The Puffer Forum

I think reducing the length of lighting time does help - I understood that lighting for more than 8 - 10 hrs accelerates the algal growth.

Is there a sticky anywhere which gives advice on how much and how often to raise salinity?
My GSP is about 2.5 inches and I've got him up to 1.008 so far.
Any input would be very welcome

About the zeolite, I've got some to. But it is special for sea tanks. It says so on the box. Shouldn't I must have the same ammonium problem? Because I don't.... My feeling is that zeolite has no place in an established aquarium. Although you may have the type designed for marine use, the principal...

The media contains the zeolite. You can still use your hob for biofiltration, too. You can either put sponge into the cavity or some media-noodles/ceramic biostars depending on how much space there is. API make media called Matrix which has a lot of surface area for the beneficial bacteria to coloni...

AH.... Is the crushed coral previously whitish in color?? Most prob you're looking at same kind of camoflage. GSP do try to blend into the evironment sometime. using black substrate might cause him to darken his underbelly. But do some WC just in case. I know how you feel abt the darkening of color...

Aha! Top Fin cartridges usually contain zeolite. And salt is the recharger for zeolite! (I was wrong before about bleach - that's for something else) So your brackish tank is working like a recharging soak for the saturated zeolite. That's why you have a constant ammonia presence and no cycle. Bingo...

Well, if it contains ammo-chips the salt in the tank will cause it to release it's ammonia. I think salt is the re-charger for ammo-chips and bleach for zeolite - someone will jump in if I'm wrong. Do you have a brand name for it? Basically, cycle-able media is designed to remain in the filter to ho...

Thanks Agnate - yes, it was crushed coral which has a lot of surface area to colonize and my little girl wanted to change it for fine black gravel. This is annoying as he'd been doing so well. I'll have to keep on top of w/changes for the coming week to keep him comfortable. I hate to see him so dark.

Yeah, it's a fair concern to raise. My filter is a pretty basic HOB filter with no fancy/expensive type of media, so I can't imagine they would add that in without a price increase. Oh. Does it have floss, sponge and/or bio-stars, or a cartridge with a media bag and carbon which you are supposed to...

Hi - I just posted on your other thread then saw this.
Do you have any zeolite or ammo-chips in the filter/s?

Hi Agnate, I just wanted to say that rinsing the filter (unless in tank water) to kill off everything won't 'kickstart' a cycle, it will just kill the small amount of beneficial bacteria you already have and put the cycle back to square one. A month seems quite long without any nitrites showing, tho...

Although this thread is old I just wanted to add a few things. My view is that there are things added to household or cooking salt which are very harmful to fish - so it is always a good idea to check the label for any additives. Here's a list of agents that are really bad: Magnesium: found in: cow ...

Just bought a new Tetra ammonia test: 0.0 Hagen nitrite : palest trace. nitrate: 5 PH : 8.0 He is eating well but still looking very dark. Is that trace of nit enough to cause this? One other thing I forgot to mention. My daughter changed his substrate the night of the large water change.

Two things: 1) I don't believe you need a SW testing kit until a little higher in SG (maybe around 1.012+). Wait for confirmation from someone a little more experienced, though. 2) A 0.002 increase in SG is that MAX that you should increase in a 1-2 week period. If you increase the SG too quickly, ...

Hi everyone - I've not been on for an age but need a little advice. We've had our GSP since September and I've been slowly raising salt since getting him. The lfs was keeping them in only about 1tsp p/gal and now I have him at 1.008. Could someone advise me as to when to switch to SW testers? At wha...