Hello from East Tennessee USA

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baconfish
Puffer Fry
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jul 30, 2021 7:14 pm
Location (country): USA

Hello from East Tennessee USA

Post by baconfish »

My quest for knowledge has placed me at this forum. My current puffers in my care:

8 Dwarf (pea) puffers -- in a heavily planted 40 gallon tank. -- fyi.

2 GSP (green spotted puffers) - currently juvenile in a 55 gallon tank. Current salinity 1.005 and carefully watching water parameters to make sure I do not crash the cycle as I raise salinity. Goal is 1.010+

Overall I have had about 5.5 years of serious fish keeping with fresh water. I say 'serious' meaning I care about the wellbeing of the fish and I fully understand I am responsible for their wellbeing. I kept fish as a child and I'm sure I was not the best at it. As an adult I take this more seriously. While I am totally a n00b with puffers I wanted to talk and chat with others in a community focused on them. Internet searches lead me here. I hope this is positive community to discuss puffers.

the GSPs are the main reason why I am joining the forum. They are my first "big" fish and I have taken some steps for success I hope.
My 55 gallon is double filtered with two seachem tidal 55 HOB filters. Weekly water changes of about 40% with the intent of raising the salinity slowly. Probably ~0.002 every two weeks to make sure I do not crash the cycle. I'm currently day 3 into keeping GSP and brackish water....

this was set up and humanely cycled with well seasoned media from an established fresh water tank. i let the tank sit with the media for about 2 weeks then added white cloud minnows (5 from my pond) and let them sit in the tank for 3 weeks.

As you read this I am closely watching ammonia levels (so far 0) and I have Fritz turbostart for salt water on hand if anything is out of wack and i'm ready to do a water change if needed. So far the GSPs are bright and vibrant and readily take food. -- I have frozen Krill, frozen Bloodworms, and clams on the halfshell on hand. I also have a pond snail tank i use as treats for the dwarf puffers and i have a tetra tank that's home to a healthy colony of malaysian trumpet snails

Hopefully I am on the right track. Please let me know if you have any tips/tricks for success as I make sure not to crash my cycle.
(you have reached the end. this concludes my intro i hope it was not too long)
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
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Re: Hello from East Tennessee USA

Post by Pufferpunk »

Welcome!
I don't think this tank was cycled properly. Any established media you add from another tank must be fed. Letting it sit for 2 weeks without adding ammonia, has let the bacteria starve & die. What test kits are you using? How about nitrite/nitrate? SW bacteria is totally different than FW. It changes over at around 1.102-15. I would continue keeping them in FW, until you are absolutely sure the tank is stable.

library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/

library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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