New Tank Syndrome HELP!

[zeekpuff]

Hello everyone,

let me first explain my situation, I received a walmart GSP for my birthday from my girlfriend, she does not know anything about fish/aquariums etc. but she knew I wanted an aquarium very badly.

At walmart they lied to her and told her the 1.5 gallon tank was fine, and to feed it tropical flakes, etc etc all BS
I've been researching for the past few days now and i think I have learned a great deal about GSP's

I have upgraded to a 10 gal tank for now until I can afford a bigger tank...knowing i will have to do frequent water changes.. but here is the problem...This tank is uncycled..I guess I've fallen into the new tank syndrome as most beginners do. I do not want to return my GSP to walmart, (I don't even know if you can) as it was a gift and I really like this little guy.

My Questions:
1. Can I keep my GSP in a small bowl if I change atleast 50% of the water a day to combat the ammonia until my tank has been fully cycled? if not 50%, 75%?

I'm getting an ammonia reading of 1ppm in my 10 gal tank right now, I've just done a 10-20% water change to help try to combat some of it while still trying to not interrupt the cycling process

I have marine salt that I'm going to start adding to the tank raising the gravity slowly by 1.001 a week, But should i wait until the tank cycles first? or start adding it now? my GSP is almost 2 in. long

as you can see I'm in quite a rut here and I would like to do everything possible to keep this awesome fish alive and healthy until my tank is cycled and I can get a bigger one

If there is any more information needed to help me with my problem here just ask, I will tell you anything you want to know

[zeekpuff]

I've just measured the ammonia level again, it's between 0ppm and 0.25ppm now and I'm sorry it was not 1ppm before it was between 0.5ppm and 0.75ppm

[My HD PVR]

Well, you have a few options and stuff you have to do
Get the marine salt in the tank ASAP and make that tank brackish, make sure you buy a hydrometer and only raise the salinity .001 or .002 per week until you reach SW
Give the GSP to an LFS to make life easy
If you dont want to do that, do the salt thing and buy a bigger tank, look on craigslist your bound to find a 30-55 gallon cheap. Now don't take my word, but i think you can use tetra safestart or something like that, wait for RTR or PP to speak up, or someone like that.
Make sure you feed him snails, and stop using that flake food, also bloodworms will be a help too, or any type of worm that you can buy at your LFS
Since you have that 1.5 gallon tank, just throw a few snails in there and they will breed. And about that small bowl, that would be like living in a 2 by 2 room for a week, not fun right? How is your GSP acting? does he greet you? does he eat well? whats the nitrites nitrates and ph of your tank?

[puffykid]

One possible temporary solution you can do is to get tetra safe start for the 10 gallon tank. It has live bacteria and will instantly cycle the tank and then you can transfer him over. Then do 40-50% water changes every week, till you can get a bigger kit. Also get a test kit for nitrates nitrites and ammonia. Idk if you should really worry about the marine salt until you get him into a bigger tank otherwise you'll just be burning through salt because of the water changes. Puffer punk or one of the other people are a lot better fit to answer these questions though so if they tell you something different listen to them. Good luck with the gsp!

[My HD PVR]

Well that marine salt thing, if he cant get his hands on his tank for a little while, he might as well start, and have a 1.002 SG is almost no salt.... My brackish tank is a 1.005 and I've been doing weekly WCs and im not even halfway with a little jug full of salt..

[puffykid]

hmm listen to dvd lols

[zeekpuff]

Thanks for the quick reply, I do have a hydrometer and I do feed him snails, he has no problem eating, and I do not feed flakes as he does not eat them

he does greet me...sort of. sometimes he will swim to the front of the tank and look at me, other times he is scared. he's been just sitting on the bottom quite a bit and his tail fin doesn't always open all the way, it sort of just stays shut. his belly is bright white and the top of his head is bright green, but around the edges of his belly is kinda grey not his actual belly though his color fluctuates, he seems like he's doing fine I just do not want to loose him through the cycling process

I do not currently know the nitrite and nitrate levels of the tank, nor the ph...i only got an ammonia testing kit so far, the tank has been up for 4 days and I've learned a wealth of information, i just keep learning things and going to buy stuff..but now the thing i'm worried about is the cycling process and the ammonia spikes and nitrite spikes that are about to come...I don't want home to die

[sevenyearnight]

First off, *do not* add marine salt to the tank until it is cycled, you were right about waiting on that.
I'm on a mobile phone so give me a min to post some links

[My HD PVR]

Didnt know that, sorry bad advice, sevenyear knows more than me!

[sevenyearnight]

Here is the article on e-cycling library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/
Don't be stingy on the water changes, 50% daily right now

[puffykid]

If you can afford the tetra safe start I would try and get that asap since it can take care of cycling it costs about 10-14 bucks at the store.

[zeekpuff]

sevenyearmight, thank you so much for that link it feels like a lifesaver, I just changed about 50% of my water combined with the 20% i did about an hour ago and dechlorinated it , and he popped right up and his color came back very strong, he is swimming around the tank now like there is nothing wrong, I'm going to take one of the alternatives mentioned in that link to get the bacteria into my tank as soon as possible, for now MASSIVE water changes

Thank you so much and everyone for helping so quickly, I was really stressing over losing this guy...I feel there is hope now

[sevenyearnight]

Hey, that's awesome!
Also pick up some Seachem Prime, it will help protect your little dude from ammonia/nitrite poisoning until the tank cycles. There is a high margin of safety, you can use up to 5X the recommended dose, but when I had a tank cycle crash from a heater malfunction, I just used a double dose every 24 hours.

[zeekpuff]

Will do,

so far I need
Nitrite testing kit,Prime dechlorinator, and one of the mentioned methods on how to get the bacteria into my tank.

I already have an ammonia testing kit as I mentioned before

will the prime dechlorinater slow down the cycling process at all though?

[sevenyearnight]

When you get him a bigger tank, transfer the gravel/sand, if no3 ask at least some in a mesh bag or panty hose if you decide on a different substrate and don't want to mix them. Also the fecore, and stuff the filter media new filter, or just move the flyer onto the new tank. This will transfer your bacteria colonies to the new tank. The size difference won't matter as the bioload amount of ammonia the puffer excretes) will remain the same. The bacteria clings to surfaces and is not point in the water column in any significant amount, so the greater volume of water won't dilute the efficiency or amount of beneficial bacteria.

The reason you don't want to add any salt until the tank is cycled is because the bacteria doesn't appear to propagate as well with salt present. Also, when the tank is cycled, the salinity can be adjusted by no more than .02 a week. The bacteria is very sensitive to salinity changes, and raising it by more than that will kill them.