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I'm starting another 30g tank, but this time i am going to give brackish water a shot. The water (with water conditioners) has been running for a week and i added marine salt directly to the tank today (monday). I know you should not add salt directly if you have fishes living in the tank, since i have none i thought this would not be a problem (correct me if i am wrong).

1. I am wondering how much time should i wait before introducing the first fish, since i added salt directly to the water.

2. I intend to put some Green Spotted Puffers (GSP) in it, but i read on an article that GSP are not ideal specimens to cycle a tank. Is this true? If it is, what type of fish do you recommend me? GSP will be the main attraction, any recommendation should be either compatible with or eatable by the GSP's.

3. I was also wondering on any possible tankmates. Any suggestions? Please include ratios and if's

Any help will be appreciated

Personally I find it easiest to get your brackish tank started as fresh (most brackish fish are ussually sold in freshwater) and then slowly start to bring up the salinity when you do water changes. As long as you don't raise the salinity dramatically the biofiltration wont crash. Most livebearers will tolerate pretty saline water, so you can always start things going with a few guppies and transfer them elsewhere when you get your GSP's.

Fresh and brackish puffers are pretty much impossible to get here in Australia so I can't tell you a lot about them, though I'd suspect they're very sensitive to ammonia and nitrites, and probably have a relatively low nitrate tolerance also, combine that with their messy eating habits and you can guess why they'd be bad to cycle with.

No idea on tank mates, they'd probably fin nip anything you added.

MOLLY!

Molly's can exist in any type of water and are crazy good at cycling brackish tanks. Get the tanks salinity right and then slowly acclimate them in a floating container starting fresh and doing a 30% water change ever four hours or so... give them a bubble stone.

The next question is what is your target salinity. Tank mates change per the salinity of the water. I have done a brackish tank and it cracked and I lost a lot of fish. I will be doing another but it will probably be a lot larger. Post your questions and I am happy to help you out here. I have done stock lists for a few people now, so hopefully I can help you get off the ground. I can tell you about a lot of really great fish that you will enjoy for years to come.