The Puffer Forum

A 0.002 difference should be fine for swapping media over, I personally would drop it to 0.005 just to be on the safe side

I would also add the coral sand now as well, again that's just personal preference, I wash mine before adding it though, so cloudiness was never a problem.

Jay.B. wrote:...I would also add the coral sand now as well, again that's just personal preference, I wash mine before adding it though, so cloudiness was never a problem.

I used crushed coral in my 55g tank. The package said No need to rinse, I was jazzed, no rinsing! ...boy was I sorry. It looked like a nucular war hit the tank because I didn't rinse the coral. It took days for it to clear up.

And my test kit is an aquarium pharmaceuticals (thankfully I have spell check ) complete freshwater kit. Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, and PH.

At what SG do I need to switch over to a marine test kit?

Ok... gotta start homework (missed that class... have more homework than I can handle yet I'm messing with this fish stuff ... Kinda funny how the 300 level class is the easiest and the 1 and 200 level courses take the most time... (strengths of materials is killing me...)

StormySkiez wrote:

Jay.B. wrote:...I would also add the coral sand now as well, again that's just personal preference, I wash mine before adding it though, so cloudiness was never a problem.

I used crushed coral in my 55g tank. The package said No need to rinse, I was jazzed, no rinsing! ...boy was I sorry. It looked like a nucular war hit the tank because I didn't rinse the coral. It took days for it to clear up.

Hehe... No rinsing if ya pick it up straight from the factory and handle it with kid gloves eh?

Yeah... the shipping companies and store employees tend to throw bags of stuff around pretty bad - makes even "no rinse" substrate pretty bad...

I'll have to head over to petstupid after getting some HW done to pick up some new filter media (I tend to use fluval biomax http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2753126 ) and some substrate. http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2754006 looks close but might be web only (I swear I've seen it there...). Also have a petkiller close by... unfortunately it looks like most of what's offered online (I tend to price check and get a price match in store) is the "live" crap....

StormySkiez wrote:I used crushed coral in my 55g tank. The package said No need to rinse, I was jazzed, no rinsing! ...boy was I sorry. It looked like a nucular war hit the tank because I didn't rinse the coral. It took days for it to clear up.

when I first used coral sand as a substrate, I was just starting to pour the "no rinse" coral sand in to my little 7G when it started to go cloudy, so I stopped, emptied it out and started again as I was just setting it up, always rinsed since then.

have just put another 3.5Kg of coral sand in my new set-up with a cracking new piece of ocean rock and had a bit of a re-arrange, there's a pic or 2 in the pix n flix section

You have some great looking puffers.
Good luck. I don't really have anything to add, it looks like everyone else has got everything covered, if you want, you can check out my GSP website (greenspottedpuffer.com).

24 hours... ammonia 2, didn't bother to measure nitrate or nitrite, PH 7.3 (picking up some appropriate substrate tonight...). Just added some media from the O tank (hopefully it helps and won't hurt), will test again tomorrow. I'm going to try and do a 10 -20 gallon (25 - 50 percent) w/c tonight. Definitely need to figure something out with that water transfer thing... not loving pouring buckets.

Shame on me for not having cycled/ researched first... (kinda typical for me...)

yes, shame on you!
glad you came for help though.

don't feel too bad about the bucket. I do my 55, both 10gal, and my 5gal with a bucket... I like to think that since i don't work out, it's a fair compromise

a python would be eggcelent (as Nick would say) but I don't have but a bit of change and my fish need food

Get a python - it sucks the water out of the tank down the drain, then fills the tank from the tap. I just premix the entire amount of salt needed for the change with a couple gallons of water in a small bucket, and dump it in gradually as water pours in from the tap, this has never created a problem in a brackish tank I was maintaining.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumP ... ducts.html

Ammonia 2? Time for a BIG water change, right now!

Pufferpunk wrote:Ammonia 2? Time for a BIG water change, right now!

You're right.Just finished one (with buckets it takes SOOOOOO much longer). Actually did a 75% w/c and added aragonite (sp?) sand. Need to figure out some aquascape, but that can happen once levels are where they need to be. The lone terracotta pot (from the O tank - covered in algae and bacteria) just looks kinda goofy (but the puffs like it...)

Hopefully the water clears well with the XP3 going. Not like it'll matter since I've doomed myself to a couple weeks of way too frequent water changes....

"Huge", "75 to 90 gallon tank" with stand and canopy (actually a 40) - $30

Fish smiling at ya..............................................................free.

Driving back to the fish store when ya know better .......................$2.75 (about 2 miles at todays prices).

Fish...............................................................................$3 each

Filter..............................................................................$180

Heater.............................................................................$30

Salt that ya thought would last forever but wont.............................$40'

Sand (WTF, it's sand man!) .....................................................$40

Realizing you're a dumbass when you slip with bucket in hand..............Priceless

What kind of filter cost that much?

Rena Filstar XP3. Actually I think I paid $160 for it, but still...

The joy of overfiltration is that once things are stable they stay stable and filter maintenance is almost nil... AND I don't have to hear my filter....

curtis97322 wrote:

.......

"Huge", "75 to 90 gallon tank" with stand and canopy (actually a 40) - $30

Fish smiling at ya..............................................................free.

Driving back to the fish store when ya know better .......................$2.75 (about 2 miles at todays prices).

Fish...............................................................................$3 each

Filter..............................................................................$180

Heater.............................................................................$30

Salt that ya thought would last forever but wont.............................$40'

Sand (WTF, it's sand man!) .....................................................$40

Realizing you're a dumbass when you slip with bucket in hand..............Priceless

LOL! Nice

OK, I know what you are talking about when you say...
"Fish smiling at ya..............................................................free." Hehehehe, Cute.

Where do you find a 40g tank for $30? What a steal. Lol, all fishy stuff is WAY OVER PRICED if you ask me!