salt lvl

[beaver8888]

how would i firgure out what kind of saltinaty for a
figure8 puffer fish on the hydrometer thing? or any other fish?

[luvmygobies]

I've kept some puffers before and they did quite well with a SG between 1.010 and 1.012. There are different ranges for the freshwater fish that I keep and those you should probably research either on this site or on one similar. But all of my brackish fish have flourished in the SG that I mentioned earlier. Hope that helps.

[beaver8888]

ok and the salt is like 1 tbs of salt per 5 gallons right?

[luvmygobies]

Hmmm... Actually mine comes out to be something like 1 cup to every six gal. But if you don't have a large tank I would try to add it slowly, like a 1/4 cup at once, and then let it sit for a couple of hours and test it. Then add more if it's still too low. You don't want to overshoot the SG range and then screw up your fishs' appetites because the water's too salenic.

[beaver8888]

ok thank you

[madhippoz]

Do you have a hydrometer? That's the best way to guage. Slowly over time bring up the salinity of your water to anywhere from 1.005 - 1.012. That seems to be a safe range for most Brackish fish. I don't know that there's an exact ratio as it all depends on the volume of your tank and other such things and how much you lose during water changes. So just play around with it until you can approximate how much to put in with water changes. If you have swings in salinity that's ok, I understand that happens naturally and is perfectly healthy for your fish. If you've already got fish in your tank, don't dump the salt right in, get a large bucket, fill it with approx. tank temperature water, dump in your salt and run an airstone in it for a few hours to mix up the salt good, then add it in to your tank. Even if you don't have fish I'd recommend doing this, dumping too much salt into a previously freshwater tank can potentially play havoc with your established bacteria cultures. Trust me, I know this first hand .

[beaver8888]

o ya but what would be one cup? like a measuring one for liquad or something?

[luvmygobies]

I bought a set of plastic measuring cups for all my salt stuff. Just the regular kitchen kind (1c, 1/2c, 1/4c, ect) for solids and liquids because they're cheap and easy. Plastic so the salt doesn't start eating away at them.