How fast to convert to brackish water

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charles-n-charge

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 28, 2010
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Livingston Tx
Right now I'm slowly converting my freshwater stonefish to brackish water. I'm aiming for a specific gravity of 1.014 and salinity of about 19.
I've been slowly adding saltwater for a week now, and have gone from FW to a salinity of 7 and a specific gravity of 1.005. So basically the salinity level is going up about one point a day.
The fish is acting normal and seems to be adapting pretty well so far.
Is this conversion too fast, too slow, or just right?

Also, I'm using Instant Ocean with an IO Hydrometer
 
I know that when treating saltwater fishes for ich with a hyposalinity treatment the specific gravity gets dropped from 1.023 (or whatever one's normal level is) to 1.009 over two days and then brought back up over two days after the treatment period is over, so I would say that you should be able to safely speed it up and have it up to your desired level if you do it over the period of two days.
 
I think you are going at a good pace. I do not think you can go too slow but you can go to fast. The rate you are using if you see no stress I would remain there.
 
The general consensus among us brackish folks is to not raise the SG more than .002 per week. If you go faster than this you risk killing off your BB. You need time for the new salt friendly bacterial colony to establish it's self. I am certain that the fish can make the transition much much faster than this though. I have had a brackish tank running for about a year now, and it is pretty close to running a freshwater tank. I do seem to need to do more water changes to keep the nitrates down/algae under control though.
 
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