The Puffer Forum

I think that the gist of it is that if you have accelerated growth then you have accelerated waste due to plants shading out others quicker and causing leaves to die off, if you prune almost daily then maybe you can cut down on the waste produced. Okay now that make sense. I thought there was some ...

It is always better to get into the rhythm of the changes... even if it is only 10% in your case. As you said, you have a margin of error, so if it gets delayed for a few days then there is no problem. Also if you are running CO2 it is even better to keep up the water changes to avoid a PH crash. W...

You definitely are lucky to have such a friend like that. I am envious

Ever heard of a Texas cichild? It's the only cichild from the US of A. I just did some quick research on a Texas Cichlid. They are mean little suckers <actually not so little>, and it's recommended that a single one is housed in a minimum of 75 gallon tank. They tear up plants, dig like crazy, and ...

Pufferpunk wrote:I have a friend who watches my tanks & if I'm gone over a week, he does a WC for me.

Wow. Sounds like a really nice friend. Especially if you have several tanks that require a water change. Must be a nail biter for you when you're gone.

You'll still have to do water changes even in a planted tank. If your Nitrates are running that low you are probably deficient in other minerals also that would be replenished via water changes as well as taking out the unwanted dissolved solids. Have a Magnesium or Iron test kit handy? no = water ...

Yes, I think what she was worried about the all to common problem of well planted tanks keeping the nitrates down so much that fish owners see almost no need for water changes, stunting their fish unintentionally because although the levels of the waste products they can easily measure are low(and ...

If you had a heavy plant mass with low light, low CO2, low ferts with a nutrient rich substrate then you could reduce your water change schedule however it appears that you are running a high tech tank where the theory is to flood your tanks with nutrients, CO2 and light for optimum growth, with th...

Here in Austin, all of our water comes from a limestone aquifer, and while it is very pure and clean (my wife and I don't buy bottled water ever), it is extremely hard ("liquid rock" as you mentioned). That said, I've kept DPs using our tap water for years with no problems. http://www.ci....

Yep, one at the beginning of the day & after all the other tanks are done, I go back & do another one. Wow wee! Seriously? I don't think I've ever heard anyone else do that. You really do take water changes to a whole new level. I agree though. You really do have a beautiful discus/angelfis...

Pufferpunk wrote:I do 150% WC on my heavily planted discus tank weekly & add ferts back (Yamato Green) afterwards.

Hmmm....150% huh? Is that 75% WC done twice in a row?

I have a 5 gallon heavily planted, high light tank with pressurized CO2 at 30ppm. Most are stem plants that grow very fast! INHABITANTS 1 - Dwarf Puffer (pretty small) 1 - Amano shrimp (don't worry, he's 3X the size of the puffer) 1 -Nerite (again, 4X the size of the puffer) I've been doing 50% wate...

It varies a great deal all over their habitat. Some areas are slow moving and totally covered in plants, which make for water with low TDS with few carbonates. Other areas are near rocky soils and have much fewer plants, and tends to be hard. A certain time of year, flooding at the river mouths mak...

Pufferpunk wrote:They shouldn't care about hardness, your tap water is fine.

Thanks Pufferpunk. I have heard people using hard tap for their DP's with no problems.

But do you know approximately the water parameters of their natural habitat?

My tap water is very hard, almost like liquid rock. pH: 8.2 GH: 17 degrees (304.3ppm) Currently, when doing weekly water changes, I have been mixing 50% reverse osmosis water and 50% dechlorinated tap water. This yields a GH of 8 degrees (143 ppm) and a pH of 7.2. 1. Is it worth the hassle to do thi...