Getting Started with Puffers with PICS!

[ryandlf]

Sorry...no pics of the puffers yet, still in the cycling process...I decided to go with a and fashion danio cycle after losing a couple tetras and these guys have been doing great for 3 or 4 days now. I'm about a week in. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. Let me introduce myself...my name is Ryan, many years ago I owned a community freshwater tank, as well as an Africa Cichlid tank, and for a while even a Discuss tank then I up and moved to the states from Canada and had to give everything up. Well its been almost 9 years, and the other day I happened to drive by our LFS (a little place called Fintastic, and has my utmost recommendation), stopped in, and came out with a basic 20 Gallon starter kit, some gravel, driftwood, a couple plants, fertilizer etc etc. My original thought was..."I've got to get another Discuss tank going, just to get back into the hobby and then maybe i'll dive into saltwater for the first time." But, as usual I jumped on the net and started doing some research and what people thought were the best freshwater fish. I happened to come across this forum and you guys completely won me over. I can't tell you how many hours i've spent reading through the various posts on here. And with all that being said, i'm going to lay out my future plans for this tank, ask some newbie questions, and then share some pictures of what I got going so far. This may end up being a long post, but hey its my first.

So basically what I want to do is get maybe 3 DP's, and I was thinking a couple catfish...I think specifically they usually are found under the name of leopard catfish but i'm probably wrong. Everyone says to go with Oto's, but will catfish be alright? I thought possibly a couple Clown Loaches as well? I have to admit I haven't completely decided on the tankmates yet, but i'd like to do something different. Any advice would be awesome.

So now onto the questions. As I mentioned before I am about a week into the cycling process...pH seems to be at about 6.6, Nitrites at the moment, about 0.1 and Ammonia...around 0.5. How much longer should I wait before adding my puffers? I've also got some strange white algae looking substance growing on my driftwood (see pics), is this harmful? And last is regarding my live plants. At the moment i'm just using the 15 watt florescent bulb that came with the kit, as well as Plant Pack Fundamentals by a company called Seachem. Will this be enough light or should I upgrade the tube?

Anyways take a look at the setup so far, i'm looking forward to getting some input, and really i'm up for anything right now so please...shoot away. All I really want is something different, unique and somewhat challenging.

10G-Week1-Web.jpg

WoodClose.jpg

[plurmaster]

white stuff on dritwood could be mold. Just use a tooth brush to get it off or u can cut the little peice out. As for the tank wait till it full cycled before you put the DP's in. It should take around2-3 weeks for me. I add ammonia to help me cycle. In regarding your plants it really depends on what type of plants is it. Low light plants can survive with your current light bulb but alot wont thrive. Of course you want to go to the extreme you can upgrade your lights to 2watt 0r even 3 watt per gallon. The higher the lighting the need of co2 is a must. You can try seachem flourish excel for co2 again if you want to go hardcore get a co2 system but im sure you are not ready for that yet but i am.GETTING MY FRIST CO2 SETUP TOMORROW!!! heh i had to let that out. As for algae eater oto are great because they get rid of brown algae extremely welll and you most likely will get it at start. I only use 1 oto to clean my 10 gal tank and it took him 24 hrs to make my tank spotless of brown algae. So i highly recommanded.

[ryandlf]

Isn't getting new equipment so much fun!?! Maybe what i'll do is try out the light I have for right now, and upgrade pretty quickly if I start to notice any plants dying...any recommendations on a good light for a simple 1 tube basic setup?

[plurmaster]

whats the measurements of your tank? is it 20 gal long or 20 gal tall?

[ryandlf]

Tall...its your pretty standard 20G.

[plurmaster]

ok shoudl be mesured 24 inch long then. you can get one of those double strip ligting fixture or dual compact bulb lighting fixture to upgrade 2watts per gallon or higher. Your planst will look better with hight wattage of lights but like i said you'll need co2 just get the seachem flourish excel. Anything higher then 3 watts you'll need co2 injection.

[ryandlf]

One step ahead...I already have Seachem flourish excel. So upgrade my fixture and then just pop another bulb like the one I have now in there?

[plurmaster]

no..u probably have to buy brand new fixture that can produce the wattage per gallon you desire. Thats really depends on what kind of plants you have or going to have.

[Myaj]

You'll probably need to upgrade to a new hood if you want to keep live plants, this is why most of us don't recommend the starter kits. Your filter probably isn't large enough either, we like to see 10gph per gallon, so you'll want a filter that does 200gph.

