The Puffer Forum

Hello all,

Very soon the time is coming for me to move my puffers [enumerated in one of my two other topics]; of all the things with which I have experience in the domain of the captive marine microcosm, this is not one of them.
Nothing even close.

Due to a series of unfortunate events [FORCED two week holiday], my 300g setup is running a full month behind; this alone has added another practically fractal level of complexity to the situation.

I believe that I have a pretty decent plan, but I am absolutely NOT willing to risk the lives of my Arothron and Tetraodon friends on my success in "winging it", which speaks more of the love which I have for these "little" guys than of my faith in my own hypotheses. Do you as well deplore people saying "theoretically", without having first formulated and tested a hypothesis? Man, that bugs me without end.

Here is my plan, such as it is:
1] Construct a DC inverter using a bridge rectifier, step-up transformer, heat-sink and waveform attenuation circuit.
1a] Purchase a DC inverter if I run out of time, but since building one will be more fun it is my hope that I do not run out of time.
2] Buy a bucket with lid for each puffer to be transported, along with corollary air-stone and a quantity of 3/16th inch tube sufficient to the implementation of [3]
3] Connect a gang valve to the result of [2] and pair the outcome with an air pump capable of the obvious task [Currently the largest diaphragm air-pump offered by Rena]
4] Transport my buddies and their current biofilter [the Marineland C530 packed with Seachem Purigen and Matrix: henceforth "biofilter"] over 200 miles in 2 hours to their new home
4a] Have my wife monitor NH3/NH4+, NO2-/HNO2 levels and dose Seachem AmGuard and/or Prime if required [if so, monitor and adjust Pondus hydrogenii, as Prime/AmGuard (but especially Prime) will lower that metric, and fast].
4b] Have my wife monitor DO and dose H2O2 if DO reaches dangerous levels [add 1 drop to small container of water, wait a few moments, add the solution to the proper bucket, retest, then recurse if required]
5] Cycle a 56g temporary tank using MicrobeLIFT Special Blend bacteria [henceforth "bacteria"], which shall be housed in an established Aquaclear 500 packed with ceramic media, augmented with a Lifereef HVS3-24: henceforth designated [A].
6] Attach [biofilter] to [A]
7] Introduce the puffers to [A]
8] Add 4x suggested dose of nitrifying [bacteria] to [A], monitoring DO [which the resultant nitrification will temporarily reduce] and Nitrogen compounds, which the [bacteria] will increase for a short time.

Obviously step [5] is precedent to steps [6-8] and concurrent with steps [1-4b].

As you see, I have attempted to account for all variables...but nonlinear dynamic systems being what they are...

Sanity check please?
Have I missed anything?

I offer my sincere regret for having subjected the reader to my highly parenthetical and object oriented prose.

Thanks!
Ian

By the way, Chrome on iOS does not play well with the javascript used to insert the BBCode associated with a given smiley when selected from the new tab which is created when one activates "View more smilies" from the right side of the post creation age.

You mean insanity check? yea sure you pass with flying unicorns

"sometimes over thinking certain aspects in life is the bringer of your biggest enemy that has acquired the name of anxiety, the fog in your linear perspective."

Most commercial fish are shipped in questionable water (Only because the origins are only known by hear say after so long) and get placed in "oxygenated" bags and placed in "insulated" boxes that travel countless of hours and miles that eventually make it to a dock, landing strip, warehouse, train, car or god knows a moped maybe (in no particular order and may or may not get rest and or change in water/bag)....that gets sent to a wholesale venue that then goes into another form of transportation and somehow ends up in a LFS by fed->ex, ups, USPS or Moped..lol and then makes it into your home.

The rate of death is high probably if you look at the entire picture of the industry, but the rate of success is high enough that it makes it still profitable by all these business and services in between.....if you take into account half of the thought you are putting into the comparably short travel you are doing..my money is on your success of living puffers once you have reached your destination if you proceed with your given plan. Maybe add a heater. But thats All I gotta say as a person without reading the travel article.

gdsentropy wrote:Have I missed anything?

drive carefully

just do the move and have ppl help with the heavy stuff. It is no big deal

Make sure your puff buddies arent fed before transportation then its : Double bag , polystyrene box , heat packs and move them from a to b with no farting about

Thanks to everyone for your responses; I am glad to see that it may indeed be far less complicated than I had thought. I was so concerned for the little guys that I had not even considered everything they went through successfully to have made it this far.

Thanks!
Ian

of course