers" T. Nigroviridis. I'm aware they need a larger tank and I have an available 33 sitting in my basement which I think I will set up for him as he grows larger (perhaps my first marine tank?). As of now he's barely an inch long.

Either way, I went and got an Elite Stingray for my 10g and I'm running that along with the UGF. Just recently removed the UGF from my FW 20g and it was really gross so I'm going to stay away from them from now on. They did a great job, just really messy.
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?ID=11270