New to the forums, need help with my tank!

[melbell86]

that sponge has been in there i would say about 4+ months. Its brown and stinks! hahahaha just what we want, right?

[Brandon8521]

In all honosty if your willing and comfortable to do water changes I wouldnt add any booster product. Just keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite and do water changes if needed.

Stinking, not really, i would rinse it well in dechlorinated water to get the stinky stuff out. Brown is a good thing.

[Brandon8521]

You can take the biospira back and the money you get back from that should be enough to ge the ph and nitrite test kits. I would get the high end ph test if your going to high end brackish/full marine in the near future.

[melbell86]

okay, i added 2 tbs of micro-lift special blend. I tested the nitrite and ammonia levels and the nitrite is 0 and the ammonia looks to be near 0 atm. I am going to bring a sample of my water into my LFS within the next few days to get hard numbers, these are just from the liquid test kits i purchased.

[jmiller]

They more than likely use the same kits. Test a few times a day and if you get an ammonia reading do a water change. Then test again. You need to keep it as close to zero as possible.

[melbell86]

thanks guys, here are some updated pics.






fed george this morning, he ate lots of bloodworms and nipped at the snail

[jmiller]

Cool tank. He looks well fed. Those fins should grow back but you can add some Melafix to help things along.

Don't forget, once you start seeing a green tint in that ammonia tube, water change.

[melbell86]

thank you so much jmiller! Will do I will check water again tomorrow morning. Also, how much should i be feeding him right now? he never seems to stop eating the bloodworms no matter how much i drop in there. Should i get some sort of feeding cage so that he eats what he wants and then i remove it? I also saw that some people buy raw prawns/shrimp and hang that in the tank shell and all. Is he too little for me to start giving him some of that?

[JRC3]

I'm glad you had an Aquaclear (AC) filter, that is exactly what I was hoping to hear for all the reasons above. I was going to recomend buying a second AC and splitting the media between the two. Then you could put the new AC on your 10g and the old 1 on your new tank along side the filter it came with. Your new tank probably didn't come with enough filtration for a puff anyway so you could just leave both filters on there permanently. Good job it sounds like you do have your fishes best interest at mind.

Good luck

[melbell86]

i put half of the sponge from my AC filter on my 10gal into the filter my tank came with. Are you suggesting i buy another aquaclear filter, and run two filters on my 28gal tank using some of the old media from my 10gal? My tank came with an aqueon Quiet Flow 30 Power Filter with a large cartridge. I also have my heater set to around 76 degrees, should i got a little warmer?

[jmiller]

I can't tell you specifically about GSP's since I'm about two weeks from getting my first but a good rule of thumb is to feed until they have a nice rounded belly. Your second pic looks perfect to me.

I'm a firm believer that while young they should be fed smaller amounts multiple times a day. Remember that when you got him he was in less than ideal conditions and probably way underfed.

[JRC3]

...Are you suggesting i buy another aquaclear filter, and run two filters on my 28gal tank using some of the old media from my 10gal?...

Exactly. I think the AC20 would cycle quicker and do some of work until the other filter got up to speed. Also you Aqeon 30 is rated up to 200 gph and having a puffer you need to turn your tank over at least 10x/hour. Running the extra filter will get you there.

[melbell86]

alright, i will have to see how much it cost, i already spent $250 of money i dont exactly have at the moment for this little bundle of green joy <3 I cant wait till he gets big!

[jmiller]

alright, i will have to see how much it cost, i already spent $250 of money i dont exactly have at the moment for this little bundle of green joy <3 I cant wait till he gets big!

Tell that boyfriend that the next time he wants to surprise you, ask first!

[melbell86]

hehe i love him so much i dont even care how much i spent <3 Ill be sad when i see the puffers at wal mart now, i had no idea they carried that type of fish( as most of us know, they shouldnt). I havent seen GSP's at any of my LFS!