Ph And Alkalinity For Brackish Water

[joelovesfish]

I've just begun taking care of my 2 new puffers and I've made the water brackish from freshwater before I put them in- my question is when I'm testing the water, do I pay more attention to ideal freshwater conditions, or saltwater conditions. My instincts say to break it down the middle and find an average, but I'd rather have a well defined range of PH and Alkalinity to stay within. Does anyone have some experience with this?
Thanks!
-Joe

 

[nmonks]

You don't need to make things this complicated. Provided you are using marine aquarium salt mix, the pH and hardness will adjust themselves automatically (marine salt mix contains minerals that harden the water and buffer the pH). If you're keeping figure-8 puffers, 5-6 grammes/litre should do the trick nicely; the two GSP species do well between 5-10 grammes/litre, or can be kept in fully marine conditions if desired.

If you must have numbers, then for a low-end brackish system around SG 1.003 at 25 C, you'd expect a hardness around 10-20 degrees dH and a pH around 7.5, while high-end brackish tanks should be around 20 degrees dH and the pH needs to be around 8.0.

Cheers, Neale

 

[joelovesfish]

Great information! Thanks for the advice.