Praise God, He's already well!!!
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Jase
- Mbu Puffer
- Posts: 1579
- Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:13 am
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: RIP Hootey :(
- Location (country): USA
- Location: Montana
Re: Praise God, He's already well!!!
I use Stress Coat in my wild game aquariums, and that really helps them get their slime coat and colors back. I don't think it would hurt your puffer, but I'm definitely no PufferPunk.
-Jase
edmlfc1 wrote:A house without a puffer is not a home.
Re: Praise God, He's already well!!!
Dear Jeni,
If nitite of 2 is toxic but 0 is too low??? This kit doesn't have a nitrate check. It has nitrite no2 and no3. I did read the article prior to writing last post. A little confusing on what I can do now that fish is there. I have stress coat, and another person posted I might be able to use that. Is it okay???
mrm
If nitite of 2 is toxic but 0 is too low??? This kit doesn't have a nitrate check. It has nitrite no2 and no3. I did read the article prior to writing last post. A little confusing on what I can do now that fish is there. I have stress coat, and another person posted I might be able to use that. Is it okay???
mrm
Re: Praise God, He's already well!!!
I see where you got nitrites of 2 no no the cards for the tests are labeled " Nitrite NO. 2 and Nitrite NO. 3" two different tubes for nitrites. but they both are testing at zero. which is what I was told it should be. YOUR RIGHT... both shops apparently know little to nothing about puffers, at the very least ...
So, how bad is a nitrite level of zero and what, if anything should I do about it?
mrm
So, how bad is a nitrite level of zero and what, if anything should I do about it?
mrm
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32975
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Re: Praise God, He's already well!!!
If your bacteria bed is healthy & active, you would be showing some nitrate in there. It's the end product of a cycled tank. I certainly didn't expect you to cycle the tank with ammonia once the fish is in there, just thought it would explain the cycle better to you.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: Praise God, He's already well!!!
I appreciate your help and information, part of my confusion is that the kit I just purchased has no Nitrate measurer in it. Can I get one of these seperatly?? I understand I can't put Ammonia in it now, but is there something I can/should be doing???
Thanks so much
mrm
Thanks so much
mrm
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32975
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Re: Praise God, He's already well!!!
Yes, Aquarium Pharmasuticals makes seperate test kits.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
-
JerryGSP
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:12 am
- My Puffers: 1 x GSP (Jerry)
- Location: Bristol, UK
Re: Praise God, He's already well!!!
As pp and the others have said...large water changes are the answer until you get a good colony of bacteria which can do some of the work for you. Also the bio-spira you can get over there sounds like a god send...I don't think we have an equivalent in the UK.
[To answer your question of why we said '0' in Nitrates was bad....
The things in your tank such as uneaten food, fish poop etc produce Ammonia (which is harmful and you want to be 0), in an uncycled tank this number will increase until bacteria are established which 'eat' the ammonia and turn it into Nitrites which you also want to be 0). The Nitrites are also harmful and this number will increase until a new set of bacteria convert this into Nitrates. The Nitrates are harnful but less so and can be removed by water changes..don't ever be tempted by chemicals which claim to remove it. So you see...if you have a Nitrate reading of zero...you can pretty much assume that there is no bacteria turning the really harmful stuff into less harmful stuff. A healthy tank will have zero readings for ammonia and nitrite and low nitrate readings...as low as possible is good!]
Personally I don't regularly test for Nitrite unless I know something is wrong. I test for Nitrate regularly and Ammonia occasionally. You will learn a six-sense from the behaviour of your fish etc when something is wrong. Until then get yourself a Nitrate test kit!
[To answer your question of why we said '0' in Nitrates was bad....
The things in your tank such as uneaten food, fish poop etc produce Ammonia (which is harmful and you want to be 0), in an uncycled tank this number will increase until bacteria are established which 'eat' the ammonia and turn it into Nitrites which you also want to be 0). The Nitrites are also harmful and this number will increase until a new set of bacteria convert this into Nitrates. The Nitrates are harnful but less so and can be removed by water changes..don't ever be tempted by chemicals which claim to remove it. So you see...if you have a Nitrate reading of zero...you can pretty much assume that there is no bacteria turning the really harmful stuff into less harmful stuff. A healthy tank will have zero readings for ammonia and nitrite and low nitrate readings...as low as possible is good!]
Personally I don't regularly test for Nitrite unless I know something is wrong. I test for Nitrate regularly and Ammonia occasionally. You will learn a six-sense from the behaviour of your fish etc when something is wrong. Until then get yourself a Nitrate test kit!
Jeni
400l - Marine (1 x GSP, 1 x C.Papua)
400l - Marine (1 x GSP, 1 x C.Papua)