Red Eyed Puffer Questions.

[MeggyPuff25]

Water test results:
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 40
Nitrite 0
Ph 6.6

One Red Eyed Puffer about an inch long, and 3 ghost shrimp are the only inhabitants in my 10g tank. I do water changes once a week. But I got my puffer on friday. The tank has been cycled for a year now.

I've added some aquarium wood to the tank, rinsed in hot water the soaked for a day before I put it in. It did turn the tank water a different color.

I know my nitrates are high, how can I lower them? I'm going to test my tap water and see what that test says. He has a heater set at 80f, I did think about plants but I don't have a grow light on the tank.

Thanks, hopefully I didn't leave anything out. Here is the tap water test for
nitraes: 2.0 - 3.0ppm

[Pufferpunk]

Yes, test the tap water. If it's <40, then you need to be doing more WC to get it down. Also test the pH of your tap, that's pretty acidic.

[Troender]

Yes your nitrates are too hight. It shouldn't be more than 20 when keeping puffers. It probably means that the bioload on your tank is too hight. I suspect you have a tank too small for your puffer. 10 G is a small tank. There are several puffers that are called red eyed puffer. Do you have the scientific name for it, or a pic of the fish? It will help us determine what tank size your puffer needs.

[MeggyPuff25]

I tested my tap waters Ph its pretty high at 7.6.

[J-P]

Meggy, thank you for posting! You'll get the help you need.

[Troender]

Also test the pH of your tap, that's pretty acidic.

Wood very often lowers the PH, especially when the wood is new.

[MeggyPuff25]

Ok so I took a pic, its the best i could get though

[MeggyPuff25]

Ok so now he seems to be resting on one of the fake plants, he's about 2inches from the top of the tank. I think he may be just sleeping or taking a nap, wht do you guys think?

[Troender]

It looks like an irrubesco or lorteti female. 10 G is half the tank size it needs. So I think upgrading the tank would help keeping the nitrates down. Until you can do that, you need to intensify your water changes.

[MeggyPuff25]

The fish store I bought my puffer at said my 10g was fine, UT I'm gonna take your word on here overe there's. Would my puffer be ok for now until I can get a 20g and get it nicely cyceld??

[Flutter]

You won't need to cycle the new tank as long as you pull everything from the 10gal and put it into the 20gal. Substrate, filter, decorations, plants, and might as well do a bit of water.

[MeggyPuff25]

Do I really have to put her into a 20g?? ATM I can't aford to buy another tank with canopy and lights, but I can keep an eye out for ones that come on sale I guess. I will be doing a water change tomorrow with a vacum of the gravel as well. Tomorrow night I'll retest the water and post here. Thanks for all the help

I'll probably have more questions to come, but I really love this website, its very helpful

[Dadof4]

You really should get her in a larger tank even though she's small. Look to Craigslist and Kiji for good used tank deals.

[MeggyPuff25]

How big will this puffer get exactly?? The pet store guy said about 4 inches and then when i check on the internet it says 2 inches. She's almost 1 inch now. I would like it if I could keep her in the 10g for space wise but I found a 20g to buy, will be picking it up on Tuesday.

[Pufferpunk]

I personally think 10g is fine for this fish, if kept as a singleton. Do you know if the pH was higher before adding the wood? Why is this in the Hosp Forum? Is the fish sick?