The Puffer Forum

I have a question. It’s not going to be an issue for more than a year, but it’s been on my mind, so I thought I’d ask. I’m winding down on my undergraduate degrees, and in the fall of 2011 I will be going to grad school. I don’t know yet where the school will be located, but I know I will be moving ...

Update: Sg=1.012 pH=~7.8 Ammonia=0 Nitrite=0 Nitrate=~5 I waited, watching a few days to be sure that Gollum didn’t get sick, then continued raising SG. The remainder of the raise happened using the same old hydrometer, and since it was reading my tap water as anywhere between 1 and 1.004, there may...

No, he's totally himself. Tossed in a frozen clam on the half shell a few hours ago, he pigged out big time. Now he's swimming around his favourite plant and glass surfing with a fat little belly.

GSP named Gollum.

I watched the puffers in the tank for a bit before I bought him, they seemed generally okay. But then again, if an aquarium store is keeping GSPs in fresh water, they can't be all that responsible in the first place, from what I've read. I should go back to the store and see how all the other puffer...

Alright, thanks for the advice guys and gals! I retested with lots of mixing at each step, and nitrates showed up on the card kinda between 5 and 10 (also tested ammonia and nitrite, which were still at 0). So I wonder why the newer puffer died, and I hope it wasn't contagious. Gollum is still as ha...

Just in case the death of my puffer was related to an incompletely cycled tank, I’d like to add some beneficial bacteria. The remaining puffer is acting like he always has, but to be safe (since the reading on nitrates was 0, and I guess that means the tank has not cycled) I would like to add some s...

I wouldn't think it would starve the biofilter, since the stuff it filters out is still in the water. All the water that goes through the pump is passing through the stuff in the purigen before going back into the tank. Also, purigen doesn't remove ammonia, nitrites, or nitrate, it just filters the ...

Purigen does the exact same thing as carbon but can be regenerated. Nothing removes uneaten foods from the system, other than cleaning the tank with WC. You can mechanically remove the food with a filter but it still adds bioload to the system. Okay, good. Then it shouldn't be interfering with the ...

Are you using a hydrometer, the swing arm type? That's exactly what I'm using. Purigen doesn't remove ammonia specifically, but it does filter out wastes and uneaten food, which I guess limits ammonia production (I figured some would be left behind, since not all uneaten food and waste gets to the ...

The filter was probably out of water for about a half hour, but the media and biowheel were still wet when I got it up and running again, in fact when I lifted one of the filter cartriges out to see how dirty they were, it was still dripping, slowly. I've never dewormed them. I don't know if this ma...

Tank/Inhabitants: 45 gallon containing 2 GSPs (<2 inches each). Yesterday also added 2 live ghost shrimp and about 10 live snails for food, saw one of the ghost shrimp alive earlier today. Water parameters: pH: The color of the test tube is between the colors on the card marked as 7.8 and 8.0. Ammon...

Thank you, that is exactly what I was looking for. I figure it works out well, because I will leave them in this tank (with gravel) and brackish conditions until I move them to a 60 gal, at which point I can restart with live rock and full marine conditions. Thank you. One more question: How will I ...

I have two GSPs in a 45 gallon FW tank. They were sold to me in FW, but in researching them, I've found some expert sources that say they need brackish (I've also found some that say they prefer fresh, and some say they can be in marine tanks when full grown). More of the sources say brackish than a...