converting fresh to brackish and ultimately marine.

[Nimo]

Well money wise I can't do it right now so I am gonna have to figure out how to go about doing this and try not to crash my bacteria. If it crashes I guess I will just have to do the daily water changes to keep things safe.
Or use the method my lfs gave me and maybe just do the water additions every week that way. either way I will get this done be it easy or hard.

 

[smomus]

It doesn't need to be switched over immediately. There is no harm in having it fresh water for a few months while you save up for a refractometer. That's what I had to do.

 

[Nimo]

I am concerned because they are stressing in the fresh water the little one of the 3 seems ok but the 2 bigger ones are curling their tails allot and just don't seem happy. My water tests look great 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, nitrates 10 ppm. So I don't think the water quality as far as the fresh water is the problem. I'm thinking they are ready to start changing over. But I could be wrong.
Maybe I just worry too much lol

 

[Nimo]

Ok update on puffers. I decided to convert a 20 long but not the original one they were in. I set up a new one with sand and lots of fake plants and a few other decorations.

The new set up has a pinguin bio wheel 150 and a pinguin bio wheel 100. Some of the decorations came from other established tanks and I also took filter media from my established 60 gallon along with about 10 gallons of water out of my 60.
I have set up new tanks using this method and didn't have to cycle them because I was able to get enough BB from the used filter media to stabilize the new system. I hope it works again for me.
I wanted to set this tank up on my counter top so it can be seen from my kitchen and also the living room so there really is no back. This is a 20 longand because I want to see thru both sides I put the filters on opposite ends of the tank. A traditional hood will not work so I cut plexiglas to make a top. Will post pics soon.

 

[Nimo]

Ok tested the water.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
Did a pwc brought nitrate down to 10 or less. Brought salinity up about .002.
Guess I should have mentioned that I moved puffers in to the tank last night. The seem happy. And healthy.

 

[smomus]

I want to see! Sounds cool
How did you measure salinity?

 

[Nimo]

Measured salinity with hydrometer, I know it is not as accurate but that's all I have. I measured the water in the tank first just to see what it would show, then added premixed light brackish water (mixed yesterday)with the water change just till it went half way between the original mark from fresh water reading and the next mark up which appears to be about .002 rise in salinity. I have retested several times thru the day and still getting the same reading.

 

[smomus]

I'm excited for you! I'm hoping my refractometer gets here by Friday then I can start raising mine as well.
I threw a ghost shrimp in the tank and my puffer lost it lol so now I have a random rogue shrimp in with my puffer too

 

[Nimo]

Ok here's some pics, I am not done yet, I have to modify the top on it but this will work for now and the wires are going to be fastened to the bottom of the cabinets to keep them out of site a little better plus to keep them from getting wet.
I also am going to mount lights directly to the bottom of the cabinets. As of now I haven't bought the lights, I am going to try to get them friday.
This is looking from living room to kitchen.


From kitchen to living room.



You can see the top here and the filters running opposite of each other.

 

[Nimo]

I'm excited for you! I'm hoping my refractometer gets here by Friday then I can start raising mine as well.
I threw a ghost shrimp in the tank and my puffer lost it lol so now I have a random rogue shrimp in with my puffer too

You will have to post some pics and keep me up to date on your adventure too. I think this one is going to be fun. It gives me a bit of a challenge. Lol

 

[smomus]

I love it! I'm sure your puffers do to! I'll definitely keep everyone posted on my progress!

 

[Terrance]

Very nicely decorated to keep your puffs floating around the tank.

 

[Nimo]

Thank you. They seem to be very happy. All 3 exploring all the little hiding spots and every time I go to do something in the kitchen close to their tank I have 3 little sets of eyes looking to see what's up. They are so cute. They also don't seem to be curling their tails as much now.

 

[smomus]

Got my refractometer yesterday! Going to start my own conversion thread
How are your puffs doing?

 

[Nimo]

Lost my tiny one but the other 2 are doing really well

 

[smomus]

So sorry to hear that

 

[Alyxx]

I'm sorry you lost one.

 

[Nimo]

The tiny one didn't seem as if it was very healthy when I got them last week. It almost always had its tail curled and laid on the bottom a good bit. I kinda wonder if those little fish were shipped to the store in brackish water and then thrown in to fresh at the store.

 

[Alyxx]

When I started out I bought four, and one of mine died in the first couple weeks. Remember, these are wild caught fish, so who knows what salinity they were captured in or shipped in. Also, they have a tendency to come in with internal parasites, which is why deworming them upon getting them is recommended. I treated the water with ParaGuard by Seachem and treated their food with prazipro for a week or so. I don't think the ParaGuard is necessary if you get the prazipro, but I did it anyway because I had it on hand. I didn't do both at the same time, though. I just used the ParaGuard in the water for the recommended period of time then fed them the soaked foods.

 

[Nimo]

Thanks for the info. If either of the other ones start to show signs of not doing well again I will get the stuff to treat them.