The Puffer Forum

The reason I asked about the bottom tanks is the top tank looks like it is taller on one end than the other. If you could switch things around, use the two bottom tanks separate, you could make a pretty awesome (albeit massive) sump. I'm drooling at the thought......

Dadof4 wrote:The reason I asked about the bottom tanks is the top tank looks like it is taller on one end than the other. If you could switch things around, use the two bottom tanks separate, you could make a pretty awesome (albeit massive) sump. I'm drooling at the thought......

Dad is at your tank. hehe

mrgreen wrote:OMG! That is SOME tank! What do you plan to stock it with? And where will you put it? I'd love to see update pix as you get it set up.

Thanks! I will be updating and posting as it happens

As for stocking it is a split level tank; with previous recommendations, I may go full marine and am thinking of larger fish on the 250 gallon bottom and smaller fish on the segregated top half. On the top half I am thinking of putting 2 puffers in each section (the 30 gal rule), plus the live sand & rock.

The bottom half I haven't decided yet...... What I want is to have some oysters imported but I understand they are unreasonably difficult to keep in an aquarium setting. Next choice, lobsters, or an octopus... I'll have to wait until the thing is in place and the cabinet is made.

P.S. I was simply going to build a cabinet for the thing but I had to move the furniture around. Since I had to move the furniture around, we decided to re-wall paper the basement, paint the trim and re-do the floors. I never new that a $6 fish could be such a project!!

mrgreen wrote:

Dadof4 wrote:The reason I asked about the bottom tanks is the top tank looks like it is taller on one end than the other. If you could switch things around, use the two bottom tanks separate, you could make a pretty awesome (albeit massive) sump. I'm drooling at the thought......

Dad is at your tank. hehe

LOL!! Yes.... I am worried about the sump as well..... Won't know till the cabinet is made and get it off the ground...

bazil323 wrote:Once you get the puffer set-up going, the goldfish should be fine in the 30g tank together. What kind of loach is it? Kuhli? Whatever kind it is, loaches need company much like corydoras or schooling fish (while loaches are not technically schoolers). Since you only have one, I would rehome it or take it back to the LFS. Otherwise, you will need to get a larger tank if you want to keep it with the goldfish.

Thanks for the advice,
The loach is a big green thing.. don't know the English name, in Japanese it is called a "do-jo" (NOT pronounced doo-jo) , lives in fresh water rivers and grows to be about 6-8". Ours is at 6" now and is doing ok for that last 1.5 years. When we had the Koi is was very active, no Koi it went into it's hole and stayed there for a long time. The introduction of the new gold fish and the puffers have made it active again, so it can't all be bad (except for eating all the puffer's food).

J-P

the goldfish are still a cool water species

but luckly for you the dojo loach is a cool water species as well so it will be fine living with them

"fancy goldfish"(ryukin,oranda,ranchu,lionhead etc) should have at least 10g per fish they produce alot of waste and their waste is very high in amonia etc so they quickly dirty a tank espeically when they get larger

also awesome tank cant wait to see it all put together

DANG!! the tank was supposed to arrive today but the movers only brought 3 guys. They were told to bring 6 because of the size and the layout of it. Soooo I will have to wait until Tuesday the 27th before it comes.
This may be a blessing in disguise, because I had the chance to finish wall papering that section of the room, got the carpet cut and had my neighbour even out the legs for the base of the tank.

Tomorrow.. looking to get something to get the carpet glue off the concrete.

Still researching skimmers and filters.

I found a shop that is breaking down their 90 gal tank and will be selling me the live sand and live rock for cheap

Of my 6 GSPs 2 are starting to look a little sickly, and aren't eating much. My wife over fed them yesterday and I had an ammonia spike today. Hopefully I corected it in time.

P.S.
When I called the guy at the fish shop he didn't beleive me that I had a 500 gal coming. He insisted that it was a 50 gal and I was mistaken..I think he soiled his pants when I said I needed live sand for 500. Looks like its going to be a special order item at $60 for 40 lbs.

herplover22 wrote:the goldfish are still a cool water species

but luckly for you the dojo loach is a cool water species as well so it will be fine living with them

"fancy goldfish"(ryukin,oranda,ranchu,lionhead etc) should have at least 10g per fish they produce alot of waste and their waste is very high in amonia etc so they quickly dirty a tank espeically when they get larger

also awesome tank cant wait to see it all put together

Thanks,
The owner of the fish shop told me the loach should be in a tank 20 - 24 degrees C (67-75F), and we tried to match the ryukin to the same. The tank is running a little hot for them right now at 28C (82F) but they are VERY active. Once the GSPs are moved over I'll drop the temp a little. The 2 Ryukin and the loach are in a 30 gal now with the awaiting 6 GSPs.

I just hope I can get everything set up and changed over in time so that I can minimize the losses.