As far as knowing when the cycle is done, if you haven't read the articles in the library, start doing so now! The long and short of it is, your cycle is done when you add your daily source of ammonia and a 24 hours later you have zero ammonia, zero nitrites and plenty of nitrates. Then you do a huge water change (to remove the nitrates) and add the fish.

Tankmates.. do your research! You need to do this! A big warning sign is you asked about clown loaches.. clown loaches get almost a foot long, there is no way you can buy those for a 20 gallon tank. Look at full grown sizes and temperments of the fish you are considering.

Good tankmates for dwarf puffers are pretty much anything peaceful.. You could go with some corydora catfish, if you get a smaller variety maybe 4 or so of them. I'd stay away from the larger types, a 20 gallon just isn't very big. Some people say their dwarf puffers will harrass corydoras, I've kept the pygmy type without any problems from my dwarves, but my tank was extremely heavily planted and stocked with red cherry shrimp and snails, so the puffers were always busy hunting.

Otos are a good choice for an algae eating tankmate, but they are very delicate fish and don't do well in new tank setups. So if you want those, save room for them and wait a good 6 months to let the tank be stable and establish algae for them to eat.

My dwarves also got along with small rainbowfish, but again, a 20 high just doesn't allow for a lot of swimming/territory room so you are pretty limited.

[plurmaster]

Myaj is right. I realize puffers do better in long tank then tall tank. They like to swimg left and right then up and now. exception if they are bored ie. swimming against tank glass up and down. If you see this. Best be putting more decor for them to explore.

[ryandlf]

Would a "Coralife Aqualight Single Compact Fluorescent Strip Lights" work well for my 20G setup?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=9871
Here is the info...

[Myaj]

Well, what do you want to do for live plants? Are you planning on staying with something simple and easy or really fast growing, higher requirement plants?

65 watts over a 20 gallon tank is considered higher light.. but since its a tall tank that would probably be perfect for more demanding plants. Personally I like the 9-10k light spectrum but that's because I like clean white light, nothing with yellow, blue or pink tones.

If you want to keep your plants less work and less demanding, you'd probably do fine with a double strip light that would give you 40watts. I haven't compared prices lately but these are usually a lot cheaper than the CF fixtures and bulbs. You can make a very beautiful, low maintence planted tank using various crypts and anubias and even java's (lace java fern is gorgeous).

If you do go with the higher light, make sure you have the plants to use it, and the current to keep your water moving, or you are asking for a huge algae outbreak (it likes low current and will love the light, and will outcompete slower growing plants quickly). And I'd suggest to go ahead and buy a bottle of Flourish Excel, its a liquid CO2 supplement that works best for tanks smaller than 55 gallons. Works great, especially if you go with "red" plants, and is a lot easier than DIY CO2. Be aware that the fast growing, stem plants take a lot of pruning to keep them looking nice.

I can't tell from the picture what plants you have, but it looks like several of them might be non-aquatic, which means they'll die underwater. So double check that.. if they die they'll pollute the tank. About the only thing in that picture I'm 100% sure is aquatic is the anacharis. I would do some more research on the plants and what your goals are (what plants you want to buy/grow) before deciding on the fixture.

[ryandlf]

To be honest...I don't know a whole lot about freshwater plants. I did raise a bunch successfully when I was younger, but it was always just a matter of buying random plants and watching how well they did. Now that i'm back in the hobby (and a bit of a perfectionist) I just want a lighting system that is going to allow me to properly grow many of the typical plants I can find at my LFS, without having to upgrade within a few months.

Any specific suggestions would be great. I always appreciate the advice from experts on sites like this one.

[Myaj]

Well, again, if the plants you have in your tank are an example of what you can buy locally, that's not going to do you much good if they aren't full aquatic plants. They will just die.

What sort of set up do you want? Low maintence, usually darker colors (dark greens, bronzes, some deep reds) without a lot of pruning/upkeep, or something fast growing, brighter colors (bright greens, bright reds), needs lots of pruning?

Look around at sites like http://www.aquabotanic.com or http://www.azgardens.com for some ideas of what sort of plants are out there. If you have a local aquarium society, find them and ask around if anyone has plants available.. I've found stores often have little to no selection, mail order plants are grown far away in water with completely different chemistry than my own. I've always had best luck buying plants from local people that thin out their tanks ocassionally. They are growing plants that already is adapted to the local water conditions and doing well.

[ryandlf]

I'll probably want something a little lower maintenance so I don't have to spend all my time pruning...but a little pruning never did hurt anyone.
Good advice on finding a local source, i'll definitely look into the links you sent.