The Puffer Forum

Updates: Rudy and Winky are doing AWESOME. Rudy is the brains of the organization and Winky...well, let's just say his name rhymes with a cartoon character mouse that isn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. Eating mysis shrimp once daily, eagerly; tank has levelled out at 0 nitrites and some...

I went ahead and went with my gut instinct, which was to do a half WC and take some of the "dead rock" out of the tank, with my rationale being that there might be some die-off in the FW organisms hitching a ride on the rock (including but not limited to algae and snails...guess I should h...

If this is for a saltwater tank, why don't you just buy live rock or borrow some from someone local (check aquarium clubs)? That would be instant established cycle for you. I actually do have live rock in the tank, both crushed in the filter canister and freestanding; I also have live sand (though ...

It is SW. I added it to the water, though, so I hope if I just add it to the filter that will help. My LFS keeps it refrigerated and it was still cool when I put it in the tank, but you're right--it's impossible to know what happened between the manufacturer and the store. I'll be able to get some f...

How excited was I to discover a product where I could literally insta-cycle? Oh I was pretty excited. This meant that I could get my feeshies! Yay! So Rudy and Winky, and a packet of Bio-Spira, came home with us on Sunday. I read the instructions on Bio-Spira and used it as directed. Tank got to 2 n...

So is the LR rubble in your HOB Aquaclear filter? Because that's the only reason to use a filter like that on a SW tank. I have them as mini-refugiums on my smaller tanks. Yup, that was the idea. The larger pieces (which I can't really tell how much they weigh, to be perfectly honest) are part of t...

OK, srsly, I need to get back to studying for my board exam. I'll keep everyone posted, and, please, keep those ideas coming! I'm so excited to have such helpful, knowledgeable people supporting us in our pufferventure.

You can lower your temperature to about 79˚F. You should have at least 30 pounds of liverock in the 20. Most filtration in marine systems is all biological. Protein skimmers and live rock are much needed. HA! Yeah, we're in Vegas. With ONLY the cold water tap running, the temperature's 89 degrees ....

Thats good just keep an eye on your puffs. Oh and the 85 will be great for them. I would got with a small school of 4-5 yellowtail damsels and a goby or something. How much live rock do you have? What about filtration? How big are the puffers? Be sure to keep and eye on water params with those two ...

Okay, so, the spouse and I came to a couple of realizations: 1) We really wanted saltwater all along 2) We rarely settle on the same fish 3) We want to consolidate some of our cichlids into tanks together; they're too spread apart 4) Our LFS tends to overstock their tanks (one of their only bad habi...

Y'all are hilarious. Okay, so, here's what we did. After sitting down and having several long discussions about what we'd like to see in our tanks, we decided to sell back our community fish and convert our 20 g into a saltwater. Our LFS has a GSP that's already acclimated to SW, as well as a saddle...

LGP is correct that a SAP's are shoaling fish and you could get a very nice group going in an 85 gallon! So am I understanding that SAP's can't be happy unless there are quite a few of them? How many, minimum, would constitute a shoal? One thing to take in to account is that SAP's have the highest ...

The 85 is the only option? We have five tanks: a 10 g that we use for raising snails; a 20 g community with about a dozen neon tetras, eight tiger barbs, and a rainbow gourami (and the only pH-neutral tank); a 40 g with six Africans; a 55 g with seven Africans, two clown botias, and two SAEs; and t...

Well, Bu stopped swimming today and I know better than to replace him with another Mbu. (At least until I'm in a place, financially and geographically, where I can give him a pool in which to swim.) We loved him best for his very laid-back personality; the only things towards which he was ever aggre...

As a post-script, my spouse informed me late last night that there was no carbon in the filter because we couldn't find the right packages. So I have a suspicion that that's what made the difference between before and after performance. Hell, at this point it might have been air freshener buildup......