More Noob Questions

[nocpan]

Hey, I just finished reading through the pinned stuff and still got questions,

I started a salt water tank, its cycled, it has a fish (1 spiny spotted nose puffer)

now what should be the proper numbers for it?

I'm reading 8.0 PH
temp is steady at 78 F
Ammonia 0

and now danger, Hydrometer is saying 1.018, this is that they had in the store and I lowered my SG from 1.020 to this cause I didn't want to kill the poor fish

for Fish Only tank (no reef) what should the numbers look like?

and

when I add water i should mix it in a container away from the tank, and slowly add the water in right?

I noticed the salt water fish are way more delicate than fresh,

also what about areation? i have 2 box filters each pumping 200 gph should i add more filters? or a bigger filter? i have a 30 gal (29 gal to be exact) or maybe I should add one of those air pumps and have more bubbles in the water?

 

[tff]

A powerhead will add lots of bubbles.

 

[Navarre]

That is a very low SG IMO. I assume the pufer is a brackish water variety? the only other reason the shops usually keep water sg this low ois to keep whitespot at bay and say money on salt.

As for marine fish being more fragile than freshwater, well im afraid i have to dissagree with that. If the water peramters are stable then salt water fish (the more common ones anyway) are just as hardy as freshwater. What marine fish cannot do which freshwater can is make fast adjustments to changing water conditions. In lakes and rivers the water conditions can change very rapidly, in the ocean of course this simply doesnt happen and marine fish are not designed to cope with changes very well (except rock pool fish of course). I have seen marine fish kept in extremly poor water condtions yet they are thriving and healthy. The reason for this is because the conditions are always the same for that tank.. if the fish was to suddenly be transferred into 100% excellant ocean water then it would probably die as it couldnot handle the quick change.

SG levels for a full marine tank should be between 1.022 and 1.026 IMO

 

[nocpan]

i figured that, i'm now slowly raising the sg will try to get it to 1.022 in few days but nothing drastic so i don't give shock to the fish...

my ammonia jumped to .1 maybe .2 i hope its just cause i introduced the fish there and it will soon go away

 

[Eelzor]

I have seen people that acclimatise their fish to from 1.020 to 1.030 quite easily. Sometimes I think it's better to keep salinity stable rather than fluctuate it all over the place. (Like what Navarre said back there) That would cause more deaths. I got the salinity of my store at 1.026 and buy their saltwater so it's not so much a problem for me.

 

[Salt Freak]

Ya I think your specific gravity is to low I have mine at 1.025. other than that pretty good.

 

[nocpan]

I agree with low salt, kinda pissed off at the store owner, 1000 islands aquarium in brooklyn "trust me, ask any judge and he will tell you that 1.018 is the right sg for non coral aquarium" that's what he said, and I was like "eh? whatever" but i lowered the sg in my aquarium from 1.022 to 1.018 cause i was afraid that the fish would get a shock if introduced to water like that.

now i'm mixing sliglthly stornger soltution in a separate container, and slowly adding it to the aquarium so the fish has time to adjust,

ammonia seems to be going down, i'm happy cause i was worries about that.

any more hints or tips ppl can throw at me? pleease!