The Puffer Forum

I don't know of anyone who hasn't made that mistake, including myself. Now you know better. :) Yes, I do. And now that I know how to correctly cycle an aquarium (and i have a decent size one) I think I'm going to convert it back to freshwater and keep a community of small fish. I will definitely ha...

Don't beat yourself up too bad you did your best to try and resolve the issues it was just unfortunate it didn't pan out for the best. You are now armed with a lot more useful information so if you do decide in the future you will be far more prepared. Lots of people will have made this mistake, it...

Without seeding the tank with established bacteria & adding some kind of ammonia source to feed it, you cannot create a biological bed to support the waste of a fish, especially a high waste-producing species like a puffer. I was ill-advised on the first part of that by my LFS. They STRONGLY re...

Sorry but your tank was not cycled at all. All Cycle contains is dead bacteria, it's junk. For future reference: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/category/water-filtration/ Is adding ammonia what I failed to do? Did the tank actually start cycling when I added the fish? I have a book on ...

The toxins must have dome permanent damage to him. Sorry for your loss... :( I am curious though, how exactly you cycled the 5g? I set it up with gravel and tap water. I tested our tap water before I did anything to it to get an idea of what I was working with. Here, we have almost no ammonia or ch...

Awww.... that's sad. I am very sincerely sorry for your loss. At least you're better prepared if you choose to get another puffer. :( I don't think that I'm going to get another puffer. I'd rather not keep only one fish again because I don't think I want to get this attached. But, one day I will ha...

I don't think the 5 gal was even cycled correctly. I am certain that I cycled my 5 gallon tank correctly. For the first two weeks everything was perfect, until ammonia started to build up from the lack of sufficient space. This is not my first fish tank, only my first attempt to try to keep a puffe...

can you add some foam or filterfloss around that intake? I don't have any of either of those and all of the pet stores close in 9 minutes. . . He hasn't gone near it again since i ushered him away from it. . . Is there anything else that will encourage him to stay away from it or prevent him from g...

I'm sure your parents will appreciate your visiting them more often! ;) Haha yeah my dad actually already mentioned that. I am a little worried. I came in the room just a minute ago and Brutus was sleeping against the filter intake. . . It wasn't like he was stuck but more like in that rest state. ...

Yay! It's so nice to hear how hard you've worked to keep him :-) How did you manage to find room for the new tank, and what about when there are inspections? I am keeping the tank at my dad's house which is right near my university. Plus, I stay with him during the summer which is in like a month. ...

Brutus has been successfully transferred to a 30 gallon tank. He has only been in there for about half an hour, so we will see, but he seems better already.

Im still running filter media thats 4 years old in my internal filters and a good squeeze now and again keeps them running perfectly. You're heading in the right direction, keep up the good work. Wow, good to know about the filter media. I had no idea. Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm about to g...

I dont think letting it run for a few days is going to make any difference. Better to shift everything over and have 30 gallons diluting the waste compared to 5. When you say you changed the bag, are you referring to all the filter media in the filter? Yes, I had an ammonia spike (fairly obvious gi...

If your 5 gal is cycled, you could just transfer over everything. That is EVERYTHING... that bacteria is already adjusted to the GSP's ammonia output (hopefully). That's what I've gotten as a general consensus, it seems. Good point about LFS pH. That makes me feel a little better. Water temperature...

Dont wait at all as soon as you transfer the gravel, decorations, and filter put the gsp in it. Nick was talking about haveing the filter that is going to stay on the 30 gallon along with the 5 gallon filter. If you run them both on there at the same time eventually the filter "for" the 3...