J-P wrote:DANG!! the tank was supposed to arrive today but the movers only brought 3 guys. They were told to bring 6 because of the size and the layout of it. Soooo I will have to wait until Tuesday the 27th before it comes.
This may be a blessing in disguise, because I had the chance to finish wall papering that section of the room, got the carpet cut and had my neighbour even out the legs for the base of the tank.

Tomorrow.. looking to get something to get the carpet glue off the concrete.

Still researching skimmers and filters.

I found a shop that is breaking down their 90 gal tank and will be selling me the live sand and live rock for cheap

Of my 6 GSPs 2 are starting to look a little sickly, and aren't eating much. My wife over fed them yesterday and I had an ammonia spike today. Hopefully I corected it in time.

P.S.
When I called the guy at the fish shop he didn't beleive me that I had a 500 gal coming. He insisted that it was a 50 gal and I was mistaken..I think he soiled his pants when I said I needed live sand for 500. Looks like its going to be a special order item at $60 for 40 lbs.

Heh, minor setback but a tolerable one. I can just see the look on the guys face when you asked for that much live sand. Kind of like when I asked the guy and a large LFS for REAL live sand, not the bagged stuff, enough to do a 250 gallon. His reply was that I couldn't afford it and wouldn't get it because of my attitude. I whipped out the cash and told him I could but not from him anymore and walked out. His face was priceless.

You know for sand, you don't need live sand. Save your money and get more or better quality LR and use crushed shell or argonate sand. The LR will seed it ave a few months and save you a ton of money. The only place you really need live sand in in your refugium in the sump. Helps grow pods the will travel to the tank. Oh, and the stuff you see on the shelf really isn't live, how can it survive in bags for who knows how long.....Take a look at Tampabaysaltwater.com for nice live sand. Others here may have better places though.

His reply was that I couldn't afford it and wouldn't get it because of my attitude.

Wow, what a jerk! How does a store like that make any $$$?

I highly suggest against crushed coral for a marine tank. With the amount of live rock necessary for proper filtration, it is difficult to clean this substrate & can trap smaller food particles. Sans on the other hand, can grow all sorts of beneficial organisms that keep the sand healthy. Hence, the "live" part.

Best place to get lots of sand is from a local reefer. Check for a club nearby at Reef Central or look on Craigslist. We have a local reefer right now, tearing down his 600g tank & is selling off 1200lbs of sand with all sorts of pods, brittle stars, spaghetti worms and of course plenty of beneficial bacteria.

Here's his pricing:
20-50 pounds = $1.50 per pound
51+ pounds = $1.00 per pound

That was from one of the biggest pet stores in the state. The guy has a real attitude problem.

The point of the last post was basically to stay away from shelf live sand and get some that's not dead in a bag. My belief with that stuff is that you are paying way too much and the LR seeds the sand anyway. Be just as good to start with some sort of plain sand. I didn't know that the crushed coral didn't seed, glad to find that out because I was going to use it in my brackish to marine GSP tank. Argonite should seed though, right? Oh, and I wish I was ready to go full marine on the GSP tank because the sand that reefer is selling is a great deal.

Are you sure Oxi-clean is still ok to use? I remember when it first came out that it was a simple oxidizer, but a while ago, the formula changed...
I just looked in the FAQ's at oxiclean.com and it says it contains "non-ionic detergents" and "soil-dispersing agents"

Carmen

Caution Long Post & Going to Rant!

The tank arrived last night and the moving company basicly refused to move it into the basement. It was too large and too heavy. So here there it sits in my garage. At least today I got it on to 4x 1ton casters but it may not be enough once the water is in it. I'll have to take out a small section of wall in order to manuver it into the living room. That was lesson #2

Lesson #1 ... when my wife over fed the fish I asked her "How much shrimp did you feed them?" These are the store bought frozen dinner shrimp with the shell on. I fed them 1/4 piece every second day and took out the leftovers the same day, before I went to sleep. Her reply was "4 pieces". (OMG!!) "But I cut them up!" she said. (WTF!!) No wonder I couldn't find all the left overs the next day. No wonder our fish are sick..... THEN.... the sick fish got caugt in the filter intake... so she turns off 1 filter. OK, I'm fine with that. That night she turned off the 2nd filter so the water hadn't been circulating for over 12 hours! I took a deep breath.. plugged back in the filters, and told her not to touch the tank again. 5 GSPs died and 1 has gone AWOL.
I took a tank reading today after finding the expired little puffers:
PH 7.5
NO2 under .03
NH3/4 ammonia .25~1.5 <= After a water change yesterday AND treatment

Maybe this is an omen.. don't keep them, just eat them...

I really would like a marine set up with the larger tank.. but if this stuff is going to happen when I'm not looking, I am having my doubts.

Wow. That's... awful. I'm sorry. Why on earth did she turn off the filter?

LilGreenPuffer wrote:Wow. That's... awful. I'm sorry. Why on earth did she turn off the filter?

The little GSP was getting caught in the filter intake